Monday Moments - The English Teacher by Lily King

 Vida Avery is one of the best English teachers Fayer Academy has ever seen. She's a fixture. Her son Peter has managed his life.  Now his mother marries, rather impulsively.  He's very happy to have a new dad - Tom Belou - and new siblings.  He seeks a normalcy.   His mother is still adjusting. She's been so accustomed to an isolated life and has protected Peter from so much.  She uses books as a wall. 

The English Teacher by Lily King is really well written.  Vida is a peculiar heroine. You root for her and her new marriage. And then you root for Tom because she is not treating him well.  Peter wants his siblings  to love him, but they still mourn their wonderful mother,  They weren't ready to move on. 

So many emotions in this book.  It is extraordinarily well written, yet  tears at the soul.  

Dang.  Tears.  Heart!  I recommend this for its deep feelings. 

Have tissues ready. 

Finally Friday - Heart the Lover by Lily King

 Heart the Lover by Lily King is a new connective thread book (from Writers and Lovers).  We see Casey in her senior year of college meet and fall for Sam and Yash - stars of 17th century  lit class.  

cover  blurb - She discovers the pleasures of friendship, intellectual ambition, the intoxicating world of academic fervor, and rapid fire banter and fun. But youthful passion is unpredictable, and soon she  finds herself at the center of a charged and intricate triangle. Choices will be made that alter these three lives forever. 

Decades later, Casey's a successful  novelist. She's  married with children. But there's a surprise visit. Unexpected news.  Now she needs to make amends, consider decisions made, and complete a circle from  youthful bonds.

I read this fresh after the first related book. Lily King really knows how to write about relationships and actions and consequences. A very fresh twist took me by  surprise and I found myself tearing up. (I swear Ray always walks into  a room just as I'm sniffling  over a novel).  

I will say I heart both books, the characters, the plot  lines, and the finale.  Well done. (have a tissue ready)

Whatever Wednesday - Writers and Lovers by Lily King

 cover blurb - Blindsided by her mother's death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody arrives in Cambridge MA, summer of 1997, without a plan. A child golf prodigy, she now waits tables and rents a tiny side garage room where she works on the novel she's been writing for six years.

In Writers and Lovers by Lily King, we follow Casey's fight to fulfill ambitions, balance demands of art and life, juggle two new very different  men, and avoid crisis after crisis. 

Casey is a likeable character, as are the two men in her life. But I wanted to  shake her too. King does a good job of exploring artistic passion, ambition, and the terrifying and  exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of  life and the beginning of  another. (cover blurb)