9. We are told that Annabelle and Oliver Higgins were formidable people, a power couple of sorts, deeply in love with one another and highly successful in their careers. All three of their daughters feel the urgent need to live up to the standards set by their parents as well as the need to make their parents proud. And all three girls dream of saving—rather, of failing to save and even accidentally killing—Annabelle and Oliver. Do you think there is an unhealthy element to Poppy, Daisy, and Violet’s attachment to Annabelle and Oliver’s memory? Do you think this element, healthy or not, might only have developed after the deaths, as a side effect or an expression of grief? Do you think such an attachment might be outgrown over time?
10. After the car accident in which her mother was killed and her father badly injured, Evie/Sophie’s mourning took the form of an absolute rejection of her father as innocent of her mother’s death. In other words, Dan Steuben became Evie/Sophie’s enemy, someone for whom she could feel no sympathy whatsoever. Gradually, over the course of the novel, we see Evie/Sophie begin to acknowledge her father’s suffering and to feel the smallest bit of sorrow for him. By the novel’s end, father and daughter are actively rebuilding their once close relationship. Talk about the chances of Dan and Evie/Sophie regaining the emotional closeness they once lost. Can they? Or will the new relationship be just that—entirely new? Do you believe that Evie/Sophie will occasionally be revisited by the anger she felt toward her father for his inability to face life as a parent after the accident? And will Dan ever get entirely past the guilt he feels for failing his daughter?
To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
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Copyright © 2015 by Elise Smith
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
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eISBN-13: 978-0-7582-7539-4
eISBN-10: 0-7582-7539-0
First Kensington Electronic Edition: July 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7582-7538-7
Summer with My Sisters Page 34
