Heart the Lover / Writers and Lovers

Heart the Lover ~ Lily King
Jordan is a college student who dreams of being a writer. She was admitted to college on a sports scholarship, but quit the sport after a week or two, so is funding her education by working and taking out student loans. She becomes friends with Sam and Yash, two fellow students who live a privileged life housesitting for a professor who is away for the year. She first falls for Sam, and then Yash. This is Part 1 of the book. Part 2 takes place years in the future, when Yash comes to visit Jordan, and Part 3 takes place after that.

Writers and Lovers ~ Lily King
Casey is 31 and working as a waitress while trying to write her first novel. She is deeply in debt – she left the country for a while after college, and defaulted on her student loans. The interest and fees have pretty much doubled her debt. Casey’s mother died earlier in the year, and she is feeling unmoored by her grief and the shock of the loss. She is attracted to two men – Silas, a high school teacher her age, and Oscar, a widower with two young sons about a decade older than her.

These are the bare bones descriptions of these two novels, which are both truly lovely. I don’t want to give any spoilers away, I came into Heart the Lover knowing nothing about it, just that I had had it on hold via Libby for quite awhile. By the time it was available, I had forgotten everything, except I saw that a couple of you were reading it at the same time. It’s about friendship and love, and the consequences of certain decisions. When I finished it, I sent Birchie a text, and she mentioned that she wanted to read Writers and Lovers next, because it was the same characters. Which it is, because it turns out that Jordan is just a nickname that Sam and Yash have given Casey, though I had forgotten that detail pretty quickly. Writers takes place chronologically between parts 1 and 2 of Heart. I loved them both, both really good, both highly recommended. Of the two, I liked Writers and Lovers a bit more. Content warning for those in the midst of grief, she is missing her mom hard.