Contemporary African American Fiction

After a semester full of heartbreak and tragedy, Reign returns home for the holidays to fully recuperate. She makes a split decision to stop her medication during the break. All is well until a dark family secret makes its way to the light. Reign quickly finds herself at the forefront of the battle against depression. When it rains...it pours.

Would you compromise your marriage to get out of debt? Naomi and DeShaun seem to have the perfect life, but when money runs low, they have to face the hard truth: Nothing lasts forever.

In this second edition, the hotties of Heritage State University are back and the drama is on! Kyla's sorority quest forces her to come to some stunning realizations about her sister, Kayla, and herself. Ananda's overload of classes, sports, and addiction take her down a dangerously unsteady road. Cee-Cee's working on a relationship that might prove to be detrimental to her wellbeing as she knows it. Tina's got more than just one admirer, and that's just the beginning of her troubles as she stuggles to live and fit in the skin she's in.

Confident and determined, video vixen Koreen Wilson has it all: money, fame, supportive friends, a loving daughter, and an adoring fiancé. What happens when Koreen continues to risk it all to for her insatiable sexual appetite? Meet Koreen's closest friends: Ivonka Roux is the finest attorney money can buy. With her 38th birthday looming, Ivonka is desperate to find Mr. Right and start a family...even if it means ignoring red flags.

Young, beautiful, and a hopeless romantic, Justine Graham is careless when it comes to the dating game. Desperate for love, Justine soon finds out the hard way about the importance of self-love in this short tale by Bien-Aime Wenda.

Jazzy is fresh out of high school and looking to get away from her past. There’s no better way to do that than going away to college out of state. The only things she planned on taking with her to the dirty south where her New York state of mind and her best friend, Anika...Man-made problems arise and it’s up to them to keep their friendship on track. Drown yourself in this short story about two best friends that just can’t seem to get it right. Their loyalty to one another is constantly tested and when it’s time to apologize, it just might be too late.

Just as things are starting to look up for the Ellison family, a knock at the door will rock them to its knees and change the dynamics in this family forever. Constance (Connie) Ellison an attorney from Seattle, Washington, is looking for her long lost father, Charles Ellison, since the recent death of her mother, and her search has landed her on the front steps of Charles’s widower, Mrs. Coretta Ellison, a woman of faith and forgiveness.

Persia Maxine had no way of knowing that fighting the community bully was the way she’d meet her future husband, Damien Jordan. From childhood best friends to husband and wife, Persia believed she and Damien had an unbreakable bond. So, when things in their once blissful union begin to change, Persia is on the prowl for answers. When she discovers that Damien has betrayed her, forgiving him is not an option. Unbeknownst to Persia, Damien hides a dark side that she never imagined, and she’ll learn the hard way that Damien refuses to let her go.

Bianca Whitted was less then ecstatic initially about her pregnancy, but the love of her love convinced her he had her and their child, so she continued on with her pregnancy, looking forward to the arrival of her bundle of joy. What she didn’t count on was her child’s father doing a 360.

The Closing Argument is a provocative courtroom novella about an African American man who is tried in Connecticut for the crime of infecting a woman with HIV, the virus that the American government has declared the official cause of AIDS. In a move that shocks the nation, his attorney puts the government and the AIDS establishment on trial and tries to convince the jury that everything the public has been told about the nature of the AIDS and CFS epidemics is both racist and homophobic.

The girls are at it again and have taken revenge to the next level. Dana has gone through an ultimate test of will and faith, but she refuses to sit still and live her life being dependent on others. Stephanie is in a world of her own and wants to transition away from Dana and Brittany. Jeryca's future keeps her visiting her past and remembering how Farrah was there for her, which sets her teeth on edge. She is going to make everyone involved pay dearly - even the ones currently in her circle.

Vera Wright-Turner thinks she has it all under control until she meets and greets herself. Born on the flip side of the hustler's game, she is the child of a 15-year-old drug addict who places her in a trash dump with a note that read, "Please forgive me...my mother's only 15...." Well, that is of little consolation to Vera as she lives her gold-diggin' life full speed ahead, only to come to a crashing halt when she realizes that facing up to the flip side of the game is the only way she will survive.

Julian “Jagg” Grey has the best life as a top drug lord in Harlem. He’s dating a girl tied to the mob, and he’s making more money than his eyes can see. In fact, he’s being groomed to take over his love interest’s kingpin father’s position upon marrying into the family, but he’s finding difficulty doing just that.

Dealing with the aftermath of her husband’s affair has not been easy for Sylvia Blackwell. When she vowed to stay by his side for better or for worse, she never imagined that would mean becoming a parent to Jordan, his troubled teenaged love child. Now, Sylvia is facing a new dilemma that could not only be the final straw that breaks her fragile marriage, but could also shatter her already strained relationship with her sister, Janelle.

Keep your friends at a distance because it’s not always your enemies you need to be keeping close. The block is a microscope, and you’re always under it.

True friends are hard to come by, and even when you find them, it can be an all-or-nothing situation. Jada battles with being the glue that holds her group together, and she finds herself continuously stuck in the middle of her four girlfriends’ family and relationship drama. Together, the girls witness life and death, sticky situations, and the pros and cons of relationships. Their true dedication to their friendship is tried again and again, but there’s only so much a chick can take. Once each girl has reached her boiling point, there’s no telling who will get burned.

An ex-con learns the hard way that it’s better to be with God than without. Deon “Rocky” Rockford is released after spending time in jail. He may have been “saved” on the inside, but now his term has been overturned. He is also free from the shackles of the prayers of the men’s ministry of the New Hope Church and wants only to focus on himself. Fearless and strong, this big guy won several fights behind bars and feels ready to forge a new life in Shelton Heights. Soon he will see that the only “rock” he can count on is God.

Bree Capri is a YouTuber with millions of subscribers. When it comes to recommending the newest makeup, she’s your best bet. However, when it comes to her love life, she can’t seem to figure it out. Bree is scared of commitment. Anything that has to do with committing scares her. Like, her three-year relationship with her boyfriend, Mike Manning. While Mike wants nothing more than to marry Bree, have children and live their life together, Bree gets hives at the thought of spending forever with one person.

Twenty-six-year-old Kymani can’t seem to catch a break lately. Over the past few years, his life has gone from unlimited potential to feeling stuck and uncertain about the future. His dead-end job offers no comfort or hope of change and his love life is nonexistent, making everything twice as hard to cope with. One day a chance meeting sets Kymani on a new path and breathes newfound motivation into his life that could turn things around once and for all.

At 39, Josie Bordelon's modeling career as the "it" Black beauty of the '90s is far behind her. Now director of admissions at San Francisco's most sought after private school, she's chic, single, and determined to keep her 17-year-old daughter, Etta, from making the same mistakes she did. But Etta has plans of her own - and their beloved matriarch, Aunt Viv, has Etta's back. If only Josie could manage Etta's future as well as she manages the shenanigans of the over-anxious, over-eager parents at school - or her best friend's attempts to coax Josie back onto the dating scene.