Be More Octopus Book Club Questions

Be More Octopus won the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Debut Romantic Novel Award in 2024, It’s the first in the Dashford Comedies series of rom coms, and readers recommend it as an excellent book club pick. Here are ten questions to help your group explore Em’s journey, Jack’s past and everything that “be more octopus” comes to mean by the end of the story.

Not read Be More Octopus yet? Click on the book cover to find out more about the book and where you can buy it.

Discussion questions

1. What did you think of Em and Lucy’s “be more octopus” advice? Why do you think the author chose it as the title? Now you’ve read the book, what has that phrase come to mean to you?
2. Em successfully swaps her call centre job for a fresh start on the North Devon coast. Have you ever made a similarly drastic change after a major life event? Did it work out?
3. When Jack arrives in Dashford, Em is curious why he’s staying for the whole of the summer. How did the pacing of learning his backstory affect your sympathy for him?  Would you have liked to know sooner, or did the slow reveal keep your interest
4. Be More Octopus is a friends-to-lovers story where Em and Jack’s connection builds gradually. Did you believe the chemistry, and where did it click for you?
5. Lucy is the friend who tells Em hard truths. Do you think her advice to Em was useful?
6. Em moves back in with her dad after the breakup. How did her family relationships shape her confidence (or lack of it) through the book, and her romantic relationship with Jack?
7. The book is described as heartfelt but laugh-out-loud funny. Did the humour ever undercut the emotional weight of what Em was going through, or did it make the harder moments land better?
8. Dashford-on-Sea is a fictional town. How important was the sense of place to your enjoyment of the book?
9. By the final scenes, Em has rebuilt her life on her own terms before she and Jack get together. Why do you think the author chose to have Em find herself first, rather than have Jack “rescue” her?
10. If you’ve read Book 2, Be More Lucy, how did reading Lucy’s story change how you look back on her role in this book?