Goodreads says, "You knew I’d write a book about you someday. Our narrator understands good love stories—their secrets and subtext, their highs and their free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the simple rules.
In the fall of her senior year of college, she meets two star students from her 17th-Century Lit class: Sam and Yash. Best friends living off-campus in the elegant house of a professor on sabbatical, the boys invite her into their intoxicating world of academic fervor, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. They nickname her Jordan, and she quickly discovers the pleasures of friendship, love and her own intellectual ambition. Youthful passion is unpredictable though, and she soon finds herself at the center of a charged and intricate triangle. As graduation comes and goes, choices made will alter these three lives forever.
Decades later, Jordan is living the life she dreamed of, and the vulnerable days of her youth seem comfortably behind her. But when a surprise visit and unexpected news brings the past crashing into the present, Jordan returns to a world she left behind and is forced to confront the decisions and deceptions of her younger self.
Written with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity fans and critics of Lily King have come to adore, Heart the Lover is a deeply moving story that celebrates love, friendship, and the transformative nature of forgiveness. Wise, unforgettable, and with a delightful connective thread to Writers & Lovers, this is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today."
The narrator, whose name isn't mentioned until the end of the novel, is at college in a 17th-century literature class swept away by two intellectuals, Sam and Yash. As she falls into their world, there's no turning back. After a date with Sam, she visits the Victorian house they are staying at for a professor who is on sabbatical at Oxford. The bookish house, the intellectual conversations, and obscure card games (hence the title of the book!) all lend themselves to an academia vibe that any former college student can appreciate. But as she spends more time with Sam, she realizes it's Yash she has strong feelings for, and after she and Sam break up, their story unfolds. At its core, Heart the Lover is a romance, but it explores the regret of things unspoken, the choices we make, sharing our truths, and finally letting go. Lily King's Heart the Lover captures a college romance that will stay with readers; it's one of the best audiobooks of the year.
King effectively portrays an all-consuming college romance in Heart the Lover. I enjoyed following the journey of Sam, Yash, and Jordan. The characters refer to her as Jordan, a nickname inspired by Gatsby's friend, Jordan Baker, because like Jordan, she was an avid golfer and previously had a golf scholarship. The ups and downs of their relationship are well depicted, and the story continues beyond college, exploring unspoken truths and the mistakes they made that haunt them till this day. Ultimately, it illustrates how their time together in college profoundly changed their lives.
One thing is for certain: Lily King is an excellent writer. My issues with Heart the Lover have nothing to do with King's writing, as I thought it was very well done. My only issue with Heart the Lover is the fact that I wish I had read Writers & Lovers before picking this up. I didn't realize it was a companion novel (as it wasn't marketed that way at all!), and I think it would have resonated better with me had I read that one first. Readers certainly don't need to read Writers & Lovers first; however, I recommend it to fully capture some of the reveals and allusions.
While I could have done without a love triangle and illness used as a plot device, I overall enjoyed Heart the Lover and recommend it to fans of Ann Patchett. A memorable audiobook!
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