Shut Up & Read discussion

Genre: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary Romance, Christian Romance

Book Description:When her grandmother injures herself sliding into third base, Riley McAllister must return to her small hometown to help run the family yarn store in this sweet, lighthearted romantic comedy.

Riley McAllister left the small Arkansas town of Maple Falls after graduating high school, hoping to make it big in New York as a mixed media artist. She’s still pursuing her dream when her grandmother begs her to come home and help her manage the store while she recovers from a broken leg she got after sliding into third base during a church softball game (she was safe, by the way). Riley agrees, planning to convince her grandmother to sell the old shop and retire so Riley can get back to the big city. New York is where she belongs, not some hick town that doesn’t even have a decent coffee shop.

Hayden Price’s life hasn’t turned out as he expected either. He still works in the hardware store his family has owned for several generations after his chance to make it out of Maple Falls ended when he blew out his pitching arm during a minor league game. Stuck with debt from college and a broken engagement, he decides to make the best of things when he comes back to Maple Falls and puts together the town’s first church softball team--with him as coach, of course.

Riley and Hayden went to high school together but ran in totally different circles. In fact, it’s safe to say they hated each other. Will that change when the softball team unexpectedly brings them together? Or will the pain and disappointment of their past failures keep them from discovering love in Maple Falls?

Some things to think about while you're reading. Answer just one or all of these questions, but remember, PLEASE USE SPOILER TAGS when necessary! If you don't know how, ask :)

1. What was your initial reaction to the book? Did it hook you immediately, or take some time to get into?

2. Do you think the story was plot-based or character driven?

3. What was your favorite quote/passage?

4. What made the setting unique or important? Could the story have taken place anywhere?

5. Did you pick out any themes throughout the book?

6. How credible/believable did you find the narrator to be? Did you feel like you got the 'true' story?

7. How did the characters change throughout the story? How did your opinion of them change?

8. Which character did you relate to the most, and what was it about them that you connected with?

9. How did you feel about the ending? What did you like, what did you not like, and what do you wish had been different?

10. If the book were being adapted into a movie, who would you want to see play what parts?

I really liked that book and I can’t answer numbers 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 and 9 and I would want Riley McAllister to be played by Jill Wagner and I would want Hayden Price to be played by Andrew Walker

Christine wrote: "I really liked that book and I can’t answer numbers 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 and 9 and I would want Riley McAllister to be played by Jill Wagner and I would want Hayden Price to be pla..."

Congrats!

Thanks Leigh