200: Book club discussion prompts for a romance novella (Love By Design)

Use these book club discussion prompts for a romance novella (Love By Design — Book 2 in the Small Town Stilettos duology) as a starter kit for analyzing text of all kinds! Alter the questions as you see fit for this specific novella, or adapt them for other novels you’re reading. Try zooming in AND zooming out: Dive into the pages and focus on one tiny detail of a book so you can explore what it means to you or what captures your attention about it, and then take more of a bird’s eye view and consider the overall themes of a story from a distance. 

Shift your perspective by thinking about the text from your position as a reader, and also the position of various characters, as well as the position of what the author’s intentions might have been. The more that you explore all of these things, the richer the text will become, and the more you’ll learn about extracting meaning from text, and the more you’ll learn about how your brain works. There are so many benefits to asking questions like these, and all you need to do is read fun books in order to begin! 

Tune in to the episode now for 11 romance story book club questions to get you thinking… 

Resources mentioned in this episode: 

• Love By Design (Book 2 in the Small Town Stilettos contemporary romance duology): https://books2read.com/u/bOVMXA 
• More “why choose” romance novels — the Polyamorous Passions series and Small Town Stilettos: SaganMorrow.com/books 
• Connect with Sagan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saganlives 
• Connect with Sagan on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@saganlives 
• Tune in to ALL episodes of the Author Diary Entries podcast at https://saganmorrow.com/podcast 
• Leave a voicemail for the author after tuning in to this episode, to share your thoughts, insights, questions, and comments: https://www.buzzsprout.com/400015/fan_mail 

Transcript

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You’re listening to the Author Diary Entries podcast. I’m your host, Sagan Morrow, and this is episode #200. Access the show notes and transcript of this episode at SaganMorrow.com/podcast. 

Over the past few episodes, I’ve been sharing with you more details about my most recent romance novella, Love By Design. You got a behind-the-scenes peek at how I planned the chapter outlines, the process I used to write and edit this book in the space of just 8 weeks, and a sneak peek reading from the first chapter!

You’ve got a peek behind the curtain at the making of this book, you’ve read the book, now what? Today I thought it would be fun to go through some book club discussion questions. 

When we reflect on a book through “book club style” questions and discussion prompts, it helps us to understand the story in a different way, to more consciously connect the dots between themes that we might not have otherwise noticed, and to understand alternative viewpoints that much more fully. 

Analyzing text helps you to understand yourself and the world better! Human beings are meaning-makers, so, what meaning do you see when you read Love By Design? That’s the real overall question that we’re exploring in today’s episode. 

These discussion prompts can be a jumping-off point for thinking critically about any book, or for creating your own discussion prompts for this specific book. Perhaps some of these questions won’t resonate with you, but they’ll instead inspire you to explore similar questions or take your train of thought in a new direction. Perhaps some of these questions can be applied to other books you’re reading. 

The purpose of these discussion questions is to shed new light on the text we read, to connect with stories in new ways, to deepen our understanding of character insights and motivations. There is so much that can come from exploring questions like these! Analyzing gets to be so much fun, so very fascinating, and a great overall learning experience. Get curious and provoke those thoughts!

(And if you haven’t read Love By Design yet, that’s okay! You can grab your copy on Kobo, Indigo, Kindle, Barnes & Noble, etc — just search “Love By Design by Sagan Morrow” on your favourite bookstore platform, or you can visit SaganMorrow.com/books. You can also access the bookstore links in the show notes of this Author Diary Entries podcast episode.) 

Now let’s get into the book club discussion prompts! You’ve read the book, you’ve told your friends to read the book, this is a great time to take it a step deeper. Let’s dive in…

1. Logan, the love interest in Love By Design, is constantly taking care of other people in Fort Edwin. What are some of the ways in which the main character, Ripley, shifts that experience and his entire approach to life? 
2. Ripley sees the world through the lens of fabric and fashion. What would the world look like if you viewed it through the lens of your job (or through the lens of an interest you are passionate about)? 
3. We only see Ripley’s relationship with her brother, Zach, depicted through text messages. What can you infer from their relationship dynamic as a result of those text messages? 
4. Which character in this book did you relate the most to, and why? Did you glimpse parts of yourself in any other characters? 
5. Did this book unfold the way you were expecting? Why or why not? In what ways did Love By Design subvert vs meet your expectations? 
6. The main character in Love By Design (Ripley) has a very different experience in the small town of Fort Edwin compared to her boss, Margaret’s, experience with that same town in the prequel to this book (Small Town Stilettos). Why do you believe they had such different experiences? What might have contributed to that? 
7. Ripley makes a choice at the end of Chapter 10 that feels devastating to her, but she believes it’s the right choice to make. Do you agree with her reasoning for making that decision? Why or why not? 
8. Nature and the outdoors play an important part of the plot in Love By Design. What is your impression of the setting in this story, and the ways in which the characters interact with that setting? 
9. Love By Design touches on some important questions regarding ethics compared to societal norms. What do you think of how the main character, Ripley, handles this in the book? What are some examples of the way in which social expectations might appear to be connected to ethics and morality, but are actually unrelated? 
10. Logan has a dog named Bear that Ripley absolutely adores (and the feeling is mutual!). What role does Bear the dog play in this story and the way in which the events unfold? How has the presence of an animal affected or influenced your own life trajectory? 
11. Alternative relationship styles are a key theme in the entire Polyamorous Passions universe, including the Small Town Stilettos duology (of which Love By Design is Book 2). Compare and contrast the character reactions to the ideas of open relationships and alternative relationship styles in this story, compared to other books: What do you feel that different character’s reactions say about those characters? What might you deduce about those characters, the way their brains work, their viewpoints on the world, and perhaps their past experience, as a result of how they respond to the concept of other relationship styles besides monogamy? 

I can’t wait to hear your responses to these book club discussion questions! Visit the link in the show notes to leave a voicemail with your insights, or share on Instagram and Threads (and tag me, @Saganlives, so I don’t miss it!)

And as I mentioned earlier, you can use these discussion prompts as a starter kit for analyzing text of all kinds. Alter the questions as you see fit for this specific novella, or adapt them for other novels you’re reading. Try zooming in AND zooming out: Dive into the pages and focus on one tiny detail of a book so you can explore what it means to you or what captures your attention about it, and then take more of a bird’s eye view and consider the overall themes of a story from a distance. 

Shift your perspective by thinking about the text from your position as a reader, and also the position of various characters, as well as the position of what the author’s intentions might have been. The more that you explore all of these things, the richer the text will become, and the more you’ll learn about extracting meaning from text, and the more you’ll learn about how your brain works. There are so many benefits to asking questions like these, and all you need to do is read fun books in order to begin! 

If you haven’t grabbed your copy of Love By Design yet, you can do so at your favourite e-bookstore, or visit SaganMorrow.com/books. 

Please do remember to rate and review it on Goodreads or Amazon etc — that helps other readers find this book and determine in advance whether it’s a good fit for them. Happy reading and thank you so much for your support!