Reader's Guide to The Three Lives of Cate Kay

My Reader’s Guide to The Three Lives of Cate Kay discusses this January 2025 Reese’s Book Club pick that has been pitched as The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo meets First Lie Wins. What is this book about and will you like it? Let’s discuss. My Reader’s Guide to the Three Lives of Cate Kay has a character list, protected spoilers and a link to my book club discussion questions!

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Reader’s Guide to the Three Lives of Cate Kay

Jen’s Quick Take on The Three Lives of Cate Kay
Character List for The Three Lives of Cate Kay
Protected Spoilers for The Three Lives of Cate Kay
Link to my Book Club Questions for The Three Lives of Cate Kay

Jen’s Quick Take on The Three Lives of Cate Kay

Original photo of a copy of The Three Lives of Cate Kay on a bookshelf next to books and two heart mugs

The Three Lives of Cate Kay is part fictional coming-of-age story, part queer romance, part philosophical discussion on ambition vs loyalty
I see the comparison between the journey of Evelyn in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo to Cass’s journey in this story.
I don’t always love stories with many narrative POVs, but I thought they worked really well.
The Three Lives of Cate Kay IS a very discussable book, and I hope you’ll check out my Book Club Discussion Questions!
This is both a Reese’s Book Club Pick AND a Book of the Month pick!

Character List for The Three Lives of Cate Kay

Women typing on an old fashioned typewriter

Main Characters:

Anne Marie Callahan/Annie Callahan/Cass Ford/Cate Kay: title character who is a small town girl turned bestselling author (under a pseudonym)
Amanda Kent: Anne Marie’s best friend from the age of nine
Ryan “Ry” Channing: girl from Kansas who moves to LA and becomes a famous actor
Sidney Collins: Cass Ford’s lawyer and former girlfriend

Minor Characters:

Jake Fischer: reporter for Vanity Fair who decides to try to find out Cate’s identity
Kerri Kent: Amanda’s younger sister
Patricia Callahan: Anne Marie’s mother
Matt: Ry Channing’s agent
Janie: Ry Channing’s manager
Richard Riley: theater teacher at Amanda and Annie’s high school
Sarah: barista that Ry has a crush on
Brett Stephens: Plattsburgh cafe owner who gives Cass a job
Melody Huber: literary agent who finds The Very Last from the slush pile and then steals it when she gets fired
Janet: Amanda’s physical therapist

Characters from The Very Last:

Samantha Park: reporter in New York in the early 2000s
Jeremiah: Samantha’s best friend and fellow reporter
Persephone Park: Samantha’s daughter

Spoilers for The Three Lives of Cate Kay

SPOILERS BELOW! To protect readers who HATE being spoiled you will need to click on the blue “Show Me” box below and log in with a Grow account, Facebook, or Google. By doing so, you will be added to my email list and receive weekly updates about new books! For more information on why I protect my spoilers, please read this post! If you are having any issues check this tutorial OR leave a comment below as I want to help!

Anne Marie, then Annie, loves her best friend in a romantic way. But Amanda doesn’t feel the same
Though Annie loves Amanda, she sometimes feels overshadowed and dreams of what it would be like to live a different life, without her
One day, Amanda tries an old zip line at a dilapidated house on an island. It breaks and she falls into am empty swimming pool, badly injured.
A horrified Annie calls 911 but then gets into her car and leaves town forever
Annie meets a girl named Sidney in a writing class. They move to New York together. Annie tells Sid what happened with Amanda.
Sid investigates and finds out that Amanda is alive and paralyzed, but she tells Annie (now called Cass) that Amanda is dead.
Cass writes The Very Last, a book about two friends, Samantha and Jeremiah, in New York after a nuclear explosion. Samantha leaves an injured Jeremiah to continue her reporting.
An actor named Ryan Channing reads The Very Last and tries to arrange a meeting with Cate Kay.
A reporter named Jake Fischer is determined to discover Cate Kay’s identity.
Amanda is in physical therapy after her accident and her therapist is reading The Very Last. She gives it to Amanda, who instantly knows that Annie wrote it.
Cass/Cate visits Ryan in Los Angeles and they begin an intense affair. But then a reporter calls Cass, asking if she is Cate Kay and if she was involved in a death in her hometown.
A panicked Cass calls Sid for help. Sid sends her a car to whisk her to the airport and away from a devastated Ryan.
Cass then goes back to Ryan’s, but a woman named Sarah is there and Cass leaves again.
Ryan decides to come out publicly as a lesbian and asks Jake to write the story.
We learn that Sid is the one who asked Jake to call and threaten Cass with exposure.
Sid quits as Cass’s lawyer/manager and sends her all her papers (but doesn’t tell her that Amanda is alive!)
Amanda goes to meet Mr. Riley and he asks her for help with his production of Twelfth Night, the same play that Amanda and Annie starred in. Amanda also acknowledges that she had romantic feelings for Annie.
Cass goes through the box and realizes that she has a PO box for fan mail. She picks it up and finds letters from Amanda. She realizes that Amanda is not dead, but alive in Bolton Landing.
Cass drives to Bolton Landing see Amanda.
Janie tells Ryan where Cass is and Ryan goes to her. Finally, Cass and Ryan can be together!
A few months later, Cate Kay does a reading at the Strand in New York. Amanda, Jake, Ryan are all there.
Cate tells the audience that love is the only thing worth chasing.

My Book Club Discussion Questions for The Three Lives of Cate Kay

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You’ll get a two page full color book club discussion guide with fourteen thought-provoking questions!

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4 Comments

Karen

1 year ago

I seem to be reading a lot of *discussable* books lately. I’ve been calling them book club style books.

It’s weird, but they are not usually books I would read or enjoy but they work for me on audio so that’s what I’ve been veering towards. And I get the the ALC’s from Libro.fm – so there’s that lol

Author

Jen Ryland

Reply to Karen

Yep, that’s what I call them. Tell me which ones you’ve liked!

Chippy

so who does Annie end up with,, Ryan or Amanda?

Reply to Chippy

It’s in the post! Rhymes with lion.

Reader’s Guide to The Three Lives of Cate Kay