Karen Osborn

A story that takes place over a 50 year period. Rose Watson and sisters Lily and June, tell the story in alternating voices, along with daughter Silvia. Growing up in a poor family in Ash Brook, a mill town in South Carolina, we follow the lives of these 3 sisters and can see how different all are even though they were brought up in the same family. I was especially intrigued by June, who after the birth of her daughter, must have had post part depression and her husband had her committed for killing her baby, which she didn't do. What is odd, is June leaves 'the scene' for many years and when she comes back she doesn't remember being married and in fact states dating her ex-husband! Did she have shock treatments? For a first novel, this was surprisedly good and unpredictable.… (meer)

Karen Osborn takes a small, Jan Karon-style town, sets it in 1967, and has a vengeful ex-husband set off a bomb in the drugstore where his former wife works. Centerville is rapidly transformed from a quaint and quiet town to a devastated group of residents trying to understand how this could happen and figure out how to put their pieces back together. The story is told from the point of view of four survivors: the reverend who married the murderer and his wife years ago; the reverend's teenage daughter, who was almost in the drugstore at the time of the disaster; one of the victim's wives who now has three children to raise on her own; and a police officer who was at the scene of the tragedy. Lovers of realistic fiction will be pulled into this tiny town to experience the loss and confusion along with its residents. Osborn portrays the emotions surrounding this destructive event in a heartfelt and vivid style, while leaving room for the hope of regrowth and recovery.… (meer)