African American Literature Fiction

Lamont "Hood" Mason is a fearless 19-year-old gangsta who was born and raised in the projects of Brooklyn, New York. He was an abandoned child who roamed the city streets and fought hard for survival. The only thing constant in his young life was the safety of a Brownsville barbershop owned by a father figure called Fat Daddy. The barbershop is where Hood comes of age, but cutting hair isn't the only thing Fat Daddy has going on.

Full-figured diva Desa Rae Jenkins and her lover boy, Roc Dawson, have finally agreed to make their way down the aisle for better or worse, richer or poorer, and no mess whatsoever shall keep them apart. Several weeks before the long-awaited wedding, however, Desa Rae is confronted by a woman from the past who makes her aware of Roc's naughty nights in a place known as Hell House.The betrayal sends them back to what Desa Rae considers square one, but then the unthinkable happens. Roc discovers that she's been keeping some secrets too.

After suffering a tragic loss, Amir "Ace" Johnson gave up his stronghold of the streets and put his guns away. He became the doting father that his twin girls needed and turned his back on everything, including love. Out of nowhere, he meets hardworking attorney Aaliyah Bailey who has him feeling a way he never thought he would ever feel again. Ace gets forced back into the game when he starts receiving notes and pictures that convince him that the original love of his life could still be alive.

In Choosing Sides, Malek became affiliated with the North Side's biggest kingpin, and Halleigh was manipulated into the streets by his South Side adversary. North versus South, love versus loyalty, and lies versus truth. Now the saga continues in Working Girls, as we are introduced to the Manolo Mamis, the baddest chicks in the game. They're playin' for keeps, and their services come with a price - an expensive one.

Small-business owner and financial advisor Samiyah Manhattan is mourning the death of her six-year marriage when she vows never to trust men again. Alone at a local bar, Samiyah attempts to put her situation in perspective when she is drawn inexorably to the presence of a nearby patron. Celebrity ex-boxer and heavyweight champion turned business mogul Jonas Alexander Rose never takes women too seriously. They only attach themselves to him because of his star-studded status. However, when he meets the beautiful Samiyah Manhattan, Jonas is overwhelmed by the heated attraction.

It was supposed to be the highlight of her career, the pinnacle for which she’d worked all her life. And as Hattie McDaniel took the stage in 1940 to claim an honor that would make her the first African-American woman to win an Academy Award, she tearfully took her place in history. Between personal triumphs and tragedies, heartbreaking losses, and severe setbacks, this historic night of winning best supporting actress for her role as the sassy Mammy in the controversial movie Gone With the Wind was going to be life-changing. Or so she thought.

Yejide and Akin have been married since they met and fell in love at university. Though many expected Akin to take several wives, he and Yejide have always agreed: Polygamy is not for them. But four years into their marriage - after consulting fertility doctors and healers, trying strange teas and unlikely cures - Yejide is still not pregnant. She assumes she still has time - until her family arrives on her doorstep with a young woman they introduce as Akin's second wife.

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents Kwame Mbalia's epic fantasy, a middle grade American Gods set in a richly-imagined world populated with African American folk heroes and West African gods. Tristan is dreading the month he's going to spend on his grandparents' farm in Alabama, where he's being sent to heal from a tragedy. But on his first night there, he accidentally ripps open a chasm into the MidPass, a volatile place with a burning sea, haunted bone ships, and iron monsters that are hunting the inhabitants of this world.

Something's wrong with her perfect marriage, but Kiara Eason isn't sure what. Her ambitious husband, Rashad, is the last person who'd ever cheat - and she never imagined she'd stray. Still, why is she confiding so much in her handsome coworker, Eddison? And why is she wondering what would happen if she put her marriage to the ultimate test - secretly setting Rashad up with a younger woman to see if he's tempted?

In weekly phone calls to his daughter in Australia, widower Hubert Birdpaints a picture of the perfect retirement, packed with fun, friendship, and fulfillment. But it's a lie. In reality, Hubert's days are all the same, dragging on without him seeing a single soul. Until he receives some good news - good news that in one way turns out to be the worst news ever, news that will force him out again, into a world he has long since turned his back on.

Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle-class peers. After a messy breakup from her White long-term boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places...including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.

Blake Crystal has the best of almost everything. She's at the top of her game at work, she has four wonderful daughters, and at 50 she's more financially secure than she's ever been. In and out of the bedroom, her new younger lover takes her in breathtaking directions that force her to make decisions she never imagined.... On the surface,Alexis Crystal is an ideal daughter. As confident as she is beautiful, she can have any man or woman she wants, so she has both in her collection of bed partners.

When Farah Cotton places a classified ad stating, “Cute redbone female looking to share a luxury apartment with another redbone female”, many women apply. One look at the lush apartment in Washington, DC, and every fly girl around wants a chance to call Platinum Lofts her new home. The moment Farah lays eyes on Lesa Carmine, a pretty young woman with an active lifestyle and a sunny disposition, she knows she’s found the perfect girl for her ultimate plan. The two become fast friends - until Farah becomes intrusive and her siblings move in, violating Lesa’s privacy.

Life can be cruel. Sometimes it's hard to play with the cards you've been dealt. Growing up in the ghetto can be hell; good or bad, everybody has a story. Toni is young and sexy, but her life story is limited with her mother's drug addiction and her older brother, Sheek, doing life in prison. She struggles day by day, stripping and sometimes doing more in underground clubs to support herself and her family. Toni eventually befriends a rich pretty boy from Long Island, whose life was sheltered from poverty since the day he was born.

For three years of the War Between the States, Marlie Lynch has helped the cause in peace: with coded letters about anti-Rebel uprisings in her Carolina woods, tisanes and poultices for Union prisoners, and silent aid to fleeing slave and Freeman alike. Her formerly enslaved mother's traditions and the name of a white father she never knew have protected her - until the vicious Confederate Home Guard claims Marlie's home for their new base of operations in the guerilla war against Southern resistors of the Rebel cause.

Jonas, the only boy in a family of four children, has always been a fighter. From the neighborhood bullies to the stepfather who uses him and his siblings as punching bags, his life has always been one battle after another. When he crosses paths with rogue homicide detective Louis "Lou" Ceavers, he's offered a bargain that will change the course of his life. Detective Ceavers becomes like a guardian angel and surrogate father to Jonas, teaching him the game and guiding him in his quest for power.

When Desa Rae Jenkins ended her tumultuous relationship with Roc, it seemed like the appropriate thing to do; but now she's second-guessing her decision. Roc moved away to Kansas City, leaving street life back in St. Louis up to the brothas who can handle it. He continues to live his life on the edge, though, and when he returns to St. Louis, Desa Rae shows up at his doorstep to reconcile. Roc is reluctant to go there with the one woman who ripped his heart from his chest.

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.

Loretha Curry’s life is full. A little crowded sometimes, but full indeed. On the eve of her 68th birthday, she has a booming beauty-supply empire, a gaggle of lifelong friends, and a husband whose moves still surprise. True, she’s carrying a few more pounds than she should be, but Loretha is not one of those women who think her best days are behind her - and she’s determined to prove wrong her mother, her twin sister, and everyone else with that outdated view of aging wrong. It’s not all downhill from here.

Gabi isn't looking for love. At all. She's much more interested in starting a new life, in a new city, away from the overbearing demands of her parents. Terrence...is even less into the idea of a relationship than Gabi. He's in a good place in his career, focused on receiving a coveted promotion. Follow along with Gabi and Terrence as they navigate the stages of a relationship that was never meant to go further than a single night. Will they be able to overcome the challenges of family and career to build something that could last?