1. “Books don’t change lives, not like people think they do.” Do you agree or disagree with the first line in Shelly King’s novel? Do you think it’s meant to be tongue-in-cheek? Did a book, or books, change Maggie’s life?

2. At the beginning of the novel, Maggie’s life is in a holding pattern after her layoff. Have you ever been laid off or fired? Does Maggie’s experience, of feeling part of a corporate family and then being let go, resonate with you?

3. Have you ever read LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER? Was it for a school assignment or leisure reading? Which of the book club members’ interpretations ring the most true to you?

4. Though the Silicon Valley Women Executives Association Book Club is an extreme (and somewhat satirical) example of a reading group, have you encountered similar dynamics in any of your own reading groups? What do you think makes for a good reading group?

5. Have you ever written in a book?

6. How does Maggie’s relationship with her mother change over the course of the novel? Do you fault Georgine for staying in her marriage? Why or why not?

7. Throughout the book, we meet characters who want to lose themselves in other worlds‚ from those who read romances to those who imagine they’re Henry or Catherine and still others who participate in medieval re-creations. What does it say about these characters, and the world they all do live in, that they create and escape to these other worlds? Have you ever pretended to be someone else, either in real life or a virtual world?

8. By the end of the book, Maggie has lost two good friends for two very different reasons. Which of those reasons do you think is harder to get over? She’s also made a very good friend in Jason. Did that surprise you? Have you ever had an antagonistic relationship turn into a close friendship?

9. Who did you think Henry and Catherine would reveal themselves to be? Were you surprised by Maggie’s discovery? Did you think her involvement in their love story was reasonable, or did she cross a line?

10. What do you think happens to Maggie and Rajhit after the novel ends?