Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. Discuss your overall impressions of The Good Girl Effect. What were your favorite or least favorite aspects of the book, and why?

2. If you’ve read Cate’s Salacious Players’ Club series, how did your experience of The Good Girl Effect compare? What ideas or stylistic elements connect this title to titles like Praise (2022), Highest Bidder (2023), or Madame (2023)?

3. Compare The Good Girl Effect to other dark romance or BDSM-inspired novels. For instance, how does Cate’s novel handle themes of sex, bondage, and intimacy in comparison to Ali Hazelwood’s Deep End (2025) or K. A. Knight’s Den of Vipers (2020)?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. Did Camille Aubert’s original trip to Paris surprise you? Have you ever made a similarly impulsive decision that led you down an unexpected life path? How did your experience compare to Camille’s?

2. Camille and Jack St. Claire’s emotional, vocational, and sexual relationships toy with power dynamics. Which aspects of their complex affair were least or most believable? How do your own romantic experiences inform your opinions of their dynamic?

3. Jack hesitates to get involved with or fully commit to Camille because of his late wife. Have you ever dated someone who has been similarly caught up on an ex or late partner? How did you handle the situation, as compared to Camille?

4. Camille enters a brand new family and home life when she moves to Paris. Have you ever entered an unfamiliar setting like this one? What did you do to find belonging here?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. The novel presents shibari and BDSM as pleasurable pastimes for consenting adults. Explore how Cate’s representations of kink relate to contemporary discussions of gender stereotypes and sexual abuse. Does Cate create a clear distinction between kink and abuse? Why or why not?

2. Camille and Jack create a new family structure together. Explore how their new family fits into contemporary discussions about found families. What does their dynamic give them that their biological family hasn’t or couldn’t? What is Cate’s overall commentary on family?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. Discuss how the novel’s use of point of view relates to its overarching conflicts, stakes, and themes. How do Camille’s and Jack’s perspectives play off one another? How would the novel resonate differently if written from an alternate point of view?

2. Compare and contrast Camille’s and Emmaline (Em) Rochefort’s characters. What is the significance of their differences and similarities to Jack’s healing process?

3. Explore how the novel’s settings relate to the novel’s overarching mood. How do the characters respond to settings like Paris and Giverny, or the apartment and the club?

4. Did you notice any symbols not identified in this guide? For example, what might Camille’s doodles, the Legacy club, or Jack’s ring signify, and how do they advance the novel’s explorations of loss, intimacy, or healing?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. Imagine you are adapting The Good Girl Effect into a film. Whom would you cast in the leading roles? Which songs would you include on the soundtrack? Which plot points would you add, omit, or alter to make the adaptation your own?

2. Imagine an alternate ending to the novel. How do you imagine Camille and Jack’s story would change if Jack were to follow through on his plans to leave Paris? Would Camille follow him to California? Would they date long-distance? Would Bea want to stay with Camille? Consider how setting plays into the characters’ senses of comfort, belonging, and self.