Contemporary African American Fiction

Kelaya Harper knows two things when it comes to Hezekiah Perez. One, she loves him. Two, they can never be together. They are from two different worlds and blending them will be a tragic misstep. Hezekiah knows his heart belongs only to Kelaya and will do anything to prove that they are meant to be. Just when he thinks they are finally locked in, everything implodes and he fears his life will never exist with the love and balance he craves.

Quentin Robinson is in his second year in the NFL, and he has records to break and points to make. With his relationship on the rocks, Quentin starts to think that, during such a pivotal point in his career, he should remain single. Doing a good deed puts him in the path of Melody Lane, a grieving single mother who only wants the best for her son. Quentin sees so much of his mother in Melody that he can't help but offer to help her in any way he knows how.

From her first days at Virginia’s Hampton University, impressionable, creative Nia falls smitten with Chris Eidos Alleyne, an athlete and a scholar. “Love is sweet nothings and beautiful promises”, Nia writes in her journal. What her girlfriends know, and her mother doesn’t, is that Chris’s expression of love is deeply physical. Wielding powerful charisma, Chris soon has Nia abandoning innocence for experience.

As the CEO of Building Bridges LLC, Bri is driven by determination for success. However, while planning the wedding of one of Chicago's hottest couples, Bri's focus is shifted when the strum of a nocturnal voice captures her attention. Being an empath has empowered her sense of compassion for others, so she's not only drawn to him because of his broken heart but also from a fierce attraction that sparks her interest and tap dances on a groove on her heart. Getting involved with someone who's not open to love may prove to be the most difficult road Bri has ever journeyed.

As the matriarch in one of Chicago's elite families, Bridgette Valentine has the weight of the world on her shoulders. Coordinating soirees for every season, along with pulling her weight as the co-owner of Valentine Media Group, Bridgette is left little time to indulge in the one person who rocks her world, Leslie Valentine.

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.

Yves worked so hard to build a better life and rid herself of her ex-husband. When she sees him in Vee’s kitchen, her entire world feels like it went back to the day her daughter died. With her ex-husband back in her life, she has to deal with all the past traumas that their marriage has caused. If Khalif re-entering her life isn’t enough, a blast from the past comes back into her life proving to still have the keys to her heart.

In Abide with Me, Harris returns with the utmost finesse to his signature themes of love, friendship, and family, and craftily guides his irresistible characters through new challenges and heartbreaks, and ultimately to redemption through love. At the end of Just As I Am, Raymond Tyler, Jr., was beginning a relationship with Trent, a fraternity brother from his college days, while Nicole had found love with Jared, Raymond's buddy from Atlanta.

With Yves carrying not one but two blessings, she wants to be the mother that she couldn’t be for her late daughter. Coming home from rehab, there are a lot of feelings that Yves can’t shake. Roddy is the love of her life, but why does everything in their relationship seem so hard? With their past, she wonders if they’ll be able to restore what they used to have. Or is it best to call it quits and focus on their kids?

For some, love starts with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends in tears. For four friends from Queens, it's about to get complicated....

At eighteen and against her father's wishes, Amyris moves to another country, hoping to make her dreams a reality. Before she can hit the ground running, her life takes a turn she hadn't expected after meeting and marrying Ivo Yannik—a man who lured her into the union under false pretenses.

I knew he had the power to make me feel, but he also had the power to break me. To pull my heart outside of my chest and stomp on it. I knew falling for a man like Capone came with more than I was ready for. He wasn't feared for no reason. Timmy never meant Jaiden any good, and I knew it from the first time I met him. I've never wanted someone dead as much as I wanted him dead. Timmy needed to go, and I didn't care how he went as long as he wasn't breathing. Capone put it on his life that he would always protect me and mine.

Grace, a budding junior accountant, desires a family and a home with the ideal mate. After three years of a torrid romance with her college sweetheart, Maurice, she fully expected he would propose. But Maurice, focused on his art career, continually negates any marriage plans. Rather than continue waiting, Grace chooses to move on.

Gaia Wilson: I wanted nothing to do with him. His eyes were lifeless. His demeanor cold. His actions too harsh. Ricardo Carter wasn't the kind of man you fell in love with—he was the kind you ran from. Ricardo "Rocco" Carter: I wanted everything to do with her. Her eyes were full of life. Her demeanor soft. Her actions thoughtful. Gaia Wilson was the kind of woman you fell in love with—she was the kind you ran toward.

Celeste Styles is starting over. After losing her cherished salon in a suspicious fire, she has finally left her adulterous relationship and her drama-filled life in Brooklyn for the peace and tranquility of Atlanta, Georgia. But when Rah-Lo heads down south after deciding to leave his wife Asia, Celeste is floored and isn't quite sure if she wants to rekindle their affair.

Through the darkest tunnel comes the light, but for Caesar King, there is nothing but more darkness on the other side. After the failed attempt on his life, he is afraid that the Pact of the Five Families is no more. He can trust nobody. Whoever murdered Barry is now aiming for Caesar's crown, and the only way to flush them out and figure out who's responsible is to go to war...with everybody.

Born and raised in Atlanta by a father who blames the family rift on music, Amara Johnson’s talent for guitar and passion for poetry have always been just that: talent and passion that she channels into her work as a music teacher. When her estranged grandfather—a man known as much for his raspy, soulful blues songs as his perplexing personality—passes away, Amara discovers a collection of old letters, journals, and a tattered photo that offer more questions than answers.

If there is one thing Constance Hawkins is good at, it's working hard. Her dad was in a car accident that paralyzed his legs, and her sister Charley is in her sophomore year of college. With her mother not in the picture, Constance started working to help her family at a young age. Now, at twenty-six years old, she has a good job working at a bank. Until her awful boss, Sandy, decides to let Constance go because of cutbacks.

Ashley Ryan never doubted that her husband, Devon, was the love of her life. Even now, three years after Devon died in a car wreck while on a business trip, Ashley can’t bring herself to move on. But when her girlfriends surprise her with a getaway to beautiful Catalina Cove, Louisiana, she gets the shock of her life when she encounters a man - bearded, more rugged than before, but unmistakably her Devon. “Ray Sullivan” moved to this quiet coastal town after waking up in a hospital with amnesia.

I’m Denver’s unmatchmaker. Every city needs one. Why? Because people break up—and sometimes they should. But when I learn that entertainment attorney Cyrus Hart is someone else’s mistake, I can’t believe it. He’s smart, successful, and sexy as hell. When a chance encounter with Cyrus turns into something more, I can’t help but fall for him. Our chemistry is undeniable. But his ex used my company to send him that letter—and that’s a problem. Especially since he doesn’t know I own the company.