African American Literature Fiction

Jewel climbed up the heap to become queen of the streets, diva of all divas. But now that she's expecting a baby, she's concerned about just one thing - giving her child a good life, away from the guns, the drugs, and the lies. However, that also means a life away from the glitz and glam that Jewel still craves, and she's not quite ready to give it all up...not until she's back on top. Flat broke and miles away from her fugitive baby daddy, Jewel will have to put every bit of her street savvy, as well as her sharp business skills, into action to gain back her place and her power.

Jewel used to be content with being a ride or die chick, playing Bonnie while the men in her life played Clyde. But now she realizes that it was her connections and street smarts that helped her man, Calico, rise to the top, and Jewel wants to be the one in control. She's tired of taking orders from men. She's willing to do anything to be queen of the streets, but when a deal she makes with the enemy comes back to haunt her, her dream is turned into a nightmare. Hopeless and struggling to keep her head above water, Jewel meets Misty, who seems to be her savior.

Enzo and Angel are back and this time with a vengeance. Micah was hell-bent on forcing their hands and pushing them back into the lifestyle they'd left behind after Damien Orlando's demise. With time ticking away along with Enzo's desire to keep his career and family intact, he will become the monster Micah accused him of being. Enzo will embrace the darkness that flows freely through his veins and make Micah rue the day he awakened the sleeping giant.

In this sexy page-turning tale of unexpected love, Zuri Day introduces the Morgan men, three fine brothers who have it all - except what their mama wants most for them: wives. As the eldest, it’s up to Michael to pave the way. If only he’d stop running from love.… In the world of sports management, Michael Morgan is a superstar. But his newest client, Shayna Washington, may be his most lucrative catch yet. The record-breaking sprinter with the tight chocolate body has a talent and inner light Michael knows he can get the world to sit up and notice. She’s definitely got his attention....

After everything that he has been through, Omari can't even see himself in another relationship. Just the thought of Simone Campbell makes him turn away from any chick. Whether it's the baddest bitch or a foreign chick, he'll pass. But then she came into his life, and that all changed. He's ready to live and love again, and she just might be the one. That is, if Simone doesn't ruin it like she has everything else in his life.

Jacob is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh north. Despite his distaste for dealing in "flesh," he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, "with the hands of a slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady." Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, but later from a handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved.

Best friends and blood sisters for life, Melonee Reid and Fiona White have one goal in life - to get rich and live comfortably - but growing up in the inner city of Los Angeles isn't helping them obtain that goal. That is, until Fiona comes up with a plan to marry for money and murder for even more.

Dominique Dom Pickens is an NFL player looking for a home in Atlanta. Wren comes highly recommended when it comes to realtors in the area. One look at Wren, and Dom is already picking out wedding venues. But what seems like the perfect match doesn't come easy. Wren has been hurt in the past, and she knows how professional athletes are, so she's not willing to put her heart on the line again.

A prequel to Ashley and JaQuavis' New York Times best-selling Cartel series, this story follows the rise of notorious gangster Carter Diamond, taking listeners through his days on the mean streets of Michigan to his becoming the biggest drug lord Miami has ever seen. Before the cartel was ever created, he stood alone.

Meticulous and driven Gwen Gilmore knows what she wants… especially in a man. She is newly single and doesn’t have time for lackluster chemistry or mixed signals. But the dating scene proves to be slow and unserious, and she realizes she may need some help. Professional help. A matchmaker, to be more specific. Nothing will distract her from finding a man who checks all the boxes, except maybe her brother’s grumpy best friend who’s just moved into her home.

In 1920s America, a plague is spreading fast. From New Orleans to Chicago to New York, the "Jes Grew" epidemic makes people desperate to dance, overturning social norms in the process. Anyone is vulnerable and when they catch it, they'll bump and grind into a frenzy. Working to combat the Jes Grew infection are the puritanical Atonists, a group bent on cultivating a "Talking Android", an African American who will infiltrate the unruly black communities and help crush the outbreak.

Trick Baby tells the story of White Folks, a blue-eyed, light-haired con artist whose pale skin allows him to pass in the streets as a white man. Folks is tormented early in life, rejected by other children and branded a "trick baby," a child conceived between a hooker and her trick. Refusing to abandon his life in the ghetto and a chance at revenge, Folks is taken under the wing of an older mentor, Blue. What happens next is unbelievable.

After surviving another attempt on her life, Keema Newell proves that a true hustler never dies. As a ghetto superstar and queen of the streets, she struggles to put the pieces of her life back together, while trying to tame her now notorious daughter, Treasure. Money, murder, and mayhem comes from every angle as Keema finds herself in a viscous web of deceit, tearing apart the lives of everyone she comes in contact with—ultimately making her fair game for her ruthless enemies. Little does she know, her own daughter has plans to step in and take over the throne.

Publicist. NBA player. Career ending Injury. Family Secrets. Undeniable attraction.

Harriet Ann Jacob's autobiography documents her life as a slave and how she attained freedom for herself and her children. Harrowing in its descriptions of sexual abuse, Jacob's slave narrative is notable for the appeal it made to abolitionist women to open their eyes to the realities of slavery. Deemed too shocking for reading audiences at the time, the book was shelved before it was published in 1861 near the start of the Civil War.

Motherhood isn’t easy, especially when you’re a mother of a Black son. Ten years ago, Cheryl jumped at the chance to send her son, Javonte, to an exclusive boarding school in New England - far away from Atlanta and the violence of the city streets. It was the American dream, or was it? Now settled in Vermont, Javonte is married and well-employed, but Cheryl hardly ever sees him, and when she does, her own son seems like someone she only used to know.

Morgan Atkins has depended on men her entire life. First her father, then Ethic Okafor, then came Messiah Williams, and finally Ahmeek Harris. She loves them all for different reasons, but the one thing they all have in common is their unconditional love for her. Morgan is the queen of their worlds, if only she knew her own worth. Trapped by the threat of a deadly secret, Morgan has lost it all. She's engaged to an abusive and powerful man who is willing to bury everyone to keep control over Morgan's heart.

Successful marketing executive Kemi Adeyemi is lured from the US to Sweden by Jonny von Lundin, CEO of the nation's largest marketing firm, to help fix a PR fiasco involving a racially tone-deaf campaign. A killer at work but a failure in love, Kemi's move is a last-ditch effort to reclaim her social life.

Ella has a Thing. She sees a classmate grow up to become a caring nurse. A neighbor's son murdered in a drive-by shooting. Things that haven't happened yet. Kev, born while Los Angeles burned around them, wants to protect his sister from a power that could destroy her. But when Kev is incarcerated, Ella must decide what it means to watch her brother suffer while holding the ability to wreck cities in her hands. Rooted in the hope that can live in anger, Riot Baby is as much an intimate family story as a global dystopian narrative.

Sportswriter Nina Richardson had the perfect life away from her family's famous shadow. But a social media blowup and rejection by her boyfriend brought her back to their peaceful Charleston, South Carolina B&B to figure out what went wrong. So there's no way she's going to trust the crazy-hot sparks flying between her and handsome new employee Clinton Jefferson. It's just reckless, rip-his-clothes-off, one-night-and-forget-it lust - right?