May All Your Skies Be Blue
Title: May All Your Skies Be Blue
Author: Fíona Scarlett
Published: February 2025
He’s leaning in. I’m leaning in. ‘The future is ours to make, Shauns,’ he says, lips almost touching.
Summer, 1991.
Dean: sun-stung and sticky with cool ice-pop juice, walks to the middle of The Green to get a good gawk at the new salon. And at the owner’s kid. Hands deep in his pockets, his jet-black mop of hair hides the tension in his face at the thought of going back home.
Shauna: stands well hid behind her ma – her eyes dark and haunted like the rest of her. The salon is theirs, a fresh start. The smell of her ma’s Body Shop perfume clings to her jumper – Shauna can’t be anywhere else other than here.
Instantly inseparable, their friendship blooms. But as time passes and tell-tale blushes and school fights develop into something deeper, conflicting responsibilities threaten to pull Shauna and Dean apart.
When all seems lost, will they find each other under the same blue sky?
“She make herself a coffee. Gets into one of the chairs. Leans right back into it. Closes her eyes, and lets herself remember him. And them. What they had. She’ll let him in a little. Just for today.”
How does the title May All Your Skies Be Blue shape your expectations for the story, and what do you think Scarlett was trying to say by choosing this Irish blessing as the novel’s name?
Ireland is more than just a backdrop in this story. How did the setting and Irish cultural references influence your reading experience, and what moments felt distinctly shaped by place and tradition?
Dean’s home life, particularly the impact of alcoholism, plays a big role in shaping his identity. How does Scarlett explore the lasting effects of childhood trauma and emotional responsibility?
Alcoholism is a quiet but powerful force in the novel. How did you see its effects play out across the characters’ lives, and what do you think Scarlett was saying about generational trauma and the silence that often surrounds addiction?
Scarlett often uses silence to say the unspeakable. How did moments of emotional withdrawal or things left unsaid deepen your understanding of the characters and their inner worlds?
The novel jumps between past and present — how did the shifting timelines affect your sense of who these characters are, and did it help you connect more deeply to their emotional journeys?
How does the depiction of Maggie’s dementia affect your reading of Shauna's present-day choices and her emotional state, especially as Maggie’s dementia began to erase their shared history?
Did you find Shauna’s big decision to stay to be justified? Would you have made the same choice or do you think she should’ve chosen differently?
Memory plays a huge role in this book — both the memories we cling to and the ones we try to forget. Did you find yourself questioning what was real versus what was remembered and how did this effect your reading?
There’s a quiet sense of searching that runs through Shauna’s life — for home, for peace, for someone who understands her. What does ‘home’ seem to mean to her, and did that idea shift over the course of the novel?
This is a novel steeped in ‘what ifs’ and near-misses. Do you believe Shauna and Dean were always destined to be together or was their love something fleeting, meant only for a moment in time?
Forgiveness is never simple in this story — for others or for ourselves. Did you feel like Shauna and Dean found any kind of closure, or was this more a story of learning to live with open wounds?
What kind of emotional space did this book leave you in? Were there lines, scenes, or characters that lingered with you — or made you see something in your own life a little differently?
What did the title May All Your Skies Be Blue come to mean to you by the end of the book? Did it carry a different emotional weight than when you first picked up the novel?
