Book Club Questions for Heart the Lover by Lily King

WellRead's November 2025 selection was Heart the Lover by Lily King. In a similar vein as Writers & Lovers (a 2020 WellRead selection), our protagonist is a writer and there is a strong romantic plot, but again, like King’s previous work, Heart the Lover is not really about either of those things.

Use these discussion questions to engage with the book further, whether in a book club with friends or just on your own as you digest the story. 

Reading questions for Heart the Lover by Lily King:

• Heart the Lover could have easily focused on the romance, but we enjoyed how much friendship played a part in this story. What did you make of each of the friendships – Yash & Sam, Yash & Jordan, Jordan & her housemates? Do any of the friendships reflect those in your own life?
  

• Let’s talk about Sam. How did you feel about him? Did you think that he redeemed himself in any way?

• As readers, we’re not experiencing time passing like our characters, so it can be hard not to hold them to their younger selves, even if it’s decades later in the story. Did you struggle with this when it came to any of the characters? Were you expecting them to be better or worse based on their younger selves? 

• Late in the novel, Yash says of marriage: “I don’t think I would have been good at it. Maybe a quarter of the time. The rest of the time I’d want to be alone.” We get glimpses into Jordan’s marriage, throughout the last section of the book. How does her marriage compare to her relationship with Yash? What’s different, what’s the same, what works, what doesn’t? Do you think there were signs early on that marriage might not have been the course for Yash? 

• If you’ve read Writers & Lovers, you might have caught onto who ‘Jordan’ really was. When did you work it out? Don’t worry if it took you the whole book – it did for us too! It reminded us to go back and re-read Writers & Lovers immediately. Why do you think Lily King chose to tell this story?