1.    If you were going on a trip, would you take Regan, Brianna, Meggie, Lacey, or Tory with you? Why? Where would you go? What would you do? What advice would they give you about your life?

 

2.    Describe Meggie. What are her strengths and weaknesses? Was she fair to the police chief, Blake Crighton?? What did her clothes say about her? Would you want to be friends with her?

 

 3.    Aaron Torelli did not admit to Meggie that he had severe mental health issues before he married her. Should he have? What was Meggie’s obligation to him after she found out? What should she have done differently in her marriage? What would you have done? Would you have left sooner than she did? Would you have left at all?

 

4.    Was Meggie justified in leaving Aaron after he had an affair, despite his severe mental health issues? Was Meggie justified in having an affair with Henry while still married to Aaron?

 

5.    How did you like the structure of the book? Did the flashbacks to Meggie’s marriage enhance the story? What are the overarching themes? What did the tree house symbolize? What did Mount Hood and Lace, Satin, and Baubles symbolize?

 

6.    Is Lacey a good mother? Can you relate to her struggles as a working mother to three unique teenagers? Did you like Tory? Was her anger merited? Did Scotty deserve the wood carving in his front yard?

 

7.    Hayden Rockaford said, “I know I was supposed to be born a girl but something got messed up. I think that somehow, when my mom was pregnant with me, something went wrong. It’s not like I’m wrong, or I’m a mistake, and it’s not her fault, not my fault, but something didn’t connect in there right. For me, what happened is the right plumbing didn’t grow in. The plumbing was switched. That’s it. I’m in the wrong body.”

What did you think of this character and his struggles? How was it handled by the author?

 

8.    “Kalani Noe applied for a job at the factory as a seamstress.  Her husband did not want her to have a job. A job meant independence. A job meant money. Both threats to him. Her lip was split in half. One eye was swollen shut, and there was a bruise down her left cheek. During the interview, she kept dabbing at her ear, which her husband had partially bitten off.”

Why did the author put Kalani in the story? Contrast Kalani’s life with the O’Rourke     sisters’ lives. What does her future look like?

 

9.   Which scene did you enjoy the most? Which scenes made you laugh? Were there any scenes that made you cry or were especially touching? Were there any scenes that reminded you of your own life or struggles?

 

10.  Of all the bra videos that Meggie took, which voice was the most memorable, the most poignant to you, and why? Did the bra videos enrich the story?

 

11.  Regan O’Rourke said, “I am not defined by my body or what has happened to it. I am not defined by  beatings or an arching whip or a dangerous man, or by the wreckage of   prostitution. I am not  defined by my age.  I am not defined by what others think of me. I am defined by myself. I will define myself to me. I will live, I will laugh. I will love. I will not be silenced. I will not be invisible.   I will be me until the very end.   And I will look beautiful. . . . I dared to live the way I damn well wanted to live.”

Are you like Regan?

 

12.  Brianna O’Rourke says that women lose interest in sex because “oftentimes women are simply not attracted to their partners anymore. Their partners are boring in bed or self-centered, inane, ridiculous, abusive, or gross. It’s not what men want to hear. They want to blame their wives and girlfriends, but it’s the truth.

Sometimes women are flat-out exhausted. There can be medical issues, like thyroid       problems or depression. There can be hormone issues, too. Who likes blowing up in bed with night sweats? Working too hard will kill a sex drive, too, as can motherhood and its demands.”

Is she right? How does Brianna’s own admission to not liking sex impact her ability to be an effective sex therapist, or does it?

 

13.  Brianna was not honest with Lacey and Meggie about Sperm Donor Number One and Two. What does that say about Brianna? How will this impact their relationship in future? What should Lacey and Meggie do? Contact the fathers or leave things alone? What would you do? If the story continued, where do you think the author would take that plotline?

 

14.  Discuss Meggie’s character arc. What were the most significant events in the book that caused her to change by the end?

 

15.  If you were in the Fashion Story, what lingerie would you design for yourself? What would your videotape say about you?

 

16.  Grandma Regan and the O’Rourke sisters had many adventures with the Bust Out and Shake It Adventure Club list. What’s on your list?