Chasing Serenity

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Kristen Ashley….
From a very young age, Chloe Pierce was trained to look after the ones she loved.
And she was trained by the best.
But when the man who looked after her was no longer there, Chloe is cast adrift—just as the very foundation of her life crumbled to pieces.
Then she runs into tall, lanky, unpretentious Judge Oakley, her exact opposite. She shops. He hikes. She drinks pink ladies. He drinks beer. She’s a city girl. He’s a mountain guy.
Obviously, this means they have a blowout fight upon meeting. Their second encounter doesn’t go a lot better.
Judge is loving the challenge. Chloe is everything he doesn’t want in a woman, but he can’t stop finding ways to spend time with her. He knows she’s dealing with loss and change.
He just doesn’t know how deep that goes. Or how ingrained it is for Chloe to care for those who have a place in her heart, how hard it will be to trust anyone to look after her…
And how much harder it is when it’s his turn.

This discussion guide and recommended reading was shared and sponsored in partnership with Author Buzz.

Book club questions for Chasing Serenity by Kristen Ashley

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

Divorce is now commonly accepted in many societies. As such, was it a surprise to you the differing nuances of the fallout for the children of divorced parents, even if those children are adults, and the split was for the most part amicable and functional when it came to the Pierce-Swans? Or the prolonged fallout when the divorce was not amicable, and the child was young, when it came to the Oakleys?

Further, what were your thoughts around the fact that the parents understood on some level there was fallout but did not actively press assisting their offspring to directly deal with these issues? Do you think they should be treating them as adults and letting them find their own way, as Genny and Tom are doing? Or interceding so they didn’t have to deal at all, like Jamie did? Or should they be more forcefully intervening?

What were your thoughts about Chloe’s reaction to Genny’s inability to forgive Tom’s betrayal and preserve their marriage? Did you feel Chloe was being too hard on her mother?

And as Chloe ruminated about some of her parents’ marital history, did you feel there might have been things Genny missed that led to the disintegration of her closeness to her husband—not in the sense she held any responsibility for the ultimate betrayal—but perhaps bore some shared responsibility for the failure of their marriage?

Hounded by the media throughout his divorce, Jameson Oakley sought to shield his son from that and eventually made a judgment call on how best to protect him. What did you think about this decision? What were your thoughts as it came back to haunt him? How did you feel about the Judge's acceptance of it?

At first glance, Belinda Oakley appears to be an almost villain in this novel. But addiction is an illness, and for Belinda, it not only went untreated, after Jameson felt the need to give up on her once she’d betrayed their marriage to that compulsion, no one in her life, including her parents, made much effort to press her to seek help.

Do you think Belinda would have eventually benefitted from some love and intervention? Do you feel she was lost to the machinations of powerful men and the recriminations of a disapproving father? Do you feel her father’s attitudes, and perhaps Jamie’s ambitions, may have had some effect on how quickly she became unanchored after high school? And do you think it’s a child’s responsibility, when they reach adulthood, to press a parent to recovery?

Or is there a point of no return for a person struggling with addiction who shows no willingness to seek help where those around them must break ties for their own emotional health? Or even, do you feel it is not anyone’s responsibility, but this is solely owned by the person who is struggling?

It is distinctly the author’s opinion that we all should be socially responsible, but in this book, she makes clear that those of privilege should understand that and consciously work at leveling the playing field. What did you think about Chloe’s Fabulous Foot Forward program? Judge’s determination to make a career in mutual aid? Hale’s crusade to use the wealth and power his father left him for good? Was this believable? Are they doing enough? Is it your opinion they’re focusing on the right things? If not, what should they be focusing on or do you think this is their responsibility at all?

Sizeism and ageism are issues. It can be argued that ridiculing and discriminating on the basis of weight and age are still socially acceptable to many. In fact, a large number of people feel it is not objectionable in the slightest to openly share their derogation of people, especially women, who are considered overweight.

How did you feel when you read the description of the clientele Chloe caters to in Velvet and her opinions about why she does? When shopping, have you experienced some of the things that Chloe’s patron mentioned? Or have you never thought of this? No matter your age or size, would you welcome and patronize a store like Velvet?

AJ Oakley is the villain in this book, however, he is also an example of a character who was, and sometimes still is, admired and even revered as a traditional model of the esteemed masculine traits of being straight-speaking, aggressive, wealthy, philandering and unapologetic. What are your thoughts on that?

Did you think Chloe should so easily forgive Sasha?

Chasing Serenity Book Club Questions PDF

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