The plot of this book was clearly different for each story but overall it was a collection of stories about human connection and growth. Each different plot used different time frames, settings, and different characters with different personalities, goals and stages of life but at the end of each one it was clear that the story was supposed to show different facets of human emotion and different manifestations of love through loss, hurt, and connection.

This book was different from other novels I have read recently due to the fact it was a collection of fiction short stories. This book was different from prior short story collections that I have read due to the intense character development in such a short time. By the end of the short story I felt connected to not only the main character but the other characters in the story. Back stories were established, inner monologues were told, and the short story plot lines made me feel like I was reading a story about a friend or someone in my world.

This book made me excited about an author I have never read before. I usually don’t pick up short story collections but if this author can draw me into different stories that are each just a collection of a few pages then I am excited to see what kind of full length plot she develops. I am excited to read more of the characters she has created.

My only critique is strictly due to the format of the story, because I wanted more. I felt like each short story deserved a full novel. Overall, great read.

Lily King's newest offering is "Five Tuesdays in Winter", a collection of short stories. This is actually my first read of hers, but have heard wonderful things about her other books and plan to go back and read them. I enjoyed many of the stories, but found some of them too short to invest in, which is always a balance with these types of stories. Some were unexpectedly disturbing at times. Standouts for me were "Five Tuesdays in Winter" which highlights the sweet story of a relationship between a bookstore owner and his daughter and how an employee at the shop changes their lives and "When in Dordogne" about a boy who is watched by two college-aged men while his parents spend a couple of months in Europe and he bonds with them. I also appreciated the story "North Sea" that recounts a mother and daughter taking a vacation in a seaside town after their husband/father dies and how they grieve differently.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

As someone who really liked Writers & Lovers I was super excited when I found out that LiIy King was coming out with a new book. I had however a super hard time getting into this book, which might be due to the fact that it was a collection of short stories. It's definitely not a book I would not recommend, it was just a book for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for sending me an advanced copy.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this e-ARC of Five Tuesdays in Winter.

This was a fascinating and moving book of short stories. Lily King has a deeply evocative and immediate style of writing, lyrical and stark at the same time, burrowing into the characters and conveying so much with few words.

These were melancholy stories that spanned the lives of a variety of disparate individuals who all seemed to be searching for connection. Mostly set in timeframes decades past, the stories encapsulated the feel of those years insightfully.

The characters are memorable, the situations familiar and resonant, the lives sketched in the day to day, the distance and daily hardships of existence.

It was a thought provoking read and one that kept my interest to the end.

From mothers and daughters, to siblings, coworkers, roommates and friends, bosses and employees—the facets of how we interact with others and how lives intersect to change us, not always for the good, but somehow indelibly.

Lily King is SUCH a good writer. She infuses such life into her characters - each one feels so authentic, true, and unique. I was so impressed by her ability in these stories to create each one so differently from the rest and create these fully-realized people within just the first couple of pages. Without exception, each story spoke to me in some way, each story felt interesting in some way, and each main character had something to say to the reader that was different from what the other stories were doing. This is only the second book of King's that I have read but it definitely makes me want to get into her backlist. There is just something special about her writing that I really like, and I loved experiencing it in these short stories.

• Thank you to Grove Atlantic, Grove Press and NetGalley for providing this Advance Reading Copy. Expected publication date is November 9, 2021.

Five Tuesdays In Winter is a collection of ten short stories by Lily King. Each of the stories talk about the human condition – desire, pain, loss, ties that bind and ultimately, the different forms that human love can take. It is beautifully written and invokes heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking emotions. Each of her characters have unique voices and are memorable way past the pages of this book.

I really enjoyed these stories! I was impressed with the author's ability to flesh out characters that I cared about and connected with in such a short amount of time. My favorite was about a young boy who is watched by two older, college-aged kids during one summer -- it was such a heartwarming story and portrait of growing up. She has a very poignant way of describing human relationships, feelings and circumstances. I'll definitely be reading more by the author.

I am not usually a short story reader, however, I will read anything that Lily King writes. As expected, I enjoyed some of her short stories more than others. My favorites were Five Tuesdays in Winter and When in Dordogne, However, the short stories that were not my cup of tea consisted of characters that I could not get behind or that I just didn't like. I don't need a "likable" character to enjoy a novel, however a novel gives the author an opportunity to nuance that character and gives the reader a chance to understand that character or at least sympathize. I feel like that isn't the case in a short story. However, in each of the stories, King's writing comes shining through.
Thank you to #NetGalley and #GroveAtlantic for this eARC of #FiveTuesdaysinWinter in exchange for my honest review.

I loved every single story in this book! Lily King did a fantastic job getting me invested in every character and their situation in each story. I particularly like Five Tuesdays in Winter and Timeline. I wouldn't change a single thing about this book and will definitely be recommending this to everyone.

Thank you NetGalley, Grove Press, and Ms. Lily King for an ARC of Five Tuesdays in Winter. I normally do not really enjoy reading short stories, but I love Lily King's novels so this collection of anthologies was a very anticipated read for me and it did not disappoint! As with all King's other books--this collection of stories delves deep into love, loss, and relationships and King does a wonderful job of making every story very relatable and thought-provoking.

Oh, hello there. I'm the only person who has never read Writers & Lovers. I'm pleased to meet you.

This book is an intimate look into very different people during very small and specific slices of their lives. There is a great deal of vulnerability on display and even though not every story featured a teenage protagonist, I found that the emotions and interactions felt specifically adolescent in nature in a very relatable way.

This is a very good short story collection and one that I would recommend to anyone who is drawn to unique relationships and emotional transformations.

There are ten stories in the collection and my favourites were the title story and Hotel Seattle.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the access to this advanced copy. This book will be published on November 9th and I'm very excited to hear what Writers & Lovers fans think.

4.5 stars rounded up.

I admit I was a little nervous going into this book. I loved Lily King’s Writers and Lovers (I have read it twice) but I’m not always a fan of short story collections.

I shouldn’t have worried. King’s writing is stunning here. I definitely enjoyed some stories more than others - I expected to - but each one had something about it that I liked. They all have great characters, many of whom are trying to move on after a loss or betrayal. They are all trying to connect meaningfully with others in their lives - one story focused on a sibling relationship, others on romantic partnerships or friendships, and a few about a parent trying to connect with a child (or grandparent/grandchild).. 



My favorite stories were Five Tuesdays in Winter, about a divorced bookseller, his daughter and his secret love for his employee, and When in the Dordonge, about a neglected teenage boy whose parents leave him at home with two surprisingly nurturing college students hired to housesit.

I think anyone who liked Writers and Lovers as much as I did would like this one! Thank you to Grove Atlantic and Netgalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

4.5
I really liked all these stories, which is rare for me in a book of short stories.
All ten stories touched my heart in some manner.
Lily King really knows how to capture the thoughts and feelings of her characters!
I’ve read Euphoria… but I will certainly try a few other books of hers now!

Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC!

Brilliant. If you love Lily King's novels, you will love these beautifully wrought short stories. Just when I thought I read my favorite, the next one broke my heart all over again.

Bestselling author Lily King returns with this stunning short story collection, with stories that will steal the heart of every reader. From unrequited love in a bookstore to sweeping tales of found family and loss, there is a story in this collection for readers of every genre. Though I am not a reader of short stories, Five Tuesdays in Winter stole my heart and is the perfect holiday gift for the readers in your life.

Lyrical and intense, this collection of short stories tackles complex topics. Overall the novelist showcases her talents as an outstanding writer with her attention to detail and word choice. Engaging, immersive, moving.

I really did not enjoy this collection. I love her full length novels, but her short story format is just not it, for me. All of these stories felt very one-note, and none of them were even remotely engaging. Also, each one featured a baby, child or pre-teen as a primary or secondary character, which made me recognize that’s something I really dislike reading about. So disappointing. So much potential for me to love it; I was waiting for the “desire…heartache…inexorable tug towards love at all costs…” but all I got was a lot of anti-climactic half stories with no emotion and strange abrupt endings. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for generously providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Outstanding writing! Very fast read. Characters were all interesting. Settings and scenery was vivid. Ending was clever.

"Perhaps it was all the clouds racing to hide the sun, great bright globs of them as if blown like glass from a fat straw and shorn flat on the bottom by the wind. They muted the hard blue of the water. They stole the show." - from North Sea

I'd read Writers & Lovers last year and was quite torn once I turned the final page. I adored King's prose and her ability to craft beautiful sentences in a way I've witnessed few authors be able to do before. Her ability to write about characters who the reader feels like they legitimately know is enviable. But (yeah, there's always a but) I found Writers & Lovers to be lacking in plot pizzaz - while the individual characters themselves were fascinating, the overarching story itself was rather sleepy.

Enter Five Tuesdays in Winter - a collection of ten of King's short stories. Although I hadn't explicitly thought about her writing much after wrapping up Writers & Lovers, as soon as I saw King was coming out with a short story collection, I knew I wanted to get my hands on it. In my opinion, short stories are better suited for writers who can nail emotions and character descriptions than for writers who can create elaborate plots. I was hoping a short story collection is where King would find her stride - and find her stride she did.

Since I had enough foresight to take notes on all of the stories and since I'm in a writing mood, I might as well jot down my thoughts about all of 'em individually. As with any short story collection, I liked some of these more than others.

Creature: A young teen named Carol is employed as a babysitter for two kiddos. Shortly after the gig starts, said kiddos's uncle Hugh comes to visit, and Carol develops a schoolgirl crush. Cute... until it isn't. This story was one where you can see this shizzle happening in real life. And I don't know how to explain it, but the ending is both dissatisfying and perfect.

Five Tuesdays in Winter: Crotchety bookstore owner Mitchell has a teenaged daughter Paula who is far more personable and less crotchety than he is. When Mitchell realizes his sole employee, Kate, no longer has a boyfriend, he starts catching feelings.

When in the Dordogne: When his parents decide to vacation all summer and leave our 14-year-old (unnamed?) narrator behind, college kids Ed and Grant are hired to look after the house and make sure the narrator doesn't maim/seriously injure himself. This tale was so endearing. It covers a spectrum of emotions, from loneliness to love to missing what you once had to coming of age. One of my faves.

North Sea: A year or two after Oda's husband Fritz dies in an accident, she takes her daughter Hanne on a vacation to the beach that neither one of them really want to be on. This one started out well but the ending confused me, but I don't know if the reason for my confusion is just a me problem. I mean, it probably is.

Timeline: Lucy rather suddenly moves in with her brother Wes and his girlfriend Mandy in an attempt to get away from an ex of sorts. After living there for a bit, Lucy comes home from a childhood's friend's wedding to find all kinds of drama relating to her roommates, her ex of sorts, her new of sorts, and her downstairs neighbor (plus the neighbor's kids). This one was a good read but at the same time it felt overstuffed - like King tried to put too much into too short of a story.

Hotel Seattle: Our (again unnamed?) narrator grew up deeply religious and had a hard time coming to terms with his homosexuality until young adulthood. While he expected his family members to not be the biggest fans of this revelation, he was thrown for a loop when his college bestie (and crush, naturally) Paul also decided to remove himself from the narrator's life. That is, until one day many years later when the narrator's boyfriend Steve answers the phone in their shared flat to discover that Paul will be in town for a night and wants to catch up with his former friend (sans Steve). This one was hard to read but I'm glad I did anyway because of the caliber of the story.

Waiting for Charlie: A 91-year-old grumpy old man visits his 20-something granddaughter Charlotte in the hospital after she's fallen into a coma following a skiing accident. This one is short and sweet, and it teaches you you're never too old to learn new things.

Mansard: Frances, Audrey, Sue, and Elinor's weekly bridge game gets interrupted when Frances's mysterious father Ben shows up unannounced. I wasn't a huge fan of this one - too creepy and odd.

South: Marie-Claude is telling stories to her kids Flo and Tristan as they drive to a beach vacation shortly after Marie-Claude's husband Robert has divorced her for another woman. This one was a really fascinating look at not only the he-said vs. she-said of the aftermath of a romantic relationship gone south, but the he-felt vs. she-felt as well.

The Man at the Door: A mysterious man knocks on a young mother's door to let her know he has an ARC of her latest novel and he wants to discuss it with her. The only problem is not only is this book not yet published, the mother hasn't ever taken it to a publisher. Or shown a soul. It sits locked in her basement and not even her husband has a key. I appreciate King's attempt at magical realism here, but this story just didn't do it for me.

I really hope King gets a lot of positive reviews for this collection and subsequently pivots to short story writing for all (or most) of her future endeavors. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

I am not typically a fan of short stories but I loved Lily King’s Writers and Lovers so I was interested in giving this collection a try. Overall I really enjoyed Five Tuesdays in Winter. Some of the stories really drew me in and some were a bit tough to read (there is some heavy content covered) but all are beautifully written. Lily King develops characters with such depth that even in this format, you connect with each one. There is also great variety in each of the stories so everyone can find one that speaks to them.

Thank you to Lily King, Grove Atlantic, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.