Writers & Lovers: A Novel Hardcover – March 3, 2020

Casey is a 31-year-old single unpublished writer who has been working for 6 years on her novel while surviving as a waitress. She has just lost her mother and broken up with her long-time boyfriend. She has a brief passionate rebound relationship but turns out he betrays her early on by lying to her. If you want to take a journey with a relatable, likable character on her way towards realizing some of her dreams, then this may be just the book for you.A major theme in this book is loss. Casey has recently lost some major relationships that were core to her life. For example, Casey comes home one day and thinks about calling her mom, then quickly remembers her mom has died. If death, loss and/or loneliness are triggering for you, then this may not be your season to read this book.Loneliness is another prominent theme, as Casey feels alone during much of the novel, and is by herself for a significant portion. That said, Casey grows and develops throughout the story, and she is in a different emotional state by the end of the novel.At the beginning of the novel there is a sad tone because Casey is desperate to evolve from her college-age like lifestyle to begin her more stable and adult years. Readers get the sense that she is craving a reliable, stable career, finances and relationship. Despite striving and working for years towards all those things, it just hasn’t happened for her yet. Even though at parts in the story it seems like her life is unraveling at the seams, this novel is about the journey of how her adult life path comes together.In my opinion, King spends somewhat longer than necessary at the beginning of the novel setting the stage. There are lengthy descriptions about Casey waitressing, including describing humdrum everyday behind-the-scene occurrences of working in a restaurant. Readers who have never worked in a restaurant or heard about what it is like may find this interesting, and it does set context for Casey’s actions later. Personally, I have three children who waited tables as teenagers, and I’ve heard enough about it to last my lifetime.While Casey waitresses for the practical purpose of paying her bills, her actual passion is writing. Casey is unsure about her writing ability and constantly questions her own judgement about her debut novel. While she is dedicated and diligent about writing, she is not confident about her ability and always second guessing herself. I think a lot of readers will relate to being experienced or knowledgeable about something and yet wondering if they are “doing it right” sometimes. Particularly in a craft like writing, where it is done in solitary isolation and then shared when completed. King’s descriptions of a writer’s concerns sounded authentic and I enjoyed reading about what kind of worries go through a writer’s mind.Another dream Casey has is to have a family someday. When the story begins, she is feeling very lonely and heavy with the loss of significant people in her life, but as it unfolds Casey ends up befriending two men that are potential love interests. A significant portion of the conflict in the novel is Casey’s indecision between two love interests and determining at what point she absolutely needs to make a choice. One of the men is significantly more economically and emotionally stable. He is older than her, accessible, open with his feelings for her, well established in his career and has a history of successful long-term relationships in his past. The way Casey meets him is the perfect opening of a charming romance novel alone.However, Casey has more chemistry with the other potential love interest. Even though the second man is still working on getting to an emotionally healthy place, struggles with communicating to Casey, is not economically stable and having trouble getting started in his career, she relates to him more and the passion between them is undeniable. He frequently makes her feel unsure about his feelings towards her and whether he even wants to be with her. He is the type of man that has lied to and left Casey in the past, and she is aware of this fact which complicates her decision.I found myself rooting for one of these men, and Casey does not pick the man I was hoping she would. However, King gives us good reasons for why Casey makes her decision, and ultimately, I agree with the point King makes here. This is the time old tale of choosing between fireworks versus a steady fire. If you enjoy watching TV shows like The Bachelorette where a female character must decide between potential love interests, then you might enjoy reading about Casey’s experience deciding between these guys.I do appreciate how dimensional King wrote the character of Casey. Generally, I prefer strong female characters that do not require being “rescued” by male characters. I do not enjoy reading about women who spend all their time thinking and talking about men (or a man), which always feels disappointing and sad to me. What I do like reading about are women that are the main character of their own life, and have a lot happening in all aspects of their life. In fact, if the female character can be the one who is doing some “rescuing” then I appreciate the realism.Casey’s character fit my criteria for a strong female character. While Casey’s love life is a focus of conflict in the plot, there are other significant portions of the plot about Casey’s family of origin relationships, a health scare that she goes through, and her work of both waitressing and writing. I felt that was realistic and it made me care more about Casey’s character. I was reading equally as much to find out how Casey’s novel was received and whether she would get published, and how long she would tolerate the restaurant work environment, as much as I was reading to find out if she would decide to pursue a long term relationship with either of the men in her life. Overall, King created an impressively developed character driven story with emotionally compelling plot.

There's a lot to like about this book. The book has some great highlightable one-liners about life in general, and the restaurant in the book feels like a very real place you're hanging out in. The writing is enjoyable overall. If you just want to kind of experience someone else's daily grind, it does take you on an interesting journey. If you're not someone who needs a book's plot to be realistic, you can just enjoy the maudlin vibe and contemplate all the ways your life is going better than the narrator's (I hope).But if you're the sort of person who throws books across the room anytime a deus ex machina appears ... just skip it, for your own sake. Almost anything good that happens to the protagonist feels painfully forced.** Many, many spoilers ahead **Maybe this is book a little bit too realistic, because the depressed/anxious narrator is SO depressed and anxious that she never manages to do anything likable. She just trudges through life in a slow-motion panic. If the book's aim were simply to be an accurate portrayal of grief, this might still be worth reading about -- hell, I loved The Road and it doesn't get more miserable than The Road, right?But no, against all odds, there's romance mixed in. This woman sounds like she's barely managing to stay upright, but somehow she manages to date not one, but two entire men, who somehow are really interested in her despite the fact that she is plainly decimated by grief to the point of not having a personality. What attracts these men? The exhaustion? The undereye circles? Because both are repeatedly described, by both the narrator and by other people who are startled by how bad the narrator is looking these days.The source of attraction for anyone involved, including the narrator, is not clear. We only get to witness a few snippets of conversation throughout both relationships, and it's all pretty dull with a few deviations into mild quirkiness. At one point, I was so startled by a man taking ahold of her arms and kissing her that I had to back up and read it again, because their entire brief conversation up until that point was so mundane that I thought I must have missed something. And it was their first conversation, it's not as if there was some additional context to make it believable. But no, he's just reaching for her in the park even though they barely know each other, and she's cheerfully rolling with it instead of screaming, which is what I would be doing if someone came at me after five boring minutes of our first conversation.Shortly afterward, this man tells her that she is the first woman he's cared about in years, and somehow it's not an epic red flag to this thirtysomething woman that a wealthy man is THIS interested in an exhausted sad waitress, all because they stood in a park and talked about trees for a few minutes.Eventually, of course, the narrator must make a choice between the man who is wealthy but clearly awful, and the underwhelming man who doesn't bother to communicate well or reassure her at times when anyone with half a brainwave would have been able to deduce that a little reassurance would be appropriate (such as when he doesn't get in touch because he is sick for several days). She chooses the underwhelming one who doesn't know how to use his words or his phone, and Mr. Radio Silence "forgives" her for not trusting him more despite the fact that he gave her zero reason to trust him in the first place. Yay?If the biggest conflict of the novel feels forced (woman's student loans have left her in dire financial straits because her discovery that her golf-coach dad was a misdemeanor-level perv somehow permanently ruined the entire sport of golf for her?? and also she just noped out to Spain for two years and defaulted on everything because it's fun to make bad situations way worse?), the resolution is even more so: she basically suddenly gets everything she wanted, including a job at an amazing school because somehow, again, there are all kinds of people sprinkled throughout this book who cannot get enough of this woman even though she's too busy stumbling bleakly through a grief-stricken existence to be confident, charming, or clever.It's at the point when this sad-sack protagonist asks for the exact amount of money she would need to solve all of her problems, and actually GETS THAT AMOUNT, that you start to wonder if you're being trolled. But it's too late now, because that's the end of the book.

I belong to a book club and this one was one of our selections for the month. I am the only male in the group. This is another sad and troubled single female. This one is a struggling writer who wrote the great novel and I wonder where we have heard that before. She has lost her mother like other books we have read. This is set in the Boston area and Casey is deeply in debt and can only afford a bike to get around. Another depressing book to read. Does anyone have a great life or is that only in old Disney movies!

at first i thought it was trivial and self indulgent in the pathetic demise of the main character due to too many unfortunate events. i stayed for the mundane moments and the beautiful little inconsequential descriptions and eventually found myself rooting for casey because though deject for most of the book she really doesn’t give up and moves forward step by step till she’s running straight toward the future she hoped for herself

I've read all of Lily King's novels; each one has been better than the previous, with Euphoria a major triumph. So Writers & Lovers was a real disappointment for me, a slip back to her earlier work, which - while certainly not bad - isn't particularly good either.There's something cold about Writers & Lovers, slight and insubstantial. The writing is occasionally quite good, with some amusingly sparky dialogue, but the novel never takes off, the characters a mere watercolor shadow of what they could be. At no point during the novel did I find myself caring what happened to Casey or indeed to any other characters apart from Harry and the two young boys, who were written with the charm that the others lacked.I really wanted to love this book, and I really was excited when it finally came out - I've been waiting a long time for Lily King's next book - so I admit my expectations were high. Unfortunately, they were ultimately disappointed.

It's a book about believing in yourself when you've lost that belief. When you've nothing left but your broken shell. And the powerful discovery that that is enough. That being true to yourself is enough.

I was not a fan!

Simple plot but filled with feelings!