Lover’s Knot – Reading Guide
For a printable guide, click here
- Kendra and Isaac’s marriage is seriously tested after a random violent act. Can you imagine a situation in your own life when you would need to retreat as Kendra does to heal and reassess your life?
- Kendra restored the cabin of Isaac’s grandmother as a place to get away from the city. Despite never having known Leah Spurlock Jackson, she feels a kinship with her and this piece of land. Have you ever visited a place that felt like home, even though you had never been there before?
- Kendra has a special attachment to “friendship” or “signature” quilts because she can imagine the lives of the women who have created and signed them. Is there an heirloom in your own life that sets your imagination free this way?
- When Kendra leaves Isaac behind in Washington she isn’t sure that they will ever reunite. Could you understand her decision to leave anyway, or did you feel she should have stayed to work on their marriage?
- Would you be able to forgive a real life Isaac for his attention to work and his inattention to his wife? Even if you understood what drove him?
- Kendra is convinced that Isaac should confront the unknowns in his past to help him understand who he is. Isaac is less convinced. Do you think understanding your past can help you move into the future freely? Or was Isaac right in believing that his family’s past didn’t matter?
- The unfolding story of Leah and Jesse Spurlock is based on the real life eviction of nearly a thousand people from the area that is now the Shenandoah National Park in Central Virginia. What is your opinion about the use of eminent domain to remove people from their homes so that other people can use the land for recreational purposes? Did this move save the land even as it doomed many to the loss of community and livelihood?
- Leah Spurlock finds attention and comfort from the man who is in charge of evaluating the price of her land for the government. Was her reaction to him believable? Was it understandable in light of her husband’s depression and anger?
- Kendra and Isaac are unable to have children, but Isaac is unwilling to adopt since his own adoption, as an infant, created psychological scars. Are there other solutions that will help them create a family?
- When the book begins, Isaac is convinced that saving the environment is a matter of compromise and planning. By the time the book ends, Isaac is torn between logic and emotion over a project he has nearly seen to completion. Is his final decision about Pallatine Mountain one you would agree or disagree with?
