I've been hearing rave reviews about Heart the Lover for some time now, so I was very keen to dive in. It did not disappoint.
Lily King has written a poignant story of first love, heartbreak, and the lasting consequences of the decisions we make when we are young.
Heart the Lover focuses on senior college student and narrator, 'Jordan', whose life is turned upside down when she enters a chaotic love triangle with star students Sam and Yash. Decades later, now a successful writer with a husband and two children, Jordan receives a surprise visit from the past.
At its heart, this is a story about the 'one that got away'.
The novel opens with the line: "You knew I'd write a book about you someday. You once said that I'd dredged up the whole hit parade minus you. I'll never know how you'd tell it. For me it begins here. Like this."
King captures the intensity of first love with painful precision. The narrator writes: "I am so in love with him it is hard to take a full breath…His absence feels like losing a lung."
She also explores the recklessness of youth and the assumption that there will always be more time and more chances to find love. But what if we are only meant to have one or two meaningful relationships in our lives? King articulates the ache of this perfectly.
At one stage, Jordan's French housemate advises her to grab onto love with both hands – she has just reunited with a lost love after 21 years. Jordan explains that she's only 23, and her housemate replies, 'These decisions we make in youth are everything. You have no idea. Those feelings, they don't revenir. Pas comme ça. And no one tells you.'
Halfway through the book, there's a time jump, and we see first-hand how Jordan's youthful decisions are still having repercussions years later.
This book hooked me in quickly and I read it within a few hours one afternoon. This was an emotionally absorbing, melancholic, beautifully written story. Highly recommend.