THE VINTAGE TEACUP CLUB

Vanessa Greene hosted her first tea party as an eight-year-old for a select gathering of stuffed bears. Since then she’s trawled antiques markets from Paris to Buenos Aires to build her teacup collection and feed her passion for all things vintage. She still loves an excuse to bring friends together, but nowadays her guests are less shy about trying the cake. Vanessa lives in London with her fiancé, James. The Vintage Teacup Club is her first novel.

Jenny, Maggie, and Alison meet at the beginning of the summer and bond over their shared love of a vintage tea set. Other than teacups, what brings the three women together and allows their friendship to blossom?

Each member of the Teacup Club is at a different stage in his or her life. What do you think the women gain from each other as a result of being in different places in life? And what role—if any—does timing play in a friendship forming? What role does timing play in one ending?

Mother-daughter relationships are a recurring theme in the book. Although Jenny is looking forward to her forthcoming wedding, she feels emptiness because of her estranged relationship with her mother. Meanwhile, teenage Sophie continues to rebel, causing Alison to feel that the daughter she knew is now gone. Discuss how complicated this relationship can be and the hold that mothers have on their daughters.

Aside from mother-daughter relationships, what are other recurring themes in this book? Discuss.

When Jenny is in her childhood bedroom, she finds sketches and pages of a book that she wrote when she was younger. While looking at the book she had hoped to see published one day, she realizes that she allowed the nagging voice of doubt to get in her way of pursuing a dream. Who else in the novel puts her dreams on hold or gets in her own way? What ultimately helps these same people to confidently move forward?

Maggie is stunned when she first sees an email from Dylan, but eventually replies and agrees to meet up with him. What do you think of their reunion—their initial meet-up and how things progress?

Ultimately, Maggie feels that she and Dylan have grown over their four years apart and that they now know what it takes to make their relationship work. In the meantime, we see Alison and Pete struggle a bit in their marriage—they each feel taken for granted. Finally, we see Ruby and Derek discuss the highs and lows of their years together. What do you think it seems to take to make a relationship work?

Jenny’s mother reaches out to her after walking out on the family two decades earlier. Consider both women, their varied perspectives, and discuss what is right or wrong in what she wants and in how she handles the situation.

Both Maggie and Jenny are forced to confront the past, when their ex-husband and mother, respectively, reenter their lives. When is it too little, too late? Is it ever too late to forgive and start over?

What character do you identify with the most? What friendships have you unexpectedly formed and what allowed the friendship to form?