Heart the Lover by Lily King
Lily King resists the temptation to take the easy way out, and this love/friendship story is all the better for it.
Published April 10, 2026
Heart the Lover by Lily King was a book I was saving for a rainy (in this case, sunny) day because of the caliber of reviewers I trust who touted it as their Best of 2025. Please note this voice note includes spoilers.
After finishing it, I have a lot to book club about in this voice note, including:
- what I look for in a book review(er),
- the nuances of relationship issues depicted in the book, particularly around how friendships change around romantic love,
- the choices Lily King could have easily made—that I’m glad she didn’t,
- the intimate, short-story-like voice,
- hindsight bias in narrative (always a curiosity),
- stories depicting the awkwardness of grief,
- considerations of friends-to-lovers, etc.
Related Books:
The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan; Normal People by Sally Rooney; Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson; Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley; etc.
The voice (video!!) note is 20 minutes long on YouTube, Spotify, Substack, and other socials—and I tend to prefer listening at roughly 1.3x speed.
Unfortunately, my career now involves the willingness to put my face on the Internet. Thus, I am trying to get comfortable with it. So briefly forgive the amount of video + voice > text. I'm trying to condition myself!
