Urban African American

There's more to 24-year-old Sdia Mitchell than looks. This native Washingtonian has brains and brawn to match, but not without baggage. She was sexually abused as a child, which is more than a load for this beauty to carry. Just when Sdia begins to find peace and self-acceptance, along comes Mel Simmons, a handsome, fast-talking, womanizing barbershop owner from South Jersey. He not only takes pride in the control he has over his career, but, also in the control he has over his women. Soon Sdia finds herself struggling to escape Mel's demands, obsession, and narcissistic rage.

Fed up with her married Miami boyfriend, savvy Dulce has no problem stealing his drug-dealer stash and fleeing to the Caribbean. Between her special skills - and an eye for very rich and/or very smokin' men - Dulce stays a hustle ahead of trouble and makes her new life one endless party in Puerto Rico. Until she's caught in Hurricane Maria - and witnesses both the heartbreaking disaster of climate change, and the international vultures who plunder the tragedy for a financial killing, making shady use of relief funds to devastate the island even more....

At 72, Johnny Ribkins shouldn't have such problems: he's got one week to come up with the money he stole from his mobster boss or it's curtains. What may or may not be useful to Johnny as he flees is that he comes from an African American family that has been gifted with superpowers that are a bit, well, odd. Okay, very odd. For example, Johnny's father could see colors no one else could see. His brother could scale perfectly flat walls. His cousin belches fire. And Johnny himself can make precise maps of any space you name, whether he's been there or not.

In 2010 former gang leader turned community activist Big Mike Cummings asked UCLA gang expert Jorja Leap to co-lead a group of men struggling to be better fathers in Watts, South Los Angeles. These men, black and brown, from late adolescence to middle age, come together each week to help one another answer the question "how can I be a good father when I've never had one?"

Tyesha Couvillier will never forget the rip-offs and brutal treatment she endured as a sex worker. So as the new director of the groundbreaking Lower East Side Women's Health Clinic, she'll take on the Ukranian mob and corrupt strip club bosses to stop local exotic dancers from being pressured into selling sex. And if she and her crew can pull off an elaborate heist, the evidence they steal could upend this vicious game - and give exploited women a chance at justice.

Best-selling author Samona de la Cruz has found herself on the wrong side of love. Even though she knows that loving Elliot Louis-Jacques is wrong, she has no desire to be right. There's just one problem - Elliot is in a long-term relationship with Demitri Alexander. As an openly bisexual man, Elliot has no problem with having his cake and eating it, too. When he tells Mona and Demitri that he wants both of them at the same time, all hell breaks loose. But then Elliot's ex steps into the picture and throws a monkey wrench that Mona never saw coming.

The night Army Specialist Merlin Mills’s identical twin brother, Gavin, slept with his wife, everything changed. Now Merlin must come to grips with the fact that Cojo may be carrying his brother’s child. For Gina Meadows, Merlin’s mother, it’s a brutal reminder of the dysfunction that has always plagued her family. Tension escalates when Gina pops up pregnant after a night of drunken revelry, and an icy finger points to her deviant son as the father. The drama that ensues forces them all to take stock of their lives.

Some secrets will kill you. No one knows that better than Jada, Alex, Miranda, and Candace, who’ve previously lost one of their friends, Stephanie, following a heartbreaking betrayal. Now Stephanie’s boyfriend, Corey, is hitting the streets of Atlanta with a vengeance in an effort to get the haters that took his girlfriend’s life, all while trying to take back his title as the king of the hood. Stephanie may be dead now, but the secrets lingering between the rest of the crew seem to just keep piling up and coming to the forefront.

Several years have passed, but Sylvia McMillan still can’t run and hide from the truth that continues to tear at her soul. Her love for Jonathan Taylor, her ex-friend’s husband, remains. Jonathan has moved on, though. In less than six months, he plans to watch his new bride cascade down the aisle as they join hands in holy matrimony. He’s not about to let Sylvia’s slickness derail him again - but then again, how can he resist the one woman who is willing to honor every single one of his wishes?

When Miami gangster Dante flies out to New Jersey to tie up some “loose ends”, the job is quickly sidetracked by a stop in upstate New York - Syracuse to be precise. While there, he reconnects with his blood mother and other relatives. Like her son, Dante’s mother is an underworld figure of her own as the leader of the ruthless Blackwell family, which is currently embroiled in a bloody war for total control of every last bit of NY and NJ drug territory. With Dante now in the fold, albeit temporarily...the Blackwells see an opportunity to crush their enemies once and for all.

A birder strolling in Central Park. A college student lounging on a university quad. Two men sitting in a coffee shop. Perfectly ordinary actions in ordinary settings—and yet, they sparked jarring and inflammatory responses that involved the police and attracted national media coverage. Why? In essence, Elijah Anderson would argue, because these were Black people existing in white spaces. In this book, Anderson brings his immense knowledge and ethnography to bear in this timely study of the racial barriers that are still firmly entrenched in our society at every class level.

When love leaves 19-year-old Loyalty Wallace with nothing but a pair of bruised ribs, she finds herself with $500,000 in stolen cash from her boyfriend, Whip, and a target on her back. She plans to use that money to escape her toxic relationship, but what she doesn’t know is the money she stole wasn’t his to keep. It was a loan from the Belmonte family, one of the most dangerous families in the heart of the Big Apple.

Once again she’s back! Keisha Ervin, that is, with her spellbinding tale of love, family, money, and scandal. In this sizzling new story, Keisha introduces you to Mina Matthews. She is not your typical around-the-way girl. Her dreams of making a life for herself outside the hood are now a reality. At the age of 25, she has her own full-service salon, Mina’s Joint, drives a CLK55, and is engaged to Andrew, the son of the mayor of St. Louis. To most, she has it all, but everything that glitters ain’t gold.

Welcome to the fast-paced, high-stakes world of Rasheed, an antihero you'll love to hate, much like Scarface. Caught up in a game of fast money, faster women, and a hustler's dream, Rasheed's secrets and lies threaten to sever his alliance with his baby's mother, Michelle.

Inner Circle depicts the life of Evelyn Lozada’s off-camera alter ego, Eve Inez. Much like The Basketball Wives, Inner Circle reveals everything athletes’ wives live through, complete with the cheating, scandal, manipulation, and gossip. And this time, nothing is being held back. None of the wives are prepared for how addictive their rich lifestyles can be, and they find themselves stooping to unimaginable levels of deception to preserve their social status.

Blazing with scandal, deception, temptation, and revenge, this third installment in the Twisted series blurs the lines of infidelity and tests the true meaning of love.

Welcome to Bailey's Café, the most mythically real diner you've ever walked into. Presided over by Bailey and his helpmate, Nadine, it is a magnet that draws a wide variety of the "colored" people of 1948, each with a story to tell.

New York Times best-selling authors Ashley and JaQuavis have returned with the much-anticipated final installment in the epic Murderville series. Taking up where the previous book left off, we're thrown back into the international street chronicle. Lives and money are on the line, and tough choices will have to be made between love and loyalty. In the final installment of this breath-taking trilogy, the characters will have to learn that, in this game of power, sometimes you have to give up the glory to survive.

Animal, the gentle and kind-hearted family man, is still infamous for turning at any moment into a cold-blooded killer. Animal is the product of ruthless abuse and the unforgiving streets - he is the product of the world we all live in. Is there anything that could push you to the breaking point of murder? Are you absolutely sure there isn't? After all, there's an Animal in all of us.

All he ever wanted to be was a good son. Shai Clark was an all-American basketball player with aspirations of one day making it to the NBA, but that all changed when his father was viciously murdered and he found himself thrust into the role of the new head of his family's criminal enterprise.