Contemporary African American Fiction

Flash, the son of Philadelphia drug queen pin Vickie Lopez, decides he isn't going to prison, not even for his own mother. When he’s arrested for a small amount of cocaine, he spills his guts to Philadelphia homicide detectives, resulting in the arrest and federal conviction, under the RICO Act, of his own mother. She’s staring down a life sentence.

When Julie hears her favorite cousin is in town, she's ready for girly nights, glamor, and gossip. But when she learns her distant cousin Melina is also around, things don't seem as exciting. Melina is a conniving gold digger, and not the kind of woman you'd want to leave around your man! So how will the "too kind for his own good" Steven hold up?

In Something Old, Something New, Lily Fontaine and Trent July are finally planning their wedding. But when well-intentioned neighbors - including Bernadine, the town fairy godmother - insist on inflating the intimate gathering into the event of the decade, Lily and Trent start wishing they'd simply eloped.

The crew is back for one final round. Everything about this series has been absolutely insane. We've witnessed deceit, heartbreak, and a whole lot of betrayal. There have been good times too. The love between these characters has been nothing short of amazing and definitely something worth fighting for. A whirlwind of emotions has been on the rise since this series started, but in the end, everyone will rightfully receive the ending that they deserve. Take one last ride with these characters, and witness how everything unfolds.

Dismayed at what she now has to consider her life, Loriana tries her best to balance it all. The unforeseen death of her mother has her suffocating in grief, feeling as if she’s lost it all. While struggling internally, she smiles on the outside to save face. That’s until she can no longer keep up her façade. When she least expects it, the breath of fresh air she was desperately gasping for is given. On a rollercoaster with her emotions, wondering how her first love became her first heartbreak, she finds herself. Those good days she prayed to God for had finally came around.

Best friends Amelia and Amaru have done everything together for the past thirteen years, including raise their children together. For those around them, love radiates from the duo on a soul level that makes them question why they haven’t taken things further. One failed relationship after another reminds them why their friendship is so important. No amount of sex or romance is worth risking the bond they share. When Amelia’s questionable choices in men causes Amaru to view her differently, he can’t stop himself from wondering if he can become the exception to her no dating friends rule.

DaVinci is a fighter, fighting for more than just a title, but to stay out of the shadows of a family he didn't choose. Fighting was all he had until he encountered a woman just as driven and unfulfilled. Aria has never believed in happily ever afters or that mushy love that turned people into whole different folks. Instead, she was grounded, photographing by day and cuddling up with her bulldog by night. Surely that isn't a life, but it and her on and off again fling with an ex seem to be enough. That is until the fighter finds himself jabbing into her life.

During his career of drugs, murder, and dirty money, Clifton Brick never expected to find, nor was he looking, for love. He was accustomed to fast money and even faster women. But when he met Kiana “Ki” Bradshaw, a woman with her own lucrative criminal enterprise he knew that he found the love of his life. After years of a blissful union and building their empire, Clifton and Kiana’s loyalty to each other and their dynasty are at risk when enemies posing as friends decide that they’ve been on top long enough

Cheyanne Taylor has seen and experienced the evil that comes from the love of money. She was born to parents who chased wealth and status more than they prioritized nurturing and loving her. Thankfully, her billionaire grandfather adopted her and provided the stable home she needed. After years of toxic relationships with men of wealth or who used her because of hers, Cheyanne decides to keep her identity hidden.

Anissa Dent is experiencing heartbreak like none she’s ever felt. Her husband of nearly twenty years has fallen victim to crack cocaine after a devastating loss. All her efforts to help him have failed, and to protect herself and her sons, she divorces him and has him removed from their home. That doesn’t stop him from popping in and out of their lives with promises of getting clean. Anissa desperately wants to move on in her life, but her love for what once was is holding her back. However, attending a family barbeque with her son proves to be the restart she desperately needs.

In this day and age, one would believe that skin color would not matter, but in this coming of age novel, Sandra Ray learns that it still matters in a painful way. Although she is twenty three, attends college full time and works as a sales associate, she has a little growing up to do. She realizes she can't live with her sister and brother-in-law forever and is angry and bitter from feeling a lack of control of what happens in her life. When her sister and brother-in-law try to set her up with a successful Pediatrician she resists with all her might.

What do you do if people say you are born with the “mark of the devil,” especially in Jamaica where many believe in the spirits of good and evil? If you are Isabella “Bella” Pigmore, born with a birthmark so pronounced that she faces ridicule for most of her young life, you feel bad—very bad. Growing up feeling like a freak, Bella clings to the only support she has, her mother. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances and she is left alone with her abusive father, Bella suffers dearly at the hands of the man who should protect her.

Keyon has been through more than enough drama in her young life. She tries to put as much distance between her and the past in Louisiana, taking the opportunity to move to Memphis with her longtime boyfriend, Casimere. Adjusting to their new home, Keyon thinks she’s finally getting the life that she deserves. But is she? Has she truly left behind all the things that caused her pain?

His ability to launder money has him on the payroll of some of the city's most notorious criminals. When his father was sent to prison for life, Jagger's uncle made it his business to ensure that Jagger didn't suffer the same fate. He sent Jagger to college with plans to keep him on the cleaner side of the business, but unforeseen circumstances put Jagger in the midst of his uncle's empire.

With the amount of lows that happened back to back in this series, you would think that the worst is now over, but it's honestly just begun. One of the biggest lows of this series has to be Emilia's and Ramonte's betrayal of Carmen. We all know that Carmen is very short-tempered, and it doesn't take much for her to lash out. To know that a cousin of hers, who's also her best friend, is pregnant by Carmen's baby's father is a situation where Carmen will be well within her rights to handle it however she wants to.

Bruce was threatening to expose a big secret of the Yoshida family—he wasn't Lee's biological father. Aside from Lee's CEO title on the line, the real hurt was the identity of his real father. That was about to shake the entire family upside down. Also, Lee has been keeping certain details about himself from Constance. Eventually, he'll have to come clean which terrifies him that he could scare her off for good.

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.

Before becoming a strait-laced wealthy businessman, Robert Noble was considered a bad boy and sexy rogue inside out, while breaking hearts, right and left. No one knows it better than Roxanne Miller since Robert was her brother's best friend in high school. When Robert returns to town and hires Roxanne as an interior decorator to do a makeover of the house he purchased, she decides she doesn't like the uncompromising Robert Noble and decides he’s the one due for a makeover. Roxanne is determined to bring the bad boy, sexy-rogue back.

She loved and lost. Losing him shattered her to pieces. She can be whole again. He’s the reason. He’s also the reason why her life fell apart. Now, she needs him more than she needs air to breathe.

Upon finding out Belly has been unfaithful, Blaise realizes that bringing yet another child into the world with a womanizing manipulator isn't ideal, so she must act accordingly. In the second installment, Belly learns that Blaise is a far cry from the sit-by-the-phone women he's used to. His suave demeanor, charming ways, and calculated words fall on blind eyes and deaf ears when it comes to the heartbroken and now callous Blaise. However the ever so determined Belly is always up for a challenge.