Contemporary African American Fiction

Since receiving a text saying their husbands may have cheated on them, Jaime, Aria, and Renee have been trying to move past the heartbreaking situation. But regardless of whether the text was a lie, the three can’t deny that the way they see their husbands—and themselves—has changed.

In Kenya, when a young American man falls in love with the sophisticated daughter of an African chief, their marriage is strong. But tradition will soon put their union to the supreme test. Gripping and soulful, A Woman's Worth is a tale of cultural divisions, emotional wounds, and a love that struggles to transcend them.

Nationally best-selling author Lutishia Lovely spills sin and sizzle in The Eleventh Commandment, part of the Hallelujah Love series. Members of Kingdom Citizen’s Christian Center are up to all sorts of no good. Frieda’s juggling her husband, new baby and boy toy, while Hope is struggling with the return of her husband’s old flame and Stacy’s deciding if joining her ex in a moneymaking scheme will reunite them.

Award-winning authors Victoria Christopher Murray and ReShonda Tate Billingsley are both beloved for their strong female leads and juicy plotting. In Sinners & Saints, Murray and Billingsley join forces to tell a tale packed with drama, scandal, and redemption. Jasmine Bush and Rachel Adams both want their husbands to be elected president of the National Baptist Association, and they’re willing to use plenty of low-down tricks to win. But when another woman joins the fray, she proves more devious than either of them could imagine.

Los Angeles talent manager Benita Hawkins has returned to tiny Trinity Falls, Ohio, to visit her elderly great-aunt Helen - and hopefully convince her to move to assisted living. But that's not the only move Benita hopes to inspire. After years of hometown hookups with her childhood sweetheart, university band director Vaughn Brooks, Benita wants more: for Vaughn to move to LA and settle down with her. She even gets involved in his work, planning to lure him to the City of Angels....

Fortysomething and still single, music-video exec Pia Jamison has given up her grandiose ideas on men and marriage - but not motherhood. Her biological clock is on red alert, but after years of self-imposed celibacy she has no clue how to attract the man she needs to get the baby she wants. Help comes in the form of Pia's savvy assistant, who tricks her boss into attending, under the guise of a business conference, a flirting workshop called Weapons of Mass Seduction.

Essence best-selling author Vanessa Davis Griggs is not afraid to tackle controversial subject matter in her faith-based fiction. Forever Soul Ties follows Butterfly and Ethan - two high school friends mired in unhappy marriages. After a chance encounter, they embark on an illicit affair. But when Butterfly is found out, stress is placed on her already struggling marriage and her standing in her church.

After a taste of Broadway stardom and a failed marriage, Francine Tanner is rebuilding her life back home on Cavanaugh Island. She's done with acting - and anyone who isn't genuine about real life and true feelings. But the mysterious newcomer who's bought land outside her hometown of Sanctuary Cove is as down to earth as he is handsome...and he may be her second chance for the real thing.

When middle-aged divorcee Emily Yancy moves home to be with her ailing mother, she's not expecting to find romance. But Aaron Merritt is a handsome doctor with all the right moves - except when it comes to the bedroom. Then there's Teddy Simms, her former crush whose only skills seem to lie between the sheets. What will Emily choose - happiness or sexual fulfillment?

Down on her luck and broke, Jennifer Dudley long ago traded dancing in the chorus line for swinging from a stripper pole to make ends meet. She’s hoping an offer to come back home and teach dance at her old performance academy will be the opportunity she needs to fix her life. When she moves in with—and falls for—a fine software developer with brains and a boyish smile, she decides she might be well on her way to a second chance at success—and love. But her X-rated past may come back to haunt her, compromising her newfound happiness and hurting the ones she loves the most.

Arriving in Washington, DC, to start his own company, with the help of his friends Jada and Wellington, 22-year-old Darius Jones hires a woman from his past, Fancy Taylor, to oversee his West Coast offices, which leads to trouble. Still harboring the wounds of his mother's deception and a childhood without his biological father, caught between an all-consuming pride and the call of his own untrusting heart, Darius has a lot to learn: about life, women, and what it takes to find and nurture real love. And if he's not careful, he might just end up on the bottom of everything.

Atlanta's mayor, The Honorable Josiah J. Bishop, has an addiction to his wife, Mink, that is just as powerful as her toxic love affair with heroin. As her life spirals out of control due to her obsession with the needle, his love and devotion to her is slowly shredding his soul into tiny pieces. But he just can't let her go. The brotha's loyalty to the love of his life and the mother of his two young, adorable daughters is deeper than any ocean.

Tia, Ton'ya, and Tammi are not only making moves in the game, but they're doing it in the bedroom too - and anywhere they need to get what they want. Tia is quick with her razor-sharp mouth, and she carries an equally sharp razor to slice a throat if need be. Ton'ya is loyal to a fault but will fight back if threatened. Tammi is the brains of the operation. They have collected more bodies than a Manhattan hooker working the lower East Side. What happens when the heart gets in the way of making money?

She cheated with one of her best friends' husbands - and turned scathing publicity into cash-money celebrity. But Jessa Bell has reformed. She's trying to make amends to those she did wrong, and she's started a successful business catching rich unfaithful spouses. Her agents are beautiful lost girls who get a shot at the good life. And when Jessa's sizzling affair with private detective Hammer turns into love and marriage, she's sure she's finally doing things right, until she catches Hammer sleeping with one of her agents just months after their wedding.

Siblings Brenda and Brian Andrews think their good looks, money, and charm should afford them the pick of the litter among the abundant singles scene in Atlanta, and they've never been too shy to sample. Unfortunately, all pawns in their single life games aren't playing nicely, nor are they willing to take being manipulated lying down. As though they aren't dealing with enough, the doorway to hidden family secrets is suddenly slung open when their alcoholic, philandering, and often abusive father's body is discovered floating in their parent's pool.

Love wasn’t supposed to be a part of the deal… Even a famed matchmaker like Nolan Madaris’s great-grandmother can’t get it right every time. Nolan, the notorious fun-loving ladies’ man, could never connect with someone as straitlaced as tech whiz Ivy Chapman. Yet the scheme Ivy proposes is tempting - they can pretend to be a couple, just long enough to satisfy their families. But someone forgot to clue in their hearts. What happens, though, when Ivy’s plan to get her relatives off her back has an unexpected side effect: getting her into Nolan’s bed?

Five years after his beloved wife's death, wealthy Quentin Chambers still hasn't returned to the church or his music ministry. Even his home is now devoid of music, and without his attention, Quentin's five children are getting out of control - until his mother stepsin and hires him a live-in nanny. Montana is pretty, compassionate, church-going, and even has a beautiful singing voice. The children take to her right away, and soon enough Quentin finds his heart opening to faith - and love - once more. But not everyone loves Montana....

Coach Damon Kilpatrick believes that he has finally found Ms. Right in sexy corporate executive Nichole Adams, that is, until he realizes that she is already in a relationship. Nichole Adams has been involved with police officer Deacon Miles for two years. When he's shot in the line of duty, she leans on her friend Damon for support. She arrives at the hospital only to discover that Deacon, the man she planned to marry, already has a wife. Unable to deal with his lies and betrayal, Nichole leaves him, but Deacon can't accept it. Obsessed with Nichole, he will do anything to keep her.

One thing about me? I don't play games. Another thing about me? I don't waste time. In my role as Mr. Black Detroit, my focus is supporting my community and planning the city's annual Juneteenth celebration. Again, my time is valuable. I should've ignored the text. But . . . there's something about Daphne that makes me want to engage. Maybe it's the way she commands a room and isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. Or maybe it's the glimpse of vulnerability in her eyes. It's probably just her. Whatever it is in the beginning quickly morphs into something else entirely, though.

I think my best friend just proposed to me . . . am I tripping? How could he remember, he can't be serious. A pact that we made when we were only teenagers couldn't still ring true . . . could it? I promised my best friend that we would get married if we were both thirty-five and still single. At the time, I was a teenager and believed that I would be married long before that age. But I was wrong. So very wrong. I'll be thirty-five on my next birthday and still single.