Reckonings : A Survivor's Raw and Riveting Story of Family Secrets, Marriage in Crisis, and Unstoppable Female Courage

"A vibrant, superbly written tale. It''s a fast-paced, tightly knit, family drama with a female protagonist at the heart who, despite painful adolescence memories and present financial and personal hardship, has the courage and tenacity to confront her life''s challenges head on." -Helen Trepelkov, author of Post Graduate Studies in Motherhood

"With its fast pace, well-developed characters and plot twists and turns, Reckonings is a story you won''t soon forget." -Gail Olmstead, author of Landscape of a Marriage

For all her adult life, Roxy suppressed the impact of two traumatic events-being abandoned by her mother at the age of twelve and being raped by her boyfriend, Spider, at eighteen. She never told anyone but her best friend about the rape. Though happily married to Carl, they both long to be out from under the thumb of Carl''s domineering father, for whom they both work. And she''s convinced that her first play-being staged at the community theater with her movie-star friend from high school in the lead role-is the ticket to that better life.

But now Spider is back, a successful land developer with a proposal to revitalize the town and solve the theater''s financial woes. When he takes an interest in Jewel, Roxy''s eldest daughter whose paternity she''s not entirely sure of, and engineers a big win for Carl in a private poker game, Roxy knows he''s up to his old tricks. She''s determined to expose him before he can harm her family or her beloved theater.

Karen E. Osborne traces the treacherous path between good intentions and poor decisions rooted in the shame of toxic secrets.