African Urban

The night Army Specialist Merlin Mills’s identical twin brother, Gavin, slept with his wife, everything changed. Now Merlin must come to grips with the fact that Cojo may be carrying his brother’s child. For Gina Meadows, Merlin’s mother, it’s a brutal reminder of the dysfunction that has always plagued her family. Tension escalates when Gina pops up pregnant after a night of drunken revelry, and an icy finger points to her deviant son as the father. The drama that ensues forces them all to take stock of their lives.

Every territory has a king, and Metro Atlanta is no exception. They have two. Gang Lords Blanket and Guerilla have been ruling the game with iron fists. Long ago they decided that neither would cross into the other's territory, and all would be well. Things change when Guerilla breaks the rules. Blanket retaliates swiftly, causing a turf war like never before. The two madmen leave bloodshed, murder, and mayhem in their wake. Caught in the middle of this battle, from different sides of the track, are London and Saint.

Raised on the deadly streets of New Orleans, James Johnson is displeased and disheartened by the drug game and the sickness it's inflicting on his race. Unexpectedly, James has befriended America's most wanted and deadliest fugitive, Osama Bin Laden. Now he and Osama have joined forces in an effort to eliminate the nation's drug trade.

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 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.

While Dena Jones definitely has what it takes to succeed, she wants out. She's determined to make it out of "Crooklyn" by any means necessary and doesn't have a problem manipulating men to get what she wants.

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.

A hard-working daddy's girl, Precious Cummings is sure she's going to college. But when her father is murdered, she discovers he lied for years about money they never had - and hid a shocking family secret. Shattered and lost, she starts hangin' with savvy hood chick Keisha - and falls hard for DaVon, LA's most powerful drug dealer. As his new lady, Precious soon gets the best of every luxurious thing - and fast learns the ropes of her lover's lethal hustle.

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.

College Professors Grace and David Andrews are a married couple keeping secrets from each other. This is no run-of-the-mill marital infidelity, though. David doesn’t know that his someone-on-the-side shares a painful link to Grace’s past. One man's actions have resulted in the dismemberment of three families. Now that the loose ends have begun to unravel, will any of them be able to pull their lives back together?

Some secrets will kill you. No one knows that better than Jada, Alex, Miranda, and Candace, who’ve previously lost one of their friends, Stephanie, following a heartbreaking betrayal. Now Stephanie’s boyfriend, Corey, is hitting the streets of Atlanta with a vengeance in an effort to get the haters that took his girlfriend’s life, all while trying to take back his title as the king of the hood. Stephanie may be dead now, but the secrets lingering between the rest of the crew seem to just keep piling up and coming to the forefront.

Urban Books' popular Around the Way Girls series is back, bringing readers more dramatic tales about the lives of some tough, resourceful women who can hold their own when things get rough on the streets. Growing up poor and biracial, Shannon never quite fit in. Not truly accepted by either side of her family, the confused teenager turns to the one thing that loves her back unconditionally - the streets. With a bottle of liquor at her side and a worthless mentality in tow, Shannon allows the local strip club and the pole to become her new family.

Khian "Khi" Prince has the ladies going crazy. He's a certified boss with what seems to be the weight of the world on his shoulders. After failing at love twice, Khi's not ready to give up yet, and when he runs into Cuba Lance, he's certain he has finally gotten it right. But when Cuba shatters his heart all over again, will Khi give up on love once and for all? Daelan "Dae" Prince is the ultimate bad boy. With the love of his life and their five-year-old son by his side, Dae seems to have his happily ever after. But things are never what they seem.

With her charm, good looks, and fat bank account, Carlie is the prize of her family and the envy of her friends. She is a nice girl with an attraction to the wrong types of men. No one seems to understand why she would get involved with a notorious criminal. After settling into a dangerous relationship with Devon, her life takes a drastic change for the worse. Caught between his material gifts and controlling behavior, she searches for a way out. The battle to save Carlie from Devon’s grip puts the lives of many people in jeopardy.

This national best-seller chronicles the true story of two brothers coming of age in the Henry Horner public housing complex in Chicago. Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers are 11 and nine years old when the story begins in the summer of 1987. Living with their mother and six siblings, they struggle against grinding poverty, gun violence, gang influences, overzealous police officers, and overburdened and neglectful bureaucracies. Immersed in their lives for two years, Kotlowitz brings us this classic rendering of growing up poor in America’s cities.

They were just kids when Claudette McPhearson took them all in. Eight of them all together. All different races and ethnic makeups, but she loved them as her own. One woman taught them how to love, trust, and respect one another. She was the only glue that kept them together, the only one they wanted to please and never let down. She had been their light at the end of a long troublesome tunnel - it shined so bright. Then, one dreadful day, it all came to a crashing halt.

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.

Rozalyn McGuay is a simple-minded 15-year-old who thinks life is easy. She quickly realizes that life is a force to be reckoned with once she is abandoned by her mother and forced to live with a father who doesn't want anything to do with her. Seeking love, Rozalyn is pushed into the arms of the baddest boy on the block, Tamar Andrews. He shows her there is a thin line between love and hate. Nothing appears to be strong enough to tear her away from Tamar.

New York Times best-selling author Eric Jerome Dickey returns to a character he created in his celebrated novel of erotic daring, Pleasure. Four years have passed in the life of Nia Simone Bijou, and she is approaching the height of her artistic powers. A film she has written is poised for international success, the studio is eager for a sequel, and the media are fascinated by her work. Yet her imaginative mind is wandering.

After news of the attempted murder of his estranged fiancée, Gucci, Animal has two things on his mind: love and gunplay. With the help of his mistress, the deadly Red Sonja, Animal manages to elude his captors in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, and washes up on the shores of Miami, Florida. He's one step closer to home, but it may as well be a world away. Animal is still a wanted fugitive, and getting to New York undetected proves to be trickier than he thought.