Celebrate Sisterhood by hosting a Promise Girls get together! Click below for your downloadable Book Club Party Guide, which includes activities, a menu and a suggested soundtrack – plus recipe cards for six of Marie Bostwick’s favorite drinks and dishes.
Suggested Soundtracks
Liebestraum #3, by Franz Listz, the familiar and fateful nocturne that young Joanie Promise plays in the opening scene of The Promise Girls. (Or, really, anything by Liszt because as Maestro Boehm, Joanie’s piano teacher, quite rightly points out – who doesn’t like Liszt?) Follow it up with the “Scarbo” movement of Maurice Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit, considered one of the world’s most challenging piano solos, a piece that altered the course of Joanie’s life.
If you’re looking something with a bit more of a beat, put on The Ramones and listen to Rockaway Beach, the song that was playing when Joanie first met Asher. Or maybe some Nirvana, Seattle’s most iconic band, fronted by the talented but tormented Kurt Cobain.
Suggested Activities
Since fostering personal creativity is one of the primary themes of The Promise Girls, consider holding your meeting at a local Paint ‘n Sip studio. Or host your own paint party at home. Put out some acrylic paint, colored pencils, or other art supplies and give each member his or her own piece of cardstock or canvas to create a personal masterpiece while discussing the book. (P.S. We don’t recommend letting your Paint Party turn into a Promise sisters-style paint war, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to put down some drop cloths. You know. Just in case.)
Suggested Menus
Book Club Coffee Klatch
Joanie’s Banana Bread
Fresh cherries and apple slices
Since Seattle is the home of Starbucks as well as Joanie, Meg, and Avery Promise, we suggest serving Starbucks Pike Place Roast coffee, or a pot of delicious, fragrant Cinnamon-Orange tea from Seattle’s MarketSpice Tea Company.
For those with an adventurous spirit and access to an espresso machine, get an assortment of flavored syrups, cover up the labels, and treat your guests to Mystery Mochas, like Avery did in The Promise Girls. (Fair Warning: As Avery discovered, Key Lime and Cinnamon syrups really don’t go together as well as you might think.)
Drinks and Small Bites
Seattle Sidecar
Tipsy Mermaid Mocktail
Smoked Salmon Spread
Seattle Style Mini Hot Dogs
Artisanal Cheese Tray
Dinner Menu
Joanie’s Famous Lasagna
Salad
Garlic Bread
Chocolate Mint Mini Cupcakes
(á la Cupcake Royale)
Serve with Washington state wines like Blackwood Canyon Vintners or Chateau St. Michelle Vineyard
Download your Party Kit here:
“Reading Marie Bostwick is like wrapping yourself up in a warm, hand-crafted quilt.” –Debbie Macomber, #1 New York Times bestselling author
In an emotionally rich and captivating new novel, New York Times bestselling author Marie Bostwick reunites three sisters whose deep bond is rooted in an unconventional past.
Every child prodigy grows up eventually. For the Promise sisters, escaping their mother’s narcissism and the notoriety that came with her bestselling book hasn’t been easy. Minerva Promise claimed that her three “test tube” daughters—gifted pianist Joanie, artistic Meg, and storyteller Avery—were engineered and molded to be geniuses. In adulthood, their modest lives fall far short of her grand ambitions. But now, twenty years after the book’s release, she hopes to redeem herself by taking part in a new documentary.
Meg, who hasn’t picked up a paintbrush in years, adamantly refuses to participate, until a car accident leaves her with crushing medical bills. While she recuperates in Seattle, the three sisters reluctantly meet with filmmaker Hal Seeger, another former prodigy. Like them, he’s familiar with the weight of failed potential. But as he digs deeper, he uncovers secrets they’ve hidden from each other—and a revelation that will challenge their beliefs, even as it spurs them to forge their own extraordinary lives at last.
Praise for Marie Bostwick and Her Novels
“A beautiful story about the ties that bind . . . Marie Bostwick exquisitely tells the tale.” –Melanie Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue
“Marie Bostwick is my go-to author . . . always powerful, inspiring, and uplifting.” –Robyn Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Beautiful, thought-provoking, tragic and redeeming, The Second Sister is a feel-good goldmine.” –USAToday.com
“Fans of Debbie Macomber and Robyn Carr will enjoy this warm, witty novel of rediscovery and personal growth.” —Booklist on The Second Sister
Florals? For Spring? Groundbreaking.