1. Grace Russo is a grown woman with an exciting job. What do you think is stopping her (besides his ethnicity) from introducing her live-in boyfriend, Michael, to her family? For a strong-willed woman, why do you think she doesn’t stand up to her parents more?

2. What do you think of the Russo family dynamic? Did you recognize any behaviors or traits that you have seen in your own family?

3. Grace’s family expects her to marry an Italian Catholic. Did/does your family impose their wishes onto you in terms of people to date and marry?

4. How could Grace have handled the subject of Michael and introducing him to her family differently? If you were in her position, what would you have done?

5. Why do you think that her brother’s girlfriend, Marianne, and her Nonna’s new beau, George, are accepted so easily?

6. When contemplating spending Thanksgiving apart from Michael, Grace ponders, “I’m not sure anyone ever really enjoys family holidays.” Do you agree? What is it about family holidays that can make them so fraught with drama?

7. Why do you think Grace’s family finally accepts Michael? Does it have more to do with his illness or finally realizing the depths of Grace’s feelings for him?

8. Grace has a realization about her mother: “Nicky and I stood there wondering just how guilty and insecure Nonna had made my mother feel all those years. And that there was something perverse in the way Dad let Nonna get away with it --- that Mom just took it --- and that Dad did nothing about it, perpetuated it. Families were crazy and they all had their secrets.” How did Connie’s relationship with her own mother affect her relationship with Grace? How does Grace try to break that cycle?

9. Michael and Grace seemed to have such a loving and healthy relationship. Why do you think the subject of marriage never came up before? Do you think they have a solid foundation for a future together?

10. So much of the story is about faith --- having it, believing in it, and the loss of it. Both Grace and Michael’s faith is restored after witnessing a miracle. What did you think about the miraculous occurrence in Mexico?

11. Why is the idea of faith more of a struggle for Michael than for Grace or her family? What role does Father John play in Grace’s relationship with God and the church?

12. Holiday traditions play a big role in the Russo family. What sort of traditions do you and your family like to observe? Are there any you would like to incorporate? Are there any you would like to end?

13. How does your family inform the person that you become (or do they)?

14. What message do you think the novel makes about family? About faith?

15. The author hails from Sullivans Island, South Carolina. Do you think this aided in making her descriptions of Charleston and Hilton Head more vivid? Have you ever been to either place?