Book Club- The Housemaid
Book club is an excuse to gather your friends and yap over a book you all read together, eat snacks and sip on drinks 📖 Monthly or bi-monthly one person from the group picks the book for everyone to read and sets a date to get together to discuss the book. The host has out snacks, drinks and discussion questions for the group to answer. It’s a great motivation to read and discover new book genres you might like. This is your sign to start a book club with your friends or join one to meet new people! 📕
I have always HATED reading. I haven’t picked up a book since high school and even then I never got into a story enough to actually read & enjoy it. Until book club- this has truly motivated me to read because although I didn’t love reading, I LOVED to hang out with my girl friends. This was the perfect excuse to get into reading and throw cutie themed parties based on the book choice of the month. We really don’t have any rules for book club- anyone new can join at any time, if you can’t read a book one month no problem, if you want to attend the get together but haven’t read the entire book you are more than welcome to join! We wanted book club to be welcoming and lax without the complicated rules that came from reading in school days.
I choose a thriller for my month so naturally I picked The Housemaid by Freida McFadden. This was my very first Freida book and it has me HOOKED on this author 📖 She is easy to binge read, goes back and forth between character perspectives and keeps you guessing till the very end! You can also take a lot of ideas out of this book and bring them into your book club meeting which is fun. You’ll get lots of ideas in this blog post to host your own. This book was 5/5 and you won’t find any spoilers below.
Peep the food cards I made as they all are references to food made in the book or my own twist on themes in the story ;)
This bloom bar was a fun interactive aspect to the book club meeting where the girls could make their own bouquets. You can easily buy flowers at Trader Joe’s for under $20! Get everything you need to make this on my amazon storefront.
Book Club food:
I wanted the food to reflect food that was eaten in the book but add my own little twist to it. Below you fill find the food references and all the easy to make recipes so you can easily make these yourself for book club or really any time you host people over!
Blueberry goat cheese flatbread- this was in reference to the PTA meeting Nina had in the backyard. Millie was in charge of bringing out the oeuvres and brought out a blueberry flatbread. I added my own twist to it with the lemon zest, arugula and honey drizzle. This is a great sharing appetizer! You can always add on some crushed nuts too after it bakes.
Charcuterie flower pots- there was lots of reference to Enzo’s gardening in this book so I had to incorporate that into the food. What better way than to display cheese & charcuterie in cute little flower pots. These are really easy to make and you can add in anything you’d like! Find the full recipe to make these here.
Boursin cheese steak bites with chimichurri sauce- Millie often cooked steak for dinner in the book and was one of Andrew’s favorite meals she made! I elevated these a bit by adding Boursin cheese on crostini and the steak on top with the homemade chimichurri sauce. These were a HUGE hit at the party and really easy to prepare a lot of them at once.
Mac and cheese with dinosaur nuggets- I made my cheesy mac and cheese recipe with some dinosaur nuggets in reference to what Cece liked to eat for dinner every night. I know she liked microwavable dinosaur chicken nuggets but I put mine in the oven instead lol. I served the mac and cheese in champagne coupe glasses & added a dino nugget on top of each, which was a really fun touch!
Below you will find an editable invitation to make hosting this book club party that much easier! Simply add in your party details and send out the invitations to friends.
You will notice that I asked everyone to wear white as that held significance in the book 🤍
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden book club discussion Questions:
I like to start the book club discussion with general thoughts on the book and for the girls to engage in their thoughts, wonderings or something that surprised them to spark authentic conversation.
Then I lead into questions which I will write the ones I asked below:
If you were Millie, would you have accepted the job after seeing the bedroom in the attic? At what point would you have quit?
Would you have wanted to read Andrew’s perspective? What would you have wanted to hear from him?
What are your first impressions of Enzo?
What plot twist surprised you the most?
What ‘red flags’ did Millie ignore?
What did you think about the change in perspective in the story?
Any predictions for the next book?
What was a moment where you felt conflicted about a characters action or decision?
What does this book depict about power vs vunerability?
The signature drink that I created for this book club was a spicy rose spritz! Fabulous spring and summer drink to serve up! The girls loved making this and they could add in as much or as little spice as they would like.
Water bottles in 3’s- this is a reference straight out of the book IYKYK 😉
This is perfect for any book club party- just rip pages out of a very old book (I thrifted mine) and attach fishing line with tape. Affix on the ceiling with white or clear painters tape they will stay up all party long.
shop dinner party
Cece’s dinosaur nuggets- I promise I did not microwave these like the book mentions. I also served them up with mac n cheese served in champagne flutes for a little fancy touch!