Discussion Post: Emily's Quest
1. Let's get this out of the way at the top so that I don't ask all the questions about it. Dean Priest: worst or worst ever? How much did you want to punch him in the face for lying to Emily about her book being terrible and how much did you want to punch him again when he took advantage of her injury to get her to marry him?
2. We talked a lot about whether or not the number of suitors Anne had was ridiculous, but I think Emily had way more proposals. How ridiculous did you find them?
3. Over the course of the book, Ilse, Perry, Emily, and Teddy's friendships grow and stretch and change as time and distance separates them. Did you find it a reasonably realistic portrayal of what can happen to friendships when people scatter to the winds?
4. Ilse and Emily: how badly did you think that Ilse violated the girl code by agreeing to marry Teddy in the first place? Or did you think she genuinely didn't know/understand how Teddy and Emily felt about each other?
5. Which of Emily's books would you rather have read, The Moral of the Rose or A Seller of Dreams?
6. Emily calling to Teddy on the Flavian: creepy, romantic, or creepily romantic?
7. How badly did you want to shake both Emily and Teddy over the course of the book? They both knew and yet they never managed to overcome their selves to get it together? Does it make you sad to think about how much time they wasted?
8. Were you reasonably satisfied with how the romantic entanglements sorted themselves out? Do you think that after all that Ilse and Perry and then Teddy and Emily can be happy together?
9. Finally, how much do you love this line:
"Don't tell me you can't love me--you can--you must--why, Emily"--his eyes had met the moonlit brilliance of hers for a moment--"you do."