About the book

When her ten-year marriage to Alistair ends with his infidelity, Kate Easton vows she will not make the same mistake twice. She will never put herself – or her two children – through a relationship again. Then Alistair announces that his new wife is pregnant and he intends to cut his financial support to Kate. To keep her home she must divide it up and make way for a lodger. Enter Davis Calder, a glamorous and charismatic tutor with a failed marriage of his own behind him. He soon becomes a close friend to Kate, someone she can turn to in her difficulties with her unpredictable teenage daughter Roxy. Before she can stop herself Kate has fallen in love, broken her vow and accepted Davis’s proposal of marriage. At last, it seems, she has the happy ending she deserves. Until, just days after returning from her honeymoon, she makes a discovery about her new husband that changes everything.

Some starting points for your discussion:

1. The Second Husband has been described as ‘scandalous’ and ‘shocking’ and the author herself calls it ‘a sad story’? How would you describe it?
2. How do you feel about 39-year-old Kate’s ‘golden vow’ that she will never fall in love again? Does it affect the decisions she makes as a parent?
3. How do you react to the character of Roxy? Does the author make it easy to feel any sympathy for her?
4. What is it about Davis Calder that has such a powerful effect on the Easton family? Are his charms convincingly drawn?
5. Why has the author chosen to use the first-person narrative? Are there any occasions when we are allowed inside the minds of other characters?
6. Much of the first half of the book takes place in one location: the family flat at Francombe Gardens. Does this have an effect on the atmosphere of the book and does this mood change when the author moves the action to France?
7. What do you make of the female relationships in the story: Kate and her sister Tash; Kate and her ‘replacement’ Victoria; Kate and Davis’s first wife Camilla; Kate and her friend Abi?
8. Kate’s rapprochement with Alistair is one of the sweeter moments in a bitter-sweet story. How does she come to understand better her feelings for her first husband?
9. Readers have remarked that the final scene between mother and daughter makes them cry. How did you respond to it?
10. Is Davis Calder’s situation as the book closes satisfying for the reader? Does the author go far enough in ensuring that he gets his just deserts?