Gwinnett County Public Library discussion

From Amazon:


Lyrical, emotional, dramatic, and packed with Nancy Thayer’s trademark warmth and wisdom, Heat Wave tells the moving story of a woman who, after her seemingly perfect life unravels, must find the strength to live and love again.

After her husband’s sudden death, Carley Winsted is determined to keep her two daughters in their beloved home on Nantucket. To ease the family’s financial strain, she decides to transform their grand, historic house into a bed-and-breakfast. Not everyone, however, thinks this plan prudent or quite respectable—especially not Carley’s mother-in-law. Further complicating a myriad of challenges, a friend forces Carley to keep a secret that, if revealed, will undo families and friendships. And her late husband’s former law partner is making Carley confront an array of mixed feelings. Then, during a late-summer heat wave, the lives of Carley and her friends and family will be forever changed in entirely unexpected ways.

Some questions to consider:

. Carley and Gus didn’t begin their relationship with a grand passion or love for each other, but they did like each other a great deal and valued the same things. Is that a good enough foundation for a marriage?

2. Carley always believed that she had everything she wanted and she was everything she ever wanted to be: a mother, a wife, a good friend. Did she perhaps give up too quickly in finding what she really wanted to do in life? Did she sell herself too short?

3. Gus was secretive with their money, but Carley was more than happy to relinquish the financial affairs to him. Should she have been more assertive about being in the know about their finances?

4. While Annabel and Russell’s offer to have Carley and the girls live with them seemed to have been made with good intentions, how much interference from grandparents is too much?

5. Even though Gus left the house to Carley, was it disrespectful of her to change her mother-in-law’s family home into a B&B? Did Annabel have a right to be angry at her for making changes to her ancestral home and opening it up to strangers?

6. Did Carley inadvertently make a choice between Maud and Vanessa when she remained silent about the affair? Could she have handled the situation better?

7. Maud was so worried about her boys needing a man around the house. How important is it for a boy to have a man in his life? Was Maud just trying to assuage her guilt for stealing her best friend’s husband?

8. Was Annabel using her grief to seduce Cisco into living with her? Should Carley have been more understanding about Annabel’s grief?

9. Carley worries that it’s too soon to start openly dating Wyatt. Is there ever a “right” time frame to begin to date? Does the time frame change if you have children?

10. Sarah and Sue tell Carley that “other peoples’ concept of ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ doesn’t matter when you’re in love. What matters is the love.” Do you believe this is true? What about in a situation such as Maud, Toby, and Vanessa’s?