His First Wife
At the age of 16, Kerry and her domineering mother, one of Atlanta’s elite, plan her whole life. She is going to be a doctor, so she studies hard, does well at Spellman College, and applies to the top medical schools. But the schools do not accept her, and she falls in love with a Morehouse man. Jamison is not what her mother wanted, nor is Kerry what Jamison’s mother wanted, a spoiled rich girl nicknamed Black Barbie. Ten years later, a very pregnant Kerry is arrested for hitting her husband at his girlfriend’s house. How did this very-much-in-love couple come to this? Kerry starts to think back through the years, and Jamison does as well. They love each other, and for the first time, Kerry must think for herself without her mother’s input. Octavia’s second novel is a truly wonderful story with wide appeal about love and what it takes to make a marriage in modern African American society. --Patty Engelmann