A copy of “Heart the Lover” The Xavierite
Lily King published her sixth novel on Sept. 30, 2025, and it expertly explores the lasting ways in which all our relationships define our lives.
“Heart the Lover” is marketed as a literary campus novel following a love triangle between a young woman and two of her classmates. This is a good description of about the first third of the book, but after that it grows into so much more.
At the beginning of her senior year of college, Jordan meets two best friends: Sam and Yash. Both men intrigue her, and she’s quickly swept into their world of academia. She initially begins a relationship with Sam, but Yash becomes one of her closest friends.
The story proceeds to follow all three characters as their relationships to one another grow, break, and mend. It’s a quiet plot, so the characters and themes can truly shine.
A big focus in the book is literature itself, and how all three characters bond over the work of writers they admire. Jordan is an aspiring writer herself, and her passion bleeds into the way she interacts with those around her.
I’ll always love a main character who’s a writer. Maybe it’s self-indulgent, but I strongly relate to how writers view the world and the people around them. Getting that perspective from a first-person narrator is always a treat.
King’s biggest strength is her deftness in character growth. What starts as a campus novel morphs into a story spanning across decades, and King keeps it grounded.
Each character we meet as a young adult, and their journey into more mature adulthood is no small feat to accomplish in writing. It’s difficult to write a character across many years of their life, because we change so much as people across time. However, something in our core remains the same.
Ryan Carr, a reader and “BookTok” content creator, put it perfectly in his review of “Heart the Lover”: “I’m older, but I still feel like that younger version of myself…but I also don’t. […] Lily King really captures that experience in this book,” Carr said in his review.
Balancing the way a character changes with how they remain the same is where King shines. Jordan retains her essence as she goes into adulthood, but it’s also easy to see how her experiences have shaped her into a different version of herself.
Critics widely agree that “Heart the Lover” is among King’s best work. Reviews specifically highlight the way in which King expands her novel’s sentiments beyond the basic plot.
“By the end, it stands as one of the most emotionally devastating and soulfully wise novels I have ever read,” said the Boston Globe in a recent review.
Without giving too much away, the novel does become emotional at times. I don’t often cry when I read, but this had me in tears by the end.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been going through grief myself recently, but the way King describes loss and death in this novel is poignant without being cliché or overly sentimental.
Grief is a common theme in King’s work. Her most acclaimed novel, “Writers and Lovers,” heavily focuses on the grieving process, specifically the grief of losing a mother.
“Writers and Lovers” is actually loosely connected to “Heart the Lover.” Both can be read on their own as stand-alone novels, but they share the same narrator. Each novel follows Casey (nicknamed Jordan) throughout different points of her life.
The most important aspects of a novel to me will always be character and writing. I can’t stick with a book if I don’t view the characters as nuanced, well-rounded individuals. They can be villainous or virtuous as long as they feel like they could walk off the page.
King creates three complex, full characters in “Heart the Lover.” As a reader, I felt like an intimate spectator to these people’s lives, but also like I was going through their struggles with them.
That could be another reason the ending made me so emotional. I had become so invested in these characters that saying goodbye to them in any way was hard.
As for the writing, King doesn’t disappoint. She keeps her prose literary without letting it become pretentious. It’s simple and accessible, but not a word is wasted.
King uses small moments to say the most about her characters, and without her vivid yet subtle writing these moments would fall flat.
All in all, “Heart the Lover” says so much with precision and clarity. If you’re looking for a shorter, contemplative read about all the ups and downs of adulthood and how the people we keep close shape our life journeys, then “Heart the Lover” is definitely for you.