A Love Song for Ricki Wilde: Full-Book Quiz
About This Quiz
This 20-question quiz covers the entire span of A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams. Questions are divided into four sections: Plot & Sequence, Character Motivation, Theme & Symbol, and Synthesis. Each question uses either multiple-choice or short-answer format. An answer key with brief explanations follows the quiz.
Section 1: Plot & Sequence (8 Questions)
1. What rare calendar event does the prologue establish as a time when the veil between worlds grows thin?
- A) A solar eclipse
- B) A blood moon
- C) Leap Day (February 29)
- D) The winter solstice
2. Where does Ricki first see the mysterious man who later reveals himself as Ezra?
- A) At the Flower District
- B) At the community garden, near the Eden Lounge plaque
- C) At Ms. Della’s brownstone
- D) At the Wilde family Sunday dinner
3. Who buys Ricki’s portrait at the community art party, becoming her “Mysterious Benefactor”?
- A) Tuesday Rowe
- B) Ms. Della
- C) A cryptic woman claiming to act for a philanthropist boss
- D) Ezra in disguise
4. What action causes Ricki’s flower shop to go viral and attract new customers?
- A) A celebrity endorsement on social media
- B) Leaving unsold bouquets at historic speakeasy sites and posting photos
- C) Running a half-off sale for Valentine’s Day
- D) Being featured in a Harlem magazine
5. (Short answer) What full name does the mysterious man from the garden reveal to Ricki during their conversation in Chapter 7?
Write your answer in one sentence.
6. How does Felice Fabienne die after cursing Breeze Walker?
- A) She is poisoned by a rival dancer
- B) She jumps from a roof
- C) She is shot during a speakeasy raid
- D) She dies in a fire
7. How does Ms. Della sacrifice herself to break the curse?
- A) She jumps from the same roof as Felice
- B) She takes a lethal dose of morphine
- C) She drinks poison at midnight
- D) She walks into the East River
8. On what date does the epilogue take place?
- A) February 29, 2036
- B) February 29, 2040
- C) February 28, 2028
- D) March 1, 2032
Section 2: Character Motivation (5 Questions)
9. Why does Ricki accept Ms. Della’s offer of the ground-floor space in her Harlem brownstone?
- A) She wants to escape her failing relationship with Ali
- B) She feels an immediate, fateful connection to the offer
- C) Her father forces her to leave the family business
- D) She inherits the building from a distant relative
10. Why does Ezra refuse to visit Ricki’s flower shop on Wilde Things’ street?
- A) He is allergic to flowers
- B) That street is linked to a traumatic event in his past
- C) He is too busy composing music for Juilliard
- D) He wants to protect Ricki by staying away from her business
11. Why does Ricki join the UniverSoul Circus at age sixteen?
- A) She wants to become a professional performer
- B) She runs away with the tightrope walker she fell in love with
- C) Her parents send her to work there as punishment
- D) She needs money to support her flower hobby
12. (Short answer) What demand does Felice make that Breeze refuses, leading her to curse him with immortality?
Write your answer in one sentence.
13. Why does Ms. Della keep her terminal lung cancer diagnosis a secret from Ricki and others?
- A) She is in denial about her condition
- B) She does not want to burden the people she loves
- C) She plans to use the diagnosis to manipulate the curse
- D) She is seeking experimental treatments in private
Section 3: Theme & Symbol (4 Questions)
14. What does the night-blooming jasmine represent throughout the novel?
- A) Wealth and social status
- B) The fated, mysterious connection between Ricki and Ezra
- C) The Harlem Renaissance music scene
- D) Ricki’s career as a florist
15. Which theme does Ms. Della’s character primarily embody?
- A) The destructive power of secrets
- B) Selfless love, chosen family, and legacy
- C) The impossibility of escaping one’s past
- D) The importance of wealth and reputation
16. (Short answer) In Chapter 12, Ricki proposes a “gentleman’s agreement”: one perfect day together before Ezra reveals his secret. What does this agreement represent about their approach to love and fate?
Write your answer in one to two sentences.
17. In the Author Q&A, Tia Williams reveals that the core idea for A Love Song for Ricki Wilde first came to her during what experience?
- A) A visit to a historic Harlem brownstone
- B) A bout of insomnia
- C) A research trip to the Schomburg Center
- D) A conversation with a former beauty editor
Section 4: Synthesis (3 Questions)
18. Which character’s actions best embody the idea from Ms. Della’s final note that “love should never hurt”?
- A) Felice Fabienne, who curses Breeze out of spite
- B) Carole Wilde, who tries to shape Ricki into being “easier to love”
- C) Ms. Della, who sacrifices herself to save Ricki and Ezra
- D) The mysterious benefactor, who supports artists anonymously
19. (Short answer) How does Ricki’s confrontation with her sisters in Chapter 21 mark a turning point in her personal growth?
Write your answer in two to three sentences.
20. The prologue offers two interpretations of Ricki and Ezra’s story: wondrous magic or a tall tale. Which character’s sacrifice most strongly supports the “wondrous magic” interpretation, and why?
- A) Felice’s curse, because it has lasted nearly a century
- B) Ezra’s immortality, because it defies natural law
- C) Ms. Della’s suicide at midnight on Leap Day, because it breaks the curse
- D) Ricki’s decision to open Wilde Things, because it fulfills her dream
Answer Key
Section 1: Plot & Sequence
1. C) Leap Day (February 29). The prologue explains that leap years—and especially February 29—are rare, charged times when the veil between worlds grows thin, setting the magical tone for the story.
2. B) At the community garden, near the Eden Lounge plaque. In Chapter 2, Ricki visits the garden, smells night-blooming jasmine out of season, and encounters a terrified-looking man who then vanishes.
3. C) A cryptic woman claiming to act for a philanthropist boss. At the community art party in Chapter 4, the woman buys Ricki’s portrait for $5,000 and leaves a phone number, becoming the “Mysterious Benefactor.”
4. B) Leaving unsold bouquets at historic speakeasy sites and posting photos. In Chapter 8, Ricki leaves a bouquet at the former Nest speakeasy (now a health center) and posts a photo with #WildeThings, which goes viral.
5. Ezra Vaughn Percival Walker. In Chapter 7, the man from the garden tells Ricki his full name during their conversation at the community garden.
6. B) She jumps from a roof. In Chapter 15, after Breeze refuses to marry her, Felice jumps from the roof of the building, cursing him with immortality as she dies.
7. B) She takes a lethal dose of morphine. In Chapter 23, the nurse Naaz reveals that Ms. Della took half a bottle of morphine just before midnight, sacrificing herself to break Felice’s curse.
8. A) February 29, 2036. The epilogue is set on Leap Day twelve years after the main events, showing Ricki and Ezra flourishing with their family.
Section 2: Character Motivation
9. B) She feels an immediate, fateful connection to the offer. In Chapter 1, when Ms. Della offers the boarded-up space, Ricki feels a powerful sense of destiny and accepts on the spot.
10. B) That street is linked to a traumatic event in his past. In Chapter 11, Ezra’s life coach pushes him to confront why he refuses to visit Wilde Things, hinting that something terrible happened on that street.
11. B) She runs away with the tightrope walker she fell in love with. In Chapter 7, Ricki tells Tuesday that at sixteen she fell for an eighteen-year-old tightrope walker and joined the circus with him rather than be sent away.
12. Felice demands that Breeze marry her and return to Louisiana. In Chapter 15, when Breeze refuses to go back South, Felice becomes enraged and curses him with immortality and the death of his true love.
13. B) She does not want to burden the people she loves. In Chapter 14, Ms. Della reflects on her terminal diagnosis and resolves to keep it secret to avoid causing worry, wanting her loved ones to remember her strong.
Section 3: Theme & Symbol
14. B) The fated, mysterious connection between Ricki and Ezra. Night-blooming jasmine appears at pivotal moments—blooming out of season in the garden where they first meet, and later in the epilogue as Ms. Della’s spirit sends its scent on a breeze.
15. B) Selfless love, chosen family, and legacy. Ms. Della supports Ricki unconditionally, becomes a grandmother figure, and ultimately gives her life to save the couple, embodying the novel’s core themes.
16. The agreement represents Ricki and Ezra’s choice to embrace joy and live fully in the moment, even while knowing that a painful truth awaits them. It shows their willingness to prioritize love over fear.
17. B) A bout of insomnia. In the Author Q&A (Chapter 28), Tia Williams states that the plot arrived in her mind during insomnia, with core elements of a cursed musician, a florist, and a Harlem brownstone.
Section 4: Synthesis
18. C) Ms. Della, who sacrifices herself to save Ricki and Ezra. Her final note explicitly states that love itself should never hurt—only rejection, abandonment, and cruelty do. Her sacrifice is an act of pure, selfless love.
19. Ricki finally confronts her sisters instead of seeking their approval, kicking them out of her home and declaring she is proud of the beauty she has created. This moment shows she has stopped measuring herself by their standards and has embraced her own identity and choices.
20. C) Ms. Della’s suicide at midnight on Leap Day, because it breaks the curse. Her death at the exact moment the curse would have killed Ricki, combined with her deliberate timing and the note she leaves, strongly suggests that supernatural forces are real—not merely a tall tale.
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