African American Literature Fiction

Desire raises the stakes - and the danger. This collection includes Desperate Housewife, Sinful, and L.A. Confidential.

Novie swore she'd never do two things in her lifetime: head up the family drug trade and be some man's baby momma. Unfortunately, when she meets Genesis Kane, things don't go quite as she'd planned. Genesis is an attorney with a reputation for being a "piranha in pinstripes" both in and out of the courtroom. With Novie's mother bugging her to help the family or disappear and her father on a mission to keep reaping land, cars, and more side chicks no matter the cost, Novie is feeling pressured.

Henry Townsend, a black farmer, bootmaker, and former slave, has a fondness for Paradise Lost and an unusual mentor, William Robbins, perhaps the most powerful white man in antebellum Virginia's Manchester County. Under Robbins's tutelage, Henry becomes proprietor of his own plantation, as well as of his own slaves. When he dies, his widow Caldonia succumbs to profound grief, and things begin to fall apart.

Jean Toomer's Cane is one of the most significant works to come out of the Harlem Renaissance, and is considered to be a masterpiece in American modernist literature because of its distinct structure and style. First published in 1923 and told through a series of vignettes, Cane uses poetry, prose, and play-like dialogue to create a window into the varied lives of African Americans living in the rural South and urban North during a time when Jim Crow laws pervaded and racism reigned.

Blazing with scandal, deception, temptation, and revenge, this third installment in the Twisted series blurs the lines of infidelity and tests the true meaning of love.

It's business as usual for the infamous gold digging Gibbons women of Chesterton, Virginia. But this time, middle sister, Stephanie, may be the one getting played…Stephanie Gibbons has finally hit the jackpot. Her new sugar daddy, Isaac, is loaded and treating her in high style. When he proposes, Stephanie is sure she's set for life - until she finds her bank account empty, Isaac gone, and a strange - but very attractive - man following her.

A finalist for the National Book Award, Lost in the City features 15 poignant short stories, each set in Washington, D.C. Far removed from marble monuments and the offices of rich politicians, the nation's capital that Jones captures is inhabited by self-willed African-Americans struggling to live their lives as best they can.

Thrown into a web of lies, drugs, and deceit, Dysha has had money put on her head by the most powerful man in the city. Now, with the entire city gunning for her, she can trust only one man. Ashley and JaQuavis weave a sexy, suspenseful tale with an unpredictable ending that will have you in awe.

January 1970 finds Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, LA’s premier Black detective, at 50 years of age despite all expectations. He has a loving family, a beautiful home, and a thriving investigation agency. All is right with the world… and then Amethystine Stoller, his own personal Helen of Troy, arrives. Her ex-husband is missing. A simple enough case. But even as Easy takes his first step in the investigation he trips. He falls into the memory of things past. Little things, like loss, love, a world war, and a hunger that has eaten at him since he was a Black boy on his own.

Naughty is as naughty always does, and Jaylin Jerome Rogers never disappoints. The aftermath to the Naughty Series picks up nearly three years later, and the tables have clearly turned. Brenda Hampton delivers another pause-resister full of the dramatic antics of bad-boy Jaylin and the women who can't resist him.

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.

The year is 1978. The Duncan brothers and their tough-as-nails women have vanquished their rivals and taken their place as the leaders of Waycross, Georgia's criminal enterprises. However, their rise to power has not gone unnoticed, and the family is rocked when their mother, Miss Bettie, is kidnapped and her body is found in a swamp. No one knows who the killers are, but instead of drawing closer, the family is split when their grief-stricken leader, LC, is offered membership in the South's most powerful black organization, the Council.

Brooklyn Johnson had it all - money, jewels, designer clothes, a successful modeling career, and men falling at her feet. Now she's struggling to keep up the facade. When life was good, she wasn't always good to those around her. Even as she developed a drug addiction and struggled to maintain her sanity, she never felt she needed anyone. Now that an illness has turned her life upside down, she finds herself having to make amends with all the people she's wronged.

A life filled with fast money and violence lands 23-year-old Candice Holmes in a witness protection program. When she finds out that no one is capable of saving her from the wrath of the ruthless family she is scheduled to testify against, she finds herself on the run. With nowhere to hide, Candice ends up fleeing to New York City where she is introduced to Daddy - who owns a house where little girls are doing big things. Candice soon realizes that the street life she left behind is nothing compared to what goes on at Daddy’s House.

In Jesmyn Ward's first novel since her National Book Award-winning Salvage the Bones, this singular American writer brings the archetypal road novel into rural 21st-century America. An intimate portrait of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle, Sing, Unburied, Sing journeys through Mississippi's past and present, examining the ugly truths at the heart of the American story and the power - and limitations - of family bonds.

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.

You just can't plan for this kind of thing. Diane Tate certainly hasn't. She never expected to slowly lose her talented husband to the debilitating effects of early-onset Alzheimer's disease. As a respected family court judge, she's spent her life making tough calls, but when her 68-year-old husband's health worsens and Diane is forced to move him into an assisted living facility, it seems her world is spinning out of control. As Gregory's memory wavers and fades, Diane and her children must reexamine their connection to the man he once was - and learn to love the man he has become.

After her high school sweetheart joined the military, Mona Lisa Ellington thought she'd never love again. So she settled for a man who cherished her - and made his living hurting others. Yet she prayed her fiancé would one day return. Mona Lisa's classmate, Katherine Clinton, knew she'd marry her high school sweetheart and live happily ever after. But when he left for the military, she had to make new plans for her and their son. Still, Katherine dreamed of the day her fiancé would return.

Trudy Bell needs to do something to spice up her life and hopes that her new job with the Bon Voyage Travel Agency will do the trick. But envy for her boss' glamorous lifestyle turns into a downward spiral that could end up costing her more than just her job.

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.