contact links Press Room home

Bookclub Questions for Bittersweet

Discussion Questions for Bittersweet

1.         Which character did you feel the most sympathetic for?  Why did that character affect you?

2.         Sacrifice is one theme of Bittersweet.  What did each of the primary characters sacrifice for someone or something else?

3.         How does falling in love with a celebrity affect a relationship?  What is it about Desiree that will help her cope with her husband when he isn't thought of as a regular person but as a notch of someone's belt?

4.         Desiree made choices that totally interrupted her life.  She has given up all her dreams.  Instead of hiring extremely competent people to take care of these children, she does it herself.  She's using skills she didn't know she possessed and had gotten into a situation totally foreign to her.  Is this expected of woman?  Why not men?

5.         Why not let her aunt take care of the children?  Under many circumstances, the aunt is someone who would be expected to do so?  Who's more important, Levi or his children?

6.         Everyone in Bittersweet is on the verge of some kind of change.   What changes does each of the characters go through, and how do all these changes affect the other characters?

7.         The hero in Bittersweet has a different set of changes.  Other than the fact that he's falling in love with Desiree, what do you think drives him to be so close to that family? 

8.         How does Steven fit in with the extended family?  Is this part of a tradition of taking people in?  A way of handling things in a community?  How do you think he feels thrust in this family situation since he was an only child?
9.         Everyone in Bittersweet is thrust into a situation they never thought they would be a part of.  How do you think each person feels about it?  How do the different attitudes affect the way each reacts to the situation?

10.       Discuss Desiree's unresolved issues regarding her family?  Is she trying to make a family different from the one she had?  She didn't have the perfect family growing up.  Is she trying to recreate that?

11.       Jacqueline is the farthest from this situation.  The children are a product of a relationship her ex-husband had before he met her.  What does this have to do with her except disrupt her daughter's life? 

12.       Does the life Levi chose work for him?  Could his relationship with Jacqueline have every survived?

13.       What kind of bond is there between Levi and his sister?  Why is this bond so close?

14.       How would you react to a relationship with someone who is rich and famous?  How would it affect your life?  What would you be willing to do to keep that relationship?  What might make you abandon it?

 

 

Copyright 2014 Candice Poarch