African Urban

Life is great for thick-boned Keisha Jackson. With a good education, well-paying job, and a promising future, she has everything a young woman could ask for, including high self-esteem. But after a chance meeting with Rico, the neighborhood "bad boy", her fairy-tale life is quickly dismantled. Blinded by emotion, she gives in to all his cruel intentions. Having endured physical, mental, and sexual abuse, Keisha finally sees the light, and she's not having it anymore. The tables are turned, and Rico feels her well-deserved wrath.

Jewel is young and beautiful, and with several hustles under her belt, she's all about making money. This doesn't leave much time for friends, but she'll always make time for Touch, the local hustler. He's been her friend since grammar school, when they made a lifelong pact to look out for each other. Lucky for them, their promise has never been put to the test - until now.

Starrshima Fields, aka Starr, is a young, bodacious, and bold beauty. She is also the leader of the Double G's, a powerful and ruthless social club of plus-sized women. Starr is guided by Queen Fem, the founder of the Double G's. Queen Fem set up the group of professionals-by-day, gangster-biker-chicks-by-night to prove that this isn't just a man's world. The Double G's put the squeeze on their primary targets: men of power and privilege. Blackmail and manipulation are their choice of weapons, and they are skillful in both.

Race for Profit uncovers how exploitative real estate practices continued well after housing discrimination was banned. The same racist structures and individuals remained intact after redlining's end, and close relationships between regulators and the industry created incentives to ignore improprieties. Meanwhile, new policies meant to encourage low-income homeownership created new methods to exploit Black homeowners.

Ever since he was a child, the only thing Cyril Anderson wanted was to be down with his brother Cane's crew. Cane Anderson, leader of the notorious Bankroll Crips, was invincible - or so Cyril thought. On the night of Cyril's initiation, things take a terrible turn and leave Cane lying dead in a pool of his own blood. Now the leader of a blood-thirsty gang, there is only one thing that Cyril wants to do: seek revenge.

You've seen them in print before, and their books are hot, hot, hot! Now see what Edd McNair, Keisha Ervin, and Brenda Hampton can do when they join forces to bring you three stories in the latest installment of Girls from da Hood. Being married to notorious gangsta rapper Sean Pynn isn't as glamorous as it appears to be. Behind closed doors, Queen is dealing with knock-down drag-out fights, verbal abuse, and neglect. When her bodyguard, Ahsim, comes into the picture, things change in a hurry.

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.

Set in 1950s New Orleans, Little Black Girl Lost is a powerful tale filled with sex, greed, and the explosive political and social climates of an America long gone. Fifteen-year-old beauty Johnnie Wise lives her life devoted to God. But her innocence is shattered when her mother, who has been a prostitute for years, sells Johnnie's body to lecherous insurance man Earl Shamus.

Marisol Rivera barely survived being abused with nowhere to turn. So there's nothing she won't do to keep her Lower East Side women's health clinic open and give disadvantaged women new lives. Running an exclusive escort service for New York City's rich and powerful 1 percent is the perfect way to bankroll her business - not to mention the perfect cover for robbing corrupt CEOs.

A retired employee of the Illinois Department of Motor Vehicles, Mrs. Washington runs the mean, cold streets of Chi-town messing with all types of young thugs with multiple felonies. A widow for some time now, Vernita is determined to make up for her stale marriage. However, when a major health scare sets her back, she finds herself losing everything. Reality sets in that her time on Earth is about to come to a close. Now faced with a death sentence, Vernita seeks to live out her remaining days being the biggest old super freak.

Nobody ever gave Jamil Rock anything - much less hope. To survive a rough home life and one bad break after another, he became his hood's most successful drug dealer. With loyal friends at his back, Jamil coolly takes care of business and never thinks too far ahead - until Gia Ellis walks into his life. Suddenly, ruling the streets is nothing compared to the instant heat, and alluringly innocent aura, Jamil can't resist....

Ra'Keeyah has million-dollar dreams. She's determined to come up, and she won't stop until she does. Nothing is going to stop her from getting the hottest clothes, the finest men, and money to burn. Easily influenced by her conniving girls Shayna and Quiana, Ra'Keeyah resorts to shoplifting, stealing married men's credit cards, and passing bad checks to get what she wants. Ra'Keeyah is struggling and has sunk to an all-time low when she meets Brick. He's a savvy, street-smart hustler who will surely take her young heart for a ride and make her want to change.

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.

When souls are tied, it's never goodbye. A boy I was that summer evening I met you, pulling your belongings out of the truck and into your new home. I knew it was love then. A whole man I was the day that you met me at the altar and agreed to love me until death do us part. A shell of a man I've become since it did, unable to move on, move forward, or progress in any way until I discovered that not even death was permanent enough to keep us apart. A better man I'm destined to be, knowing that, at some capacity, you're still with me. Our love is one that never dies.

Lieutenant Stuart Lyons is a single father and a well-respected veteran law enforcement officer. In addition, he serves as head of security at the ever-popular New Hope Church in Atlanta and above all, he loves the Lord. When sudden pandemonium strikes his “normal” life and he begins receiving threats from an unknown person who only identifies himself as “Dr. A. H. Satan”, Stuart’s life is turned upside down.

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.

Donna and Kim Boon moved to Houston, Texas, with their Aunt Lisa when they were orphaned at 10 years old. Lisa raised the girls as her own, showering them with everything a young woman could want. The girls have grown up into beautiful and privileged Houstonites and are two of the most eligible bachelorettes in the city, with more suitors than they know how to handle. Life seems perfect, but when Aunt Lisa is gunned down in cold blood, the girls discover a family secret that will change their lives forever.

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.

Picking up where Essence best-selling author La Jill Hunt's Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda left off, Too Close for Comfort follows Paige Michaels and her no-nonsense friends as they search for love. Paige has finally broken loose from her no-good man, and she's loving the single life - until Quincy Westbrooke shows up.

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.