Reviews and comments by readers of One Sister's Song :

Reader Review July 2006

I found One Sister's Song to be a very personal journey through life lessons that could happen to anyone. While I have never experienced the same emotional trials, nor any racial discrimination, I thought I had some notion of what it would be like. I was wrong. I learned so much from Audrey's perspective. Through her dreams and research I feel enriched by UGRR [Underground Railroad] history. Her story grabbed me from the start, and while I found myself worrying on her behalf for much of the book, I am very proud of her in the end. I will be thinking about Audrey for a long time. I'd love to read another Song!

Anastasia K. Cunniff, West Grove PA

-Honorable Mention of a Denver Writer
The Urban Spectrum gives Karen DeGroot Carter an Honorable Mention for her book One Sister’s Song (Pearl Street Publishing) which addresses the issue of bi-racial love and facilitates cultural healing. Carter’s work reaches out to communities of color in a fashion that supports continued understanding and respect for diversity across barriers of culture, race, and gender.

-POD-dy Mouth at girlondemand.blogspot.com review :
Click What is it like to be a biracial person in a world that is almost always black or white and nothing in between? ...Karen DeGroot Carter addresses this idea in her melodic novel,...

February 2006 review by R.J. Minnick, Nashville of Nashville

Carter’s One Sister’s Song is a clear-headed, multi-sided look at a complex situation that hasn’t found resolution in hundreds of years of history. What world(s) do people live in when they come from more than one racial or ethnic background? Who wants them? Who claims them? Where do they want to be? How do they choose?

Carter, who knows some of these issues first-hand, is sensitive to the fact that everyone involved in an interracial situation has their own image of how things are and how they should be. She also knows that lives are lived on private terms, sometimes raggedly, sometimes nobly. Her characters are not socio-political representations, but they are real people, right down to their inconsistent and sometimes bumbling ways.

Audrey acts impulsively; Julian zooms from gloom to exuberance and back again. Boyfriends past and present act like clods; some people are just unthinking. Some are just plain mean. Behind it all hovers the spirit of Audrey’s sister Laura and the way she viewed the world. Audrey’s coming to grips with this, finding her own way, is the heart of the story.

Refreshing, engaging, thought-provoking, and real. One Sister’s Song is all of these.

R.J. Minnick, Nashville
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November 2005 review of One Sister’s Song and author visit from Denver-area book club:

“One Sister’s Song” is a thought-provoking novel that addresses issues such as race relations and single parenting – issues all too common in today’s society. Karen did a wonderful job developing the characters and the story flowed smoothly. We finished the book not only feeling entertained, but also feeling that we’d learned something. Words our group used to describe the book include delightful, impressive, and engaging. 

Karen’s visit with our group was even more enjoyable than the book. One of our members summarized it perfectly when she said, “Sitting down and talking with the author of a book is truly priceless. Isn’t this what every reader would love to do? Karen brought a completely unique experience to our book club, one that we will always treasure.”

Donna Stuedeman

Lone Tree, CO 

April 2005 Review: ‘One Sister’s Song’ weaves ideas about race, family, history, society 
Sonya Ellingboe, The Highlands Ranch Herald    

Lone Tree writer Karen DeGroot Carter’s first novel, “One Sister’s Song,” is a story about bi-racial Audrey Conarroe, who must care for her nephew Julian when her sister dies in an accident. The father left town before the boy was born. She is unhappy about leaving a good job to return to her home town, and is overwhelmed by caring for a grieving adolescent and an old house that needs repair. Then a man she knew from high school enters her life.

DeGroot’s (sic) story weaves ideas about race, family dynamics, history and society. Her own experience in a biracial marriage lends a perspective and depth as she raises her own three children. She’s been there and offers a look at issues all families face, with an extra dimension.

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“The pain, the growth, the lessons that come with interracial exchange take us deep into a world that many would like to reject and erase. In One Sister’s Song, we understand that love has no limits and things such as race become unimportant when the heart leads. This book is a melodic read packed with intense human interaction, love, understanding and real lessons.

“…a deliciously perfect escape.”

Ta’Shia Asanti, Urban Spectrum, Denver
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“…a love story and a lesson in history and sociology all tied up in one work, [One Sister’s Song] explores family dynamics, racial identity, and the struggles of a single woman facing unexpected changes.

“…a well-written and smooth-flowing story [that] holds the reader’s interest throughout.”

Charlie Spencer Lackey, Multicultural Review, March 2003
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“I took Friday off and took One Sister’s Song to the pool in my neighborhood to lie out and read. I was hooked. I read to page 95 before realizing I was burned and had to get out of the sun for the day.

“I kid you not, I could not put the book down. I took it with me to a movie Saturday and told the women waiting in line with me for Ya Ya Sister how great it was. Some of them wrote the name of the book in their checkbooks and on the back of old receipts.

“Finally, Sunday, I only had 40 pages left, so I curled up with a cup of coffee and read the last 40 pages, savoring them like a great piece of Texas rib-eye.

“Congrats on a great book!”

Kelly E. Christensen

Dallas
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 “…intriguing; the characters and imagery are so rich and real.

“…an awesome story that’s effortless and thoroughly enjoyable. It's hard to believe Audrey, James, Pritch, Julian and Laura exist only on paper! I'm hooked! And I anxiously await Karen DeGroot Carter’s second novel.

Jeanne Forsythe

Nashville
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 “…a rare, on-target description of…issues many biracial Americans face.”

Kathleen Odell Korgen

Author, From Black to Biracial (Praeger, 1998, 1999)

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