African Urban

In the tradition of Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim comes A Pimp’s Life, the story of the rise and fall of Mack Jones. He’s at the top of his pimp game in Queens, New York, until he breaks one of the cardinal rules of Pimping 101 and falls in love with one of his girls. Destiny was once an innocent young girl tricked into selling her body, but now she’s as tough as the most seasoned professionals on the street. Then a tragic turn of events causes her to open her heart once again.

Antonio, born of an affair between a beautiful actress and a notorious crime boss, lost his mother to drugs and was forced to navigate foster care and survive on the streets of the Bronx. He is ignored by his father, the infamous head of a powerful crime syndicate, and his half-brothers are living the life Antonio used to dream about. Antonio has turned his struggles into a career in the NBA, but when a devastating injury sidelines his basketball career and he finds out he has been duped out of millions by his best friend, Antonio is forced to turn to the father who never claimed him.

To Merlin Mills, his family ceased to exist when his father turned his back on him, and he had to make some drastic changes in order to survive. Now, nine years later, his family is back, and their existence threatens his once stable relationship with his new wife. If Merlin wants to hold on to her, he must face the demons he’s conveniently forgotten and put them in their proper perspective. Can he undo the damage caused by his omission, or will he snap under the pressure?

Gabby and Mischelle are best friends. Mischelle is despondent, unable to get over the hurt and betrayal of finding out her husband cheated on her with a younger woman - and even worse, he walked out on her and their children. Meanwhile, Gabby's relationship has imploded, and her ex refuses to believe it's over and has started to stalk her. To get away from all the chaos, the women head to Tybee Island, Georgia, looking for a weekend of fun in the sun. Once they get there, they encounter two charismatic yet mysterious men who have the power to inexplicably change their lives forever.

I knew he had the power to make me feel, but he also had the power to break me. To pull my heart outside of my chest and stomp on it. I knew falling for a man like Capone came with more than I was ready for. He wasn't feared for no reason. Timmy never meant Jaiden any good, and I knew it from the first time I met him. I've never wanted someone dead as much as I wanted him dead. Timmy needed to go, and I didn't care how he went as long as he wasn't breathing. Capone put it on his life that he would always protect me and mine.

Nothing prepares Tyler Blake for the fast-paced living of New York City. A small-town girl from Georgia, she quickly gets caught up in the glamorous entertainment industry. While pursuing her dream of becoming an actress, Tyler continually gets sidetracked by men who promise to help her and finds herself going from one dysfunctional relationship to another. Just when Tyler finally believes she has found her ideal man in hip-hop producer Brian McCall, everything begins to go horribly wrong. Trapped in a nightmarish relationship, Tyler is determined not to go down without a fight.

In the hood, every day is about struggle and survival, and no one understands that daily grind more than 22-year-old Kaeyla “Goldie” Dennis. She’s been the “wifey” of an older, wealthy man since she was 15, but the discovery of their longtime affair by his real wife brings to a crushing end her hood-fabulous lifestyle in their low-rise project in Newark.

Kayla, Evelyn, and Trina have been on-and-off-again girlfriends for many years, but the lines of true friendship will be crossed, the knives that go into another friend's back will cut deep, trust will not apply, and no one will share their dirty little secrets. With enough backstabbing, finger-pointing, and disrespect to go around, this trio sticks to their motto of "What she can do, I can do better; and whatever she has, I want a piece of it too." Much competition is thrown in the mix, and jealousy is so thick that there will be no place for anyone to run when the mess hits the fan.

Four friends manuever through toxic and terrifc relationships and come to terms with their troublesome views about women.

What do you do when your work is used against you? This is a question that Auto, leader of the Eraserheads, faces when an unforeseen and dangerous situation wreaks havoc on everything he's built. It's up to him and his right hand, Code, along with their team of expert car thieves to figure out who's behind the attacks on their livelihood. When a crafty con woman named Smiley and a mysterious businessman named Boots step onto the scene, every player becomes a pawn in a war that is taking over the Trap.

Alexis Griggs has worked hard to get where she is in life. She owns several clinics that service people in need and is a pillar of her community, but looks can be deceiving. Alexis and her brother, Jace, are both leading double lives, which are both illegal and deadly. It leaves little time for Alexis to have a personal life; that is until she has a chance encounter with single father Kevell Farrell.

For Unique, life is good until her dope-dealing boyfriend, Took, is arrested and winds up in jail. Now she's broke as a joke, trying to put every petty hustle into play to chase hard times away from the door. With an empty refrigerator, a stack of bills piling up, a tenth-grade education, a big butt and a smile, it doesn't take long for her to learn to pull the wool over the eyes of any fool who's blinded by her good looks.

Along the streets of Manhattan, a young Nigerian doctor doing his residency wanders aimlessly. The walks meet a need for Julius: They are a release from the tightly regulated mental environment of work, and they give him the opportunity to process his relationships, his recent breakup with his girlfriend, his present, his past. Though he is navigating the busy parts of town, the impression of countless faces does nothing to assuage his feelings of isolation.

Meet Heaven: a young girl who is loving, submissive, and beyond appreciative of her husband, Ross. As a teenager, Heaven lived solely for her sister, Divine, and her daughter, Sunshine. Because her mother is mentally ill and her father ran off, Heaven had to do some unimaginable things just to feed the family. Then came Ross, and everything changed. He wasn't some filthy rich, dope boy that some young girls dream of, but Heaven felt like Ross was her blessing.

Thalia, a 25-year-old wild girl gone good, moves back to her old neighborhood after a failed engagement and manages to catch the eye of the town's most wanted man - the incredibly sexy, single, devoted, and charismatic Reverend Isaac. Not only is there a large age difference between Thalia and the middle-aged pastor, but he also happens to be the father of Madison, her best friend since junior high school. Madison isn't trying to deal with her father dating anyone after her mother's death.

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.

Many young African Americans are disinterested in Christianity and others are leaving the church in search of what these false religious ideas appear to offer, a spirituality more indigenous to their history and ethnicity. Edited by Dr. Eric Mason and featuring a top-notch lineup of contributors, Urban Apologetics is the first book focused entirely on cults, religious groups, and ethnocentric ideologies prevalent in the black community.

In the early 1990s, Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory and his brother, Terry "Southwest T", rose up from the slums of Detroit to build one of the largest cocaine empires in American history: the Black Mafia Family. They socialized with music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, did business with New York's king of bling Jacob "The Jeweler" Arabo, and built allegiances with rap superstars Young Jeezy and Fabolous. Yet even as BMF was attracting celebrity attention, its crew members struck fear in a city.

For successful African American businesswoman Zoe Reynard, finding the pleasure she wants, the way she wants it, is not worth the risk of losing everything she has: marriage to the man she has loved since childhood, a thriving company, three wonderful children. But Zoe feels helpless in the grip of an overpowering addiction—to sex.

Owning the Stone-Chance Protection Agency has its perks. It’s a profitable company that allows Ramsey and Keilah Stone to enjoy the finer things in life; however, it has also added an element of danger to their otherwise normal lifestyle.