Lily King has pulled me in again, perhaps not quite as well or as much as she did in Lovers & Writers, but enough for me to finish this book in a day and a half.

Heart the Lover is sort of a prequel and sequel to Writers & Lovers, or maybe its “Irish twin” as King refers to it. As a prequel/sequel, there are some plot holes that don’t mesh with the previous book, but that really doesn’t matter. This book can be read entirely on its own or they could be read in reverse order.

When the novel opens, the main character, who goes by Jordan, her college nickname, (a Gatsby reference), spends much of her senior year with two boyfriends, first Sam, then his roommate, Yash. They are all lit majors, potentially aspiring writers, and the boys seem to be the favorites among the most esteemed professor.

I sometimes got a bit tired of her relationships and sex life, but I did enjoy the many literary references, her grit working multiple jobs to pay for college, and the interactions among friends and roommates. There is nothing quite like the experience of senior year in college.

Part two, a mere 25 pages, flashes forward 20+ years when our main character is a successful novelist, married (to a character she met in Writers & Lovers) with two boys, and living in Maine. Yash shows up for a visit, and we all adore the boys, Jack and Harry.

Part three brings her back to a grieving gathering of the college trio. Now in their 40s, they return to intimate conversations, hand holding, and story telling as a way of supporting each other. Though it covers only two days, the details are drawn out so specifically that we feel a part of this gathering, this grieving, this discomfort and sadness. From the torn coffee cups to the awkward IV pole to the tight chair arrangement, it almost feels like we, the readers, should not be there and yet we are there, hearing the strained breathing and the whispered confessions. I’m not a crier, but I cried. It’s not melodramatic or overwrought. It just feels real.

I still like Writers & Lovers a bit more, in part because it offers more complexity of the main character–her struggles, emotions, bad decisions, rants–but I think this book will grab most readers. It offers something different, the perspective of looking back on the choices and decisions we make in our 20s and how those shape our later lives.