Heart the Lover is extraordinary, heartbreaking yet hopeful and deserving of any literary prize it is nominated for. The story encapsulates every emotion known to a person… love, hate, regret, heartbreak and optimism. While the reader will experience a few shocking twists, the story’s honesty is its message which is genuine.
It all begins when her senior year in college she meets two males from her 17th Century Lit Class. They both sit up front. She is in the back. Their names are Sam and Yosh. Why they begin to talk to her she will never know. But they end up inviting her to the huge house they are staying at during the semester which actually belongs to a professor on sabbatical. All she has ever wanted to do was become a writer. But she needs all the help she can get.
Thus begins their friendships, beginning with them deciding to call her Jordan…not her name. The three become inseparable although their personalities could not be more different. Jordan enjoys the attention and begins to have a crush on one of them. She starts to stay over at the house which for her is exquisite as her small apartment she shares with too many students has no air conditioning, no heat and sometimes no water.
The year will be a rite of passage for all three. There will be arguments, relationship changes and some decisions which will hurt the others and carry them all into the future.
Until one day years later a visit from one of them will once again change the trajectory of the three of them, change their lives forever as the past and present must come together again.
What Jordan will learn is as some decisions from the past need to be addressed, others should try and stay buried so as not to hurt the others. Decisions will need to be made and lives will change. Friendships are fragile but in certain situations you must have superhuman strength to keep going.
Heart the Lover is just beautiful while showing the imperfections we all have when it comes to our friends. But also, the strength one needs to resolve issues which were hidden years ago before it’s too late. The story is painfully magnificent.
Published by Grove Press
Amazon.com: Heart the Lover: 9781837265589: Lily King: Books
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