1. How does Joanna try to help Leo through his depression? Do you think that someone is ever able to guide another person out of this kind of experience?

2. What do you think it was that attracted Leo to Piper in the first place? Is it ever acceptable to get involved with someone who’s married or in a relationship, or to step outside the bounds of a marriage yourself?

3. Do you think Joanna overreacts or under-reacts when Piper comes into their lives?

4. Joanna and Piper’s ideas about children and childrearing seem to differ greatly. Whose approach do you relate to more?

5. How do the coastal settings in Westport and Maine serve to highlight the tension in the novel?

6. Would you consider Piper a perfectionist? Do you think she could have handled her relationship with Stelli differently and gotten off on a better foot?

7. How much do you think Joanna’s upbringing affected her future relationships? Do you think we are doomed to repeat or react to the patterns set in our early childhood?

8. Is Leo right to seek to cut off Joanna’s access to the children, based on his understanding of what happened at the beach?

9. Could Leo have tapped into the emotional drama surrounding him more effectively, or seen the signs of danger? Do you believe women are more attuned to those sorts of signals than men?

10. Do you think Leo’s family prejudged Piper or judged her too harshly? What are some of the prejudices and beliefs that might make us rush to judgment about a person?

11. How does Liv Constantine use two different points of view to advance the story and your understanding of these characters? What does the first person versus third person narrative do for your feeling about Joanna and about Piper?

12. What did you think of the twist at the end of the novel? Did you see it coming?