The Lavender Garden, Lucinda Riley

The Lavender Garden

By Lucinda Riley

(Tansley Reads Rating: 73%)

 

Icebreaker

 

Which of your own personal characteristics would make you a good spy?

 

Questions

 

1.  Do you think Emilie should have decided to sell the chateau?  Why or why not?

 

2.  Do you think Sebastian married Emilie just to get his hands on the rare book or were there other reasons?

                     

3.  On page 163 Alex delivers an accurate, but too honest, evaluation of Emilie’s character and she reacts badly.  Why did Emilie react the way she did and how did that impact the relationship between them?

 

4. Alex and Sophia have a disability, each in their different time periods, would their lives have been different if they had lived in the opposite time period, and if so, how?

 

5. What are the similarities and differences in the relationships between Sebastian and Alex and Frederik and Falk?

 

6.  Why didn’t Edouard make use of Connie’s ability and training as a spy while she was in his house?

                     

7.  Other than saving Edouard’s life, what was the importance of Venetia in the story?

 

8.  Discuss the progression of Emilie’s character over the course of the book and the possible reasons why she says she feels she has “grown up” by the end of the story.

 

9.  Do you think that Jacques made the right decision in concealing “Victoria’s” de la Martinieres heritage?

 

10. Why do you think Connie and Jacques were able to forgive Frederik for his Nazi connections, but Eduoard was not?  If you were in Connie’s place would you have been able to do the same?

                     

11.  The Lavender Garden was published in the UK as The Light Behind the Window.  Which title do you think is more descriptive of the novel and why?

 

12.  Quick round: What did you think of the book? Is there anything you want to discuss that we missed?