Heart the Lover by Lily King review – a love story to treasure

<p>A companion novel to the brilliant Writers &amp; Lovers, this delightfully witty tale of college romance matures into midlife poignancy</p><p>The university experience is a&nbsp;risky business in fiction. Generally, the feelings are intense, but the stakes are low; it’s all&nbsp;very formative for the individual character, but it can feel a bit trivial to&nbsp;anyone else. In fact, reading an account of someone’s university days is surely only one or two stages removed from having to hear about the dream they had last night.</p><p>So my heart initially sank at Heart the Lover’s cover promise that our main character would soon be “swept into an intoxicating world of academic fervour, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games” – good grief, save me from&nbsp;the raucous card games! But obviously the caveat here is what it always is: a good writer will make it matter. I had faith, therefore, that everything would be all right, since Lily King is an exceptionally good writer. Indeed, she could probably write a book-length account of her most recent dream and I&nbsp;would still rush to read it.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/oct/30/heart-the-lover-by-lily-king-review-a-love-story-to-treasure">Continue reading...</a>