Oh, it’s been so long since I’ve had a good sob over a book! Lily King’s Heart the Lover had me reaching for the tissues.

In the autumn of her senior year of university, the narrator meets two star students from her 17th-Century Lit class: Sam and Yash. Best friends living off-campus in the house of a professor on sabbatical, the boys invite her into their world of academic debate, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. They nickname her Jordan, and her ideas about friendship, love and her own intellectual ambition are challenged. Cue a love triangle.

Decades later, Jordan receives a surprise visit, and she is forced to revisit the choices she made immediately after graduation.

First up, I’ll get the obvious comparison to Elizabeth Strout’s ‘Amgash’ series out of the way. I have no idea if Lily King wrote Heart the Lover (and the first ‘installment’, Writers & Lovers) with plans to keep going. I certainly wouldn’t mind – I loved both books and I’m not sure that being compared to Strout is the worst thing, either!

Equally, the first part of the book has a strong The-Secret-History-vibe (again, I’d be okay with a Tartt comparison).

The danger with any kind of campus-lit like this, is that the characters will come across as ridiculously pretentious or self-absorbed. King avoids this by giving her main characters some ‘less desirable’ traits, which ultimately makes them more relatable. Specifically, Jordan is plagued by self-doubt, questioning what she is feeling, which felt very real to me – is anyone confident when they have their first experience of ‘love’?

The feeling catches me off guard. Oh. Love.

But then Jordan gives herself over to love, and it is wonderfully all-consuming.

I am so in love with him it is hard to take a full breath, I write in the journal. His absence feels like losing a lung. My life is pending, suspended.

King explores many themes, including the grief associated with having loved deeply and lost, and whether we make decisions with our heart or our head. The story doesn’t get bogged down by the weight of these themes – instead, the consequences of various decisions are gently introduced before King shifts the story forward a decade or so, allowing the reader to join the dots. I thought the structure was outstanding.

And to be able to finish this thoroughly enjoyable book with a big cry, only made it all the more enjoyable for me.

4.5/5

‘Want to come over for lunch?’
We eat turkey sandwiches and make out on the couch again. He doesn’t rush things. We kiss and kiss until I have to go to Logic.
I walk across campus a little light-headed.