Reader’s Group Guide: One Season of Sunshine

The book opens with Susanna’s wild ride and her devastating car crash. Discuss the author’s choice of this scene for the prologue. How does Susanna’s rather glorious death inform the rest of the book?

Jane is intent on finding her birth mother. Do you agree with her cousin Vickie that some things are best left unknown?

Jane has a fantastic, supportive family, a job, friends, and a great boyfriend. Why does she still feel incomplete? How would you fell in her situation—would you be content with the life you’d built, or would you need to know more about your past to inform your future?

Jane puts her life on hold to move to Cedar Springs, but once there, she is very slow to get started on researching her birth mother, and puts off her thesis entirely. Why is she stalling?

ONE SEASON OF SUNSHINE has a great cast of supporting characters such as Laru, the small-town busybody who knows everyone; Vickie, Jane’s outspoken cousin; Riley, Asher’s difficult but sweet preteen; and Levi, Asher’s precocious five-year-old son. Who was your favorite, and why?

Why does Jane feel a sense of peace in knowing her birth mother’s name and a tiny amount of her history? Did she find what she was looking for?

Jane says that Susanna helped bring her and Asher together. Do you believe in fate, or was that just a coincidence?

Why do you think the author chose the title, ONE SEASON OF SUNSHINE? What does it mean to you?