This book is for any writer who wants to be reminded of the sanctity of literary purpose. I am moved and gripped by the tenacity of the leading character to do the work amidst great obstacles. One line especially sweeps me up into her contemplative state, when Casey thinks, "I don't write because I think I have something to say. I write because if I don't, everything feels even worse."

I really slept on this one and regret not getting to it sooner. Casey is going through IT: her mom recently and suddenly died, she's reeling from a shitty situationship, she's broke and in debt, and she's been working on the same book for 6 years. The grief and pain here - and the struggle to know what to do with it, how to get through it, how to move forward, how to still be a person in the world - is a low thrum that carries you into and through every page.

There were moments that were heartbreaking and so many passages that just seemed to cut right through all the bullshit with carefully phrased truth in observation. I'm not sure why, but a part of me thought this was going to be something pretentious and eyeroll-worthy. Instead it's a meditation on grief and strength and dreams and figuring out what you want and what you need and growing up in your 30s. It was beautiful and I'm glad I experienced it.

A book about a struggling writer and her seemingly crumbling life - what's not to like? Lilly King's protagonist Casey is a down on luck creative writing major with a book she's been working on for six years, amid punishingly backbreaking shifts at a restaurant to repay her student loans and other fast mounting bills while living in a potting shed cum garage of her brother's friend. She also lost her mother and is on a downward spiral in terms of her health. After giving Casey so much to worry about, King also throws a lifeline or two in the form of love interests - one a middle-aged widowed author with two adorable children and the other a charming middle school teacher. Between balancing her love interests, struggling to finish her novel and coping with her anxiety issues, can Casey find herself? I have not been invested in a book like this in a long time and Writers & Lovers was an absolute joy to read as King helps the readers navigate through the trials and tribulations of a struggling artist that makes you ache and delight in equal measure. Brilliant book.

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2021 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2021/02/2021-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

Writers & Lovers is a story about heartbreak and doing what you love, no matter how hard it may be. Like becoming a published author. Casey is down on her luck for most of this novel which was kind of a downer to be quite honest. I felt for her and was rooting for her happiness and success the whole time. I'll be honest, it took me a while to get into the writing style and ultimately the storyline in this book so the first half was slow-going for me. The last half I flew through though! It definitely picked up and by the end my heart was so so happy!

That's a sign of good writing, when the reader gets so invested in the characters and the story and then feels pure elation for the main character when something finally goes right. I love that. So while the beginning may be slow, I recommend sticking with it. You will not be disappointed!

This book....this book. Where to begin. I have been an avid fan of Lily King since reading her novel Euphoria but this book, dare I say, surpasses all her others. Her prose is eloquent, subtle, and devastating. Casey, a 31 yeah old writer, has recently lost her mother. Through her grief she grapples with her own self identity. Yes, she has two romantic encounters and this is what many reviews will focus on, but the heart of this book asks, what does it mean to be a woman alone in the world?

This is a beautifully written, lyrical coming of age novel about a woman struggling- struggling for love, struggling for purpose and struggling for success. King does an admirable job with an intimate portrayal of the protagonist Casey, who we root for while recognizing her flaws. I'm not sure I loved this book, for no reason other than there wasn't enough "action" for me, but I fully recognize how successfully King was able to emotionally engage me... and the ending is perfection. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

A lovely and engaging story. I was captivated by its heroine, and couldn't wait to see how her story would evolve and resolve. Definitely recommended.

Serious literary fiction should invoke deep thought, consideration of one's own circumstances and possibly foster change to those circumstances. It comes at the right time, with the right message. For this reader, perhaps this wasn’t the right time.

Casey, a current waitress, former budding junior golf star, and hopeful writer is struggling in most areas of life. Her mother has died, her income barely covers her rent, much less her student debt, she suffers under the illusion of becoming a writer, and has now gotten mixed up with not one but two men.

The weight of all these concerns is overwhelming, and her level of daily function is minimal. Even with all these issues, and the innate desire to like protagonists, Casey isn’t particularly relatable or likeable. She’s neutral. At 31, she still seems young, impressionable and lacking in self preservation skills. This coming of age novel is a bit slow, and compounded with a main character short on appeal, didn’t deliver much impact.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing the ARC and the opportunity to review.

I found myself recommending this one many times over the course of the summer and fall. Included it in my Best Books of 2020, the annual post of my favourite reads. The full Instagram post with book covers gallery is at the link.

I *love* it when writers write books about writers and writing (ha!) so this was extremely my type of book. At its core, this book was very sad -- but it was also extremely hopeful.

I would like to thank Grove Atlantic for providing a copy of this novel via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I previously read and loved Lily King's novel, Euphoria. Writers & Lovers was a pleasure to read from beginning to end. It is a quick read and Lily King's prose is beautiful and keeps the reader engaged throughout. She brilliantly captures an important period in a writer's life. We meet Casey who is a struggling writer in her early 30's who has come to Massachusetts after the passing of her mother. With this story, Lily King captures that feeling of returning to a place you grew up in. She navigates the struggles and sacrifices of a writer trying to get her first book published. This story really speaks to anyone in the arts and even anyone who has a goal in life that seems unattainable at times. Lily King does an excellent job of explaining the motivation of writers everywhere and why literature is so important. There was one particular conversation towards the end of the book about what people should take with them from reading that really resonated with me. I highly recommend this novel .

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for ARC. A quiet but moving story about a young woman in transition from heartbreaks both big and small as she finishes writing her first novel and meanders through life’s challenges. While she was 31, in many ways this was a wonderful coming of age story.

While I wasn't all that find of Casey, I going be lot to hold Pinterest in this book. The passages about the writing process were well written and true to life. An interesting read for me.

I am intrigued about the creative experience and the life of writers. This book has given me some insight into the struggles and possible successes of a creative path. I was also interested in how Casey, the main character handled her ever changing grief around the death of her mother and her feelings about her father objectifying women and Casey too. I found the first half of the book difficult to follow but very much enjoyed the second half.

Honestly, the first 30% was HARD to get into. I felt like I was dragging through it. I was so confused and didn’t know what the point of the book was.

But, I completely devoured the 2nd half of the book. I didn’t want to put it down & every time I was interrupted by the real world I would get so upset.

Casey was such an interesting character, and I didn’t particularly like her. But her story was so fascinating, and something just kept pulling me to her. I was so drawn by the writing.

I think this is 5 stars, but it’s based purely on the feeling it gave me while reading. It’s an indescribable feeling, but I think it healed some parts of me that I didn’t know were damaged.

King offers what the title seems to promise. And as a writer, how does one refuse a story centered on a protagonist so resonant with yourself? And to have the writing life dialogue with romance is too indulgent to refuse. King peppers breadcrumbs for novel writing that makes the plot familiar and resonant – the reluctance w/ one's own writing, the stamina required, the retreats, the workshops, the literary critique, the structuring of one's life around making space for writing, the authors, the fiction references, the philosophizing on fiction and one's experience of it, etc. All of it serves as wonderful buffers which makes the novel so incredibly readable.

I wonder whether or not this story would have been better told from third instead of first person. In the first person, this novel would more be 'A Writer and Her Lovers'. I loved Muriel and Silas and was intrigued by Oscar and I wished I had more of each (but maybe that's unreasonable when the story is told from first person). What convinces them of Casey to the level of their adoration, their support, their attraction? I struggled with Casey's delayed realization of who Oscar was to her and vice versa, which made later parts of the novel seem to drag. I did appreciate how King cleverly repackaged dialogue from minor characters and distilled it Casey's stream of consciousness to create more plot. It at once complicates the story and paves the way for clarity and was well done.

I read from an uncorrected proof copy given to me by netgalley.

I am sad that I didn’t love this one. Everyone seemed to absolutely love it. But it was just not the right book for me.

This book is well written and has good character development I just couldn’t personally get into the story and found it a little bit of a struggle to keep reading. Either way it just left a little lacking for me personally. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This wasn’t at all what I expected. First of all, I completely missed that it took place in the 90s. It was only when Princess Di’s death was mentioned that I realized it wasn’t modern day. The Dave Matthews reference before that should have been a clue, but being a diehard fan, I totally missed that that it was a clue and not actually a dig at the character who was obsessed with him.

It’s odd that I decided to read this the week after finishing The Queen’s Gambit (chess) and S4 of The Crown (Princess Di.) The main character is a writer struggling to finish her first novel and she often mentions what it’s like to read her own work, and how certain passages or chapters take her back to the place or space she was in when she wrote it. I find it’s the same way for me as a bibliophile and this book will forever live in this space in time for me where I was recovering from working on a congressional campaign and binge watching a lot of TV to decompress.

As for the book, I somehow thought this was going to be more in the vein of lighthearted chick lit and it was nothing of the sort. It’s actually a lot about grief. Many of the characters are grieving and somehow the main character is drawn to each of them. The book takes place in 1997 which is the same year my brother died and this was on my mind throughout as the characters went through the grieving process. There was one point near the end where the writing about loss was so relatable and moving that it made me cry.

This book is also a lot about the writing process which I know little about and found very fascinating.