African American Literature Fiction

Mayme and Katie have become friends, which is unusual given that their friendship has spouted at the end of the Civil War and that Mayme is a former slave, while Katie is the daughter of a plantation owner. Both girls have been orphaned by the war, left alone on Katie's family plantation. The land is the one thing they still share, and they don't want to leave it. But if anyone finds out the two of them live there alone, they will be forced to move.

Journalist Zoie Crawford had to leave New Orleans to finally make her own life. Her grandmother, Claudia, inspired her to follow her dreams - just as her mother, Rose, held on too tight. But with Claudia's passing, Zoie reluctantly returns home, where the past is written in the lonely corners of the bayou and the New South's supercharged corridors of power. And there she discovers a stunning, painstakingly kept secret - one that could skyrocket her career but destroy another woman's...and change both their vastly different lives for better or for much worse.

In the game of love and war, it's so easy to get sidetracked when you're the most sought after guy in your city, but for Chase Warren, he wants more. Bedding chicks is light work for him, but finding a forever queen proves to be a little more challenging. That is, until he lays eyes on Selah. She has everything he's looking for and more, but one mistake could cost him everything.

She's the only sister in a family of alpha males. Loved, treasured, and sheltered by her brothers, Kat McClain is working to heal the pain of a failed marriage to a man she loved from her teenage years and move on with her life, but she's a woman; she has needs, and she's understandably lonely. Tommy Kirby has protected her brother since he was barely a man and has been a silent staple in the McClain family for just as long. He loves his job, his life, and is loyal to his employer. More than anything, he wants a family of his own. Perhaps these two are exactly what the other desires.

The Misfits are back and now they are international. Trigga, Diamond, and the crew are in London. Dame has been handled and everything should be perfect. But when a plan works too perfectly, there is bound to be some unfinished business. Secrets are exposed. Diamond has learned the game and now she must continue to embrace a life she was not meant to live while understanding the truths of her own past.

Welcome to The Manors of Harrington Point; enter at your own risk. These mansions are home to the elite, the famous, the successful, and the eccentric. From the millionaire mega-pastor and his wife to the former child star turned porn star, this neighborhood is filled with old money, new money, and everything and everyone in between. The tale of what goes on behind these gates is as entertaining and unforgettable as the neighbors themselves.

It is the story of 11-year-old Pecola Breedlove--a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others--who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning and the tragedy of its fulfillment.

Twenty-five year old Calla Williams is struggling since becoming guardian to her brother, Jamie. Calla is overwhelmed and tired of being the one who makes sacrifices to keep the family together. When Jamie’s actions at a protest spiral out of control, the siblings must go on the run. Taking refuge in a remote cabin that looks like it belongs on a slasher movie poster rather than an AirBNB, the siblings now face a new threat where their lives–and reality–hang in the balance. Their sister always warned them about her nightmares. They really should have listened.

For Evan Murdoch, the bad news just won't stop. As he battles an attempted murder charge, he's on the verge of getting forced out of the family corporation - and fears he can't trust his new wife, Lelia. Enter savvy family matriarch Ida, whose wild-card schemes might be the answer to his prayers - or lead to disaster like he's never seen.

After taking us through the rugged, thug-filled lives of Jaz, Kyra, and Angel, Wahida now takes us into the drama-filled life of their best friend, Roz, aka Tasha. She is sexy, beautiful, and torn between her desires to distance herself from the streets and the magnetic attraction to the irresistible and thuggish Trae Macklin, who acknowledges that mature women are a turn-on. Women come and go for a thug who is more about his business over everything else, yet Trae surprisingly falls head over heels for his business partner's woman, Tasha.

Essence® best-selling authors Kiki Swinson and De’nesha Diamond are two rising stars in the world of urban fiction. Heist presents two novellas starring young women hustling their way to the top of the game through daring robbery schemes. In Swinson’s The Ultimate Heist, pampered Shannon Marshall is accustomed to a big-money lifestyle. Her world is shattered, however, when her man is thrown into prison for gun running.

When the organizing committee for her upcoming high school reunion needs a caterer, Halia agrees to help out. Soon she's serving up her signature macaroni and cheese and famous chicken wings to a host of appreciative ex-classmates. Some folks have blossomed since graduation. Others, like manipulative Raynell Rollins, currently married to a former football star, haven't changed nearly enough. When Raynell is found dead the morning after the reunion, the role call of possible suspects could fill the school gymnasium. Extramarital affairs, mega-church scandals and sports secrets...

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned—Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.

It's scorched-earth, all-or-nothing war for Memphis' most merciless ride-or-die women, and even their survival skills are no guarantee. And once alliances splinter and explosive revelations rip apart their empire, one diva's revenge will become the ultimate deadly reign.

The most lethal ride-or-die women in Memphis now run their gangs and the streets. But the aftermath of an all-out war means merciless new enemies, time-bomb secrets... and one chance to take it all... Bullets have no names and collateral damage is the game as the women of the Dirty South push to secure total control.

Three best friends who've grown up together encounter some of the real tests of manhood. All's good for James and Cathy until a woman shows up with James' love child. Suave Brent thinks he's found happiness with a born-again churchgoer - until another leads him into temptation. And longtime friend Sonny is going to need help from James and Brent if he's to have any hope of salvaging his marriage.

At once a powerful evocation of his early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice to both the individual and the body politic, James Baldwin galvanized the nation in the early days of the civil rights movement with this eloquent manifesto. The Fire Next Time stands as one of the essential works of our literature.

Thirty-year-old Black woman Sidney Taylor is a talented early American history professor, working in fast-paced Washington DC, with her eyes on promotion. She's also currently persona non grata. Who knew that making an inconvenient historical discovery would see her stuck at her desk, shuffling paper? So when she receives an anonymous and very cryptic invitation to visit historic small-town Robbinsville, North Carolina and hunt for a missing archaeological treasure—with a million-dollar payout at stake—it's one she can't refuse.

David Champlin is a Black man born into poverty in Depression-era New Orleans who achieves great success and then sacrifices everything to lead his people in the difficult, day-by-day struggle of the civil rights movement. Sara Kent is the beloved and vital White girl who loved David from the moment she first saw him, but they struggled over David's belief that a marriage for them would not be right in the violent world he had to confront.

In Trinidad, in 1796, teenage Rosa Rendon quietly but purposefully rebels against typical female roles and behavior. Bright, competitive, and opinionated, Rosa sees no reason she should learn to cook and keep house - it is obvious her talents lie in running the farm she expects to be her birthright, despite her two older siblings. But as her homeland goes from Spanish to British rule, it becomes increasingly unclear whether its free black property owners - Rosa's family among them - will be allowed to keep their assets, their land, and ultimately, their freedom.