African Urban

Picking up where Rose Gold left off in LA in the late 1960s, Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins finds his life in transition. He's ready to - finally - propose to his girlfriend, Bonnie Shay, and start a life together. And he's taken the money he got from the Rose Gold case and has, together with two partners, started a new detective agency. But inevitably a case gets in the way: Easy's friend, Mouse, introduces him to Rufus Tyler, a very old man everyone calls Charcoal Joe.

Knight Barron, the second eldest son of the Barron family is led by duty, honor, and chivalry. Above all else, he is dedicated to his family. When it’s his turn to accept a marriage planned by his parents, Knight steps up fully prepared to play dutiful husband. What Knight cannot foresee is another woman falling into his life. A woman that isn’t a part of the plan, but has him intrigued. It doesn’t take long before Knight is questioning whether to choose family loyalty or his happiness.

The day Lisara Compton caught her husband in a rather compromising position changed her life in a way neither she nor her sons ever saw coming. Realizing too late that divorcing him would cause a domino effect of turmoil, she is now forced into an uncomfortable life that she can't seem to stay afloat in. With her eldest son acting out and a nonexistent ex-husband, Lisara feels things can't get any worse. That's until her ex betrays her and their son in a way that leaves her in need like never before. It seems she just can't catch a break, until she meets him.

Nikki Turner, Queen of Hip-Hop Lit, is back with one of her gutsiest female characters yet, a glamorous chick with a high-end hustle that can rival any man’s game. As the respected, renowned concierge for a luxury hotel chain, Beijing Lee caters to the wealthy and famous. Whether it’s securing a dinner reservation, a fleet of limos, or a record deal, or protecting her clients from the paparazzi, there’s nothing Beijing can’t do. She’s stacked up an impressive pile of IOUs from the world’s elite - and one day she decides it’s time to start cashing in.

Held captive by a dark, seductive vampire with an unworldly hunger, the beautiful Claire Stroughton fears her life as a lawyer has irrevocably taken a turn for the worse. But when this deeply sensual-and highly dangerous-vampire convinces Claire that his desire for her is stronger than his lust for blood, she is compelled to give everything up to him, body and soul...in The Story of Son.

Everyone’s favorite fifteen-year-old ghostalker, Ropa, arrives at the worldwide Society of Skeptical Enquirers’ biennial conference just in time to be tied into a mystery—a locked room mystery, if an entire creepy haunted castle on lockdown counts. One of the magical attendees has stolen a valuable magical scroll. Caught between Qozmos, the high wizard of Ethiopian magic; the larger-than-life Lord Sashvindu Samarasinghe; England’s Sorcerer Royal; and Scotland’s own Edmund MacLeod, it’s up to Ropa to sort through the dangerous secret politics and alliances to figure out what really happened.

Aphrodite Greer is finally starting to see better days. She's slowly accepting that she can have a beautiful life despite her daughter being dead without feeling guilty. That beautiful life has a name and it's Goal Navarro—the persistent head of the Navarro Cartel. Goal Navarro sees what he wants and goes after it. Being a man who's always on the move, he's finally found the lady that keeps him grounded. Running the Cartel that was snatched from his father and handed to him by his Abuelo, nothing can stop the sexy Colombian.

Can a good girl find love in a thug? For Lei Fifer, that’s the hundred-thousand-dollar question. When Lei, an introverted homebody, invites her girls over for a spa day, she isn’t expecting their conversation to shift to men in prison. As an advocate for rehabilitated people receiving the love, companionship, and support those who haven’t committed crimes receive, Lei doesn’t hesitate to put her money where her mouth is and bet that she can find a good friend or great love with someone through the pen pal program her father created.

Nestled between Little St. Simons Island and Jekyll Island, Salix Pointe is not a place that many people know of. Part of the Golden Isles of Georgia, all the weeping willows that grow there have led the surrounding town’s folk to call it the Island of Death. Elisa and Tasmin may not want to put too much stock into the folklore of Salix Pointe, but there is a reason that the universe has brought the two women together.

In New York City, Joanna Marshall is an aspiring singer obsessed with success, determined to overcome the racism and sexism that stand in her way. Her childhood friends Maggie Ellersley and Peter Bye confront similar barriers but with different goals in mind: Maggie is focused on finding love; Peter, on becoming a surgeon. But as their interests overlap and their ambitions collide, the course of Joanna and Maggie’s lives seems destined to change forever. Written in response to the dominant stereotypes of the time, There Is Confusion paints a revelatory portrait....

Law and Zuri met in the most unconventional way, but their connection was straight out of a storybook. It was genuine, poetic, and undeniable. However, haters will always ruin it. Learning what truly sent Law her way, Zuri cut off all ties with the man who had finally reminded her of what truly being unconditionally loved felt like.

Forced to flee Detroit, ruthless and rotten Kenya and her identical twin, London, have dodged the bullets of a vicious hired hitman and endured the pain of a brutal rape. Now, due to mistaken identity, the girls must deal with Storm's strange disappearance and his partner's heinous murder before it's too late and they're next. Once again the sisters' lives are turned upside down. This time, the consequences could land them both in jail - or dead and unclaimed in the county morgue.

A riveting, groundbreaking account of how the war on crime has torn apart inner-city communities. Forty years in, the tough-on-crime turn in American politics has spurred a prison boom of historic proportions that disproportionately affects Black communities. It has also torn at the lives of those on the outside. As arrest quotas and high-tech surveillance criminalize entire blocks, a climate of fear and suspicion pervades daily life, not only for young men entangled in the legal system but for their family members and working neighbors.

Revealing how seemingly race-neutral urban sites contain hidden racial assumptions and imperatives, Lipsitz examines the ways in which urban space and social experience are racialized and emphasizes that aggrieved communities do not passively acquiesce to racism. He recognizes the people and communities that have re-imagined segregated spaces in expressive culture as places for congregation.

In Compton, California, 10 Black riders on horseback cut an unusual profile, their cowboy hats tilted against the hot Los Angeles sun. They are the Compton Cowboys, their small ranch one of the very last in a formerly semirural area of the city that has been home to African American horse riders for decades. To most people, Compton is known only as the home of rap greats NWA and Kendrick Lamar, hyped in the media for its seemingly intractable gang violence. But in 1988, Mayisha Akbar founded the Compton Jr. Posse to provide local youth with a safe alternative to the streets.

Everyone in the Rinaldi Mob has a job to do—a role to play—and newly appointed Mafian, Jisei Harper, is no exception. Jisei is used to slumming it out on her own. From birth, she was dealt a bad hand, but instead of dwelling on it, she smiled, rolled her shoulders back, and played her cards. After years of struggling, she meets Mocha, a rich daddy's girl, and Scarlett, a naïve hoodlum who had it worse off than Jisei. Little did she know, these two new friendships would lead her to the only blood relative she never knew existed.

Isolated from family and friends because of the one man she thought would be her happily ever after, Scotland is depressed, broke, and a shell of the woman she used to be. But when her man does the unthinkable, it is the last straw, causing Scotland to make a huge gamble in the name of revenge. But when that retaliation follows her home, adding yet another problem to her already hefty plate, Scotland must figure a way out of the hell she now calls life.

The lives of Frankie, Tommie, and Olivia (Livvy) haven't turned out quite as planned. Frankie has a pair of stalkers. The life that Tommie had dreamed of having with Blue has become anything but perfect, and Olivia, despite her efforts, hasn't been able to get over the psychological barrier caused by her husband's affair in Naughty or Nice.

Auben Mutze has more vices than he can deal with - six to be exact - each branded down his arm for the world to see. They mark him as a lesser twin in society, as inferior, but there’s no way he’ll let that define him. Intelligent and outgoing, Auben’s spirited antics make him popular among the other students at his underprivileged high school. So what if he’s envious of his twin Kasim, whose single vice brand is a ticket to a better life, one that likely won’t involve Auben. Then Auben starts hearing voices that speak to his dangerous side - encouraging him to perform evil deeds....

Grandmaster Caz is a pioneering legend who can genuinely be credited as one of the inventors of rap. Caz is perhaps best known as the writer of Big Bang Hank's rhyme in Rappers Delight. The lyrics were stolen from him and he has never been credited or paid a dollar for writing the words to possibly the most famous rap record ever. Caz went on to form the legendary Coldcrush Brothers whose party rocking style would greatly influence many of rap's commercial breakthrough artists.