African Urban

Love should burn slow, but with Ezra "Ethic" Okafor it is always fast and fleeting. After an accidental killing affects Alani, the woman he loves, she thinks he's a monster. Separated by tragedy, the pair endure a loss like nothing they have ever felt, and their connection is impossible to repair. Ethic is reduced to misery and raising his children alone once again. With Morgan in the throes of a passionate love affair and Bella in need of guidance that he can't provide, Ethic is in turmoil. He's failing as a man, and the fingerprint he is leaving on the world is a bloody one.

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.

Life can be cruel. Sometimes it's hard to play with the cards you've been dealt. Growing up in the ghetto can be hell; good or bad, everybody has a story. Toni is young and sexy, but her life story is limited with her mother's drug addiction and her older brother, Sheek, doing life in prison. She struggles day by day, stripping and sometimes doing more in underground clubs to support herself and her family. Toni eventually befriends a rich pretty boy from Long Island, whose life was sheltered from poverty since the day he was born.

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....

When Farah Cotton places a classified ad stating, “Cute redbone female looking to share a luxury apartment with another redbone female”, many women apply. One look at the lush apartment in Washington, DC, and every fly girl around wants a chance to call Platinum Lofts her new home. The moment Farah lays eyes on Lesa Carmine, a pretty young woman with an active lifestyle and a sunny disposition, she knows she’s found the perfect girl for her ultimate plan. The two become fast friends - until Farah becomes intrusive and her siblings move in, violating Lesa’s privacy.

Persia Chandler doesn't know the meaning of the world struggle. After the arrest of her notorious father, she is whisked away from Harlem, the only place she has ever called home, to be raised in an affluent neighborhood in Long Island City. Her mother and stepfather shower her with the best that life has to offer. During her senior year in high school, she convinces her parents to let her transfer from Catholic school to attend public school. That is the start of her problems - but it's hardly the end.

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.

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.

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.

When Ava Dunning's mother is killed in a senseless act of violence, it feels like the world has ended. Now on her own, with the bills piling up, Ava is forced to take a job with a company called Maid For You. Trying to clock as many hours as she can, Ava jumps at the opportunity to do some overtime on the side, only to discover that she's bitten off more than she can chew. Just like that, she becomes a cleaner for King Dex, one of the most notorious kingpins on the West Coast. It's nothing for him to pay a couple thousand dollars for her to clean up his dirty work.

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.

Welcome to The Manors of Harrington Point; enter at your own risk. These mansions are home to the elite, the famous, the successful, and the eccentric. From the millionaire mega-pastor and his wife to the former child star turned porn star, this neighborhood is filled with old money, new money, and everything and everyone in between. The tale of what goes on behind these gates is as entertaining and unforgettable as the neighbors themselves.

Sassy, sophisticated, and sensual are the three adjectives Sugar uses to define her personality, her style, and her shapely curves. Fiercely confident about her luxurious, full-figured body, Sugar sashays through Chicago’s nightlife belting high notes as a well-known singing sensation. Idolized by many, only few know her secret: She and her longtime manager, Ace, share more than a common passion for Sugar’s career - they’re lovers. At Ace’s insistence, Sugar has always agreed to secrecy for the sake of her career, but now she’s tired of hiding.

Do you know who you are? Are you comfortable in your skin? Outed by her best friend in front of the whole neighborhood, Niya is trying to come to terms with being a lesbian. When she falls for her straight neighbor, Jamilla, there is no more denying who she really is. Niya will do whatever it takes to prove her love, even if it means taking a life. What will happen when family issues, fame, the struggle for love, and reality set in? How will Niya deal with a hip-hop career as she tries to repair her broken heart and family issues?

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.

Simone knows if she plays with fire, she runs the risk of getting burned, but she just can't help herself. Living large off the paternity scam of a lifetime, she has two baby daddies cashing her out for her infant son. Even her own best friends are getting tired of her low-down, manipulative ways. Unfortunately, the streets begin to talk, and the out-for-self mother's luck taps out.

This collection is full of gritty stories of strong, spirited women who deal with everything from homicide and drugs to all sorts of turmoil - all while showing the men of the streets of Brooklyn that they are not afraid of anything. Perhaps the edgiest of all the Girls from da Hood books, this drama-filled installment follows a drug-fueled crime operation, which could put the girls and their extravagant lifestyles in permanent danger. But these girls from da hood are trying to find a way out of their troubles, by any means necessary.

Around the Way Girls 10, like its predecessors, is a fast-paced look at the lives of some street-smart women who think they know it all but are about to get the lessons of their lives.

Jakki and School Boy are more than first cousins; they’re best friends and partners in crime with a reputation for getting theirs by any means necessary. The pair are ultimately forced to defend not only their family name but their loyalty to each other. With both wanting to stand at the head of the table, Jakki and School Boy feud. Sani, a well-known female gambling house owner, is at the top of her game, but after she decides to inject phony currency into her business, all hell breaks loose.

After surviving another attempt on her life, Keema Newell proves that a true hustler never dies. As a ghetto superstar and queen of the streets, she struggles to put the pieces of her life back together, while trying to tame her now notorious daughter, Treasure. Money, murder, and mayhem comes from every angle as Keema finds herself in a viscous web of deceit, tearing apart the lives of everyone she comes in contact with—ultimately making her fair game for her ruthless enemies. Little does she know, her own daughter has plans to step in and take over the throne.