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Lily King, author portrait
Photo:Deschutes Public Library·CC BY 2.0·
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Lily King

American
Born 1963
Lily King is an American novelist.
On LuvemBooks, we've reviewed Heart the Lover.
1
Books Reviewed
Cover of Heart the Lover
Heart the Lover

4.4/5

reader rating · 52,461 ratings

Lily King's seventh novel follows the unnamed narrator — revealed at the end to be Casey Peabody, the protagonist of King's earlier Writers & Lovers — across roughly three decades, from a college love triangle with Sam and Yash in the 1980s through pregnancy, marriage, parenthood, and finally a reunion around a deathbed. Published by Grove Press in the US and Canongate in the UK in 2025, the novel functions as both a prequel and sequel to Writers & Lovers while standing on its own. The Guardian called it "a delightfully witty tale of college romance" that "matures into midlife poignancy," and critics described it as "intensely moving." critics was more skeptical, finding the plot at times "clunky melodrama" lacking "the staying power" of King's earlier work — making this a novel whose admirers will be passionate and its skeptics few but vocal.

Reviewed Jun 1, 2026

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Authors Like Lily King
Elizabeth Strout

Elizabeth Strout

Literary Fiction
Women's Fiction
Elizabeth Strout's Tell Me Everything shares King's quiet tonal compression, tracking decades of love, loss, and mortality through ordinary moments carrying extraordinary weight.
4 books reviewed
The Things We Never Say
Olive, Again
Tell Me Everything
Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro

Literary Fiction
The Remains of the Day shares Lily King's focus on a life reconsidered too late, following a protagonist carrying choices made in youth to a costly reckoning.
1 book reviewed
The Remains of the Day
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Maggie Shipstead

Literary Fiction
Maggie Shipstead’s Great Circle shares a focus on sweeping female lives, tracing youthful ambition alongside intimate, retrospective moments in literary fiction.
1 book reviewed
Great Circle
Coco Mellors

Coco Mellors

Literary Fiction
Coco Mellors also dissects a complicated love affair in Cleopatra and Frankenstein, bringing a lighter hand and a sharper comic edge.
1 book reviewed
Cleopatra and Frankenstein
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Caro Claire Burke

Literary Fiction
Women's Fiction
1 book reviewed
Yesteryear: A GMA Book Club Pick
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Susan Henderson

Literary Fiction
Women's Fiction

Susan Henderson is a six-time Pushcart Prize nominee, the recipient of an Academy of American Poets Award, and the founder of the literary blog LitPark: Where Writers Come to Play. She is the author of two novels, Up from the Blue and The Flicker of Old Dreams, both published by HarperCollins.

1 book reviewed
Up from the Blue: A Powerful Coming-of-Age Story