'Children of the Waters' is the latest engaging offering by Carleen Brice, who writes with aplomb about love, mixed race and the importance of family in this late-June release.

"She'd known there wasn't a god since she was four years old, when her mother and baby sister were killed in a car accident,'' Brice writes in the first chapter, as she introduces Trish Taylor, who still feels alone and abandoned at 36. But now, the loneliness has an exclamation point. She is divorced and preparing for her only son to leave the nest. If not a wife or a mom, who is she?



In search of these answers and more, she moves to her hometown of Denver to re-establish her roots, but she ends up raising more questions than answers in a journey of self-discovery that helps her embrace her white heritage, her black ex-husband and their mixed race son, Will. She also learns that her mother and baby sister were not killed in a car accident. Her mother died of a drug overdose and her grandparents, Pawpaw and Nana, put her sister, Billie Cousins, up for adoption because of her of black father.

"I have to confess that we didn't want to raise a black man's child,'' Nana wrote in a letter Trish discovers years later. When she learns of the news, Billie wants nothing to do with Trish. But a fork in the road brings the two together. And they piece together their lives.

Brice's adroit use of a crackling dialogue keeps readers turning the page. The carefully crafted tale is imbued with current events such as the election of President Barack Obama, a fitting reference because of his mixed heritage and the nation's persistent struggle with issues of race.

"The 2008 election, especially since Obama had won predominantly white states in the primary, made her believe that the country might be starting to shift, but she was waiting for more proof before she completely trusted white liberals any more than she did white conservatives,'' Brice writes of Billie, a school teacher. "After all, death threats had also been made against Obama. One election did not a different country make.''

Brice is a fine storyteller, and her characters, including Trish and Billie, are alluring, which should come as no surprise. She won the 2009 First Novelist Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association for 'Orange Mint and Honey.' She also is the bestselling author of 'Walk Tall: Affirmations for People of Color.' Her blog "White Readers Meet Black Authors," www.welcomewhitefolks.blogspot.com, has won widespread attention from various media outlets, including the Washington Post. She lives in Denver with her husband and two cats. After reading 'Children of the Waters,' fans will wonder what Brice is up to next.