Last Breath
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These questions can be used in a book club (a mother-daughter book club, a teen book club) or even as questions to use with friends also reading this book.

1. In the opening of the book, Shaley manages to keep herself together, even after all that’s happened to her in Always Watching. How do you think she’s finding the strength? When hard things happen to you, where do you find the strength to deal with everything?

2. Shaley hates and fears the paparazzi because of her experiences with them. Do you think she’s being weak in this fear, given the fact that paparazzi have been following the band for years?

3. Was Rayne right to do what she did when she saw Cat? What would you have done?

4. Brittany is the first person Shaley tells about what Jerry whispered in her ear before he died. Was Shaley right not to tell her mom or the police? Would you have told your best friend first?

5. In Chapter 9 Shaley thinks: For the first time it occurred to me that maybe some good could come out of this terrible accident. She and her mother may now be able to talk about Shaley’s father, instead of fighting. Have you ever seen good come out of a terrible situation? How long after the bad event did you realize good had resulted from it?

6. Was Rayne right to not tell Shaley everything about her father all these years? What would you have done?

7. What did the story about Rayne and Gary teach you about real love? What about the love between Gary and his grandmother?

8. If you were Shaley, would you have tried to get past the bodyguard to find Cat on your own? Would you have done it differently? How?

9. How hard of a time do you think Rayne had, trying to raise a baby at the age of 17 without a father?

10. What did you think of Franklin Borden as you read his chapters? What did you think he was planning to do?

11. In Chapter 42, Shaley’s father tells her: "People aren’t all black and white. We’re all shades of gray. Even a good person can make a mistake." Do you believe that? Why?

12. Throughout Always Watching and Last Breath, Shaley is slowly drawn closer to God. Yet while she is crying in the bathroom she thinks: I’m ready to give myself to you, God, but I’m not even sure how to start. At the end of the book she thinks: This is how it starts, isn’t it, God? With forgiveness. Do you agree with that? Is that true for everyone, or just for Shaley, because of her circumstances?

13. Moms: How would you advise your daughter to give herself to God?

14. What were your favorite parts in this story?

15. How is Shaley most like you? How is she different?

16. What do you think will happen between Rayne and Gary?