Urban African American

The seventh child of one of Richmond, Virginia's, most ambitious hustlers, Seven is a talented poet and author with a true ear for the streets. In Gorilla Black, a boy with a love of Shakespeare and Langston Hughes struggles to thrive while growing up in the projects as the son of an alcoholic mother. In time, self-dubbed Gorilla Black will ascend to the top seat of a cocaine-fueled empire - and discover the truth about his beloved brother's death so many years before.

Who can Kiam trust when friends behave as ruthlessly as enemies and the person that he is most loyal to is the very one that has a gun aimed at his back? Reeling in a bloodthirsty rage, he takes to the streets with only one mission on his mind - vengeance. Blood-stained hands and deceitful hearts have destroyed an undying allegiance. As Kiam unleashes his vicious murder game on known adversaries, he overlooks the true enemy which is nearest. However, spilled blood will lead him to the truth.

Persia Chandler doesn't know the meaning of the world struggle. After the arrest of her notorious father, she is whisked away from Harlem, the only place she has ever called home, to be raised in an affluent neighborhood in Long Island City. Her mother and stepfather shower her with the best that life has to offer. During her senior year in high school, she convinces her parents to let her transfer from Catholic school to attend public school. That is the start of her problems - but it's hardly the end.

They say loyalty is everything, but beneath the surface of a promise lies betrayal and deceit. Taught by the best and given the keys to an empire, Kiam's loyalty is tested at every turn, as he strives to enforce his rule over those who ultimately can't be trusted. A deadly warning directs his course as he strives to carry out his orders. Complications set in when his mentor's beautiful, sexy, and rebellious daughter Lissha - who is as comfortable carrying a gun as she is carrying a Gucci bag - forces Kiam to decide between his sizzling desire for her and his immense loyalty to big Zo.

When the identity of the traitor in Kiam's clique is revealed, justice is served swiftly - and with no mercy - sending a message to the others that betrayal will be met with death. But has Kiam really uncovered the treacherous one in his midst, or is the true culprit of disloyalty and larceny still hidden behind her beauty and guile, sacrificing her sister to save herself?

Starrshima Fields, aka Starr, is a young, bodacious, and bold beauty. She is also the leader of the Double G's, a powerful and ruthless social club of plus-sized women. Starr is guided by Queen Fem, the founder of the Double G's. Queen Fem set up the group of professionals-by-day, gangster-biker-chicks-by-night to prove that this isn't just a man's world. The Double G's put the squeeze on their primary targets: men of power and privilege. Blackmail and manipulation are their choice of weapons, and they are skillful in both.

Starr Fields sits in the Clark County jail after being released then re-arrested and held without bail. She uses her time wisely during her incarceration. After making examples out of a few of the other inmates and putting the squeeze on her unit Double Gs style, Starr recruits some new talent for a plan she intends to execute when she gets out. Queen Fem isn't happy about all of the sudden attention on the Double Gs organization.

Life can be cruel. Sometimes it's hard to play with the cards you've been dealt. Growing up in the ghetto can be hell; good or bad, everybody has a story. Toni is young and sexy, but her life story is limited with her mother's drug addiction and her older brother, Sheek, doing life in prison. She struggles day by day, stripping and sometimes doing more in underground clubs to support herself and her family. Toni eventually befriends a rich pretty boy from Long Island, whose life was sheltered from poverty since the day he was born.

Naughty is as naughty always does, and Jaylin Jerome Rogers never disappoints. The aftermath to the Naughty Series picks up nearly three years later, and the tables have clearly turned. Brenda Hampton delivers another pause-resister full of the dramatic antics of bad-boy Jaylin and the women who can't resist him.

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.

Considered an unlikely pair, Marcus, the reformed dope boy, and Nikki, the pampered princess, have undeniable chemistry. Problems arise when only one of them is willing to be honest and acknowledge the obvious attraction. Because she doesn't feel that he fits into her world or the plan she has mapped out for her life, Nikki curves Marcus without hesitation from their first encounter. Unable to see past her fears, she doesn't realize that rejecting him just may cost her the man she was meant to spend her life with.

Nobody ever gave Jamil Rock anything - much less hope. To survive a rough home life and one bad break after another, he became his hood's most successful drug dealer. With loyal friends at his back, Jamil coolly takes care of business and never thinks too far ahead - until Gia Ellis walks into his life. Suddenly, ruling the streets is nothing compared to the instant heat, and alluringly innocent aura, Jamil can't resist....

Picking up where the suspenseful Payback with Ya Life left off, we’re plunged back into the hip-hop drama, where the men are hot and dangerous, the women know their shoes from their Choos, and they will stop at nothing to get what they want. In a game of power and intrigue where the stakes are high and the rewards are dazzling, the losers are gonna discover there’s always a price to pay.

Tyson is every girl’s dream: cute, cocky, and charming. Veronica has made it known exactly what she wanted but has waited patiently. Tyson's old girlfriend is still lurking around, and rumors about who Tyson is with and not haven't dissuade Veronica in the least. She just didn’t believe she could catch his eye, but now that she has him almost trapped where she wants, the college freshman will do whatever it takes.

In Moving Up, Moving Out, Will Cooley discusses the damage racism and discrimination have exacted on black Chicagoans in the 20th century, while accentuating the resilience of upwardly mobile African Americans. Cooley examines how class differences created fissures in the black community and produced quandaries for black Chicagoans interested in racial welfare. While black Chicagoans engaged in collective struggles, they also used individualistic means to secure the American Dream.

Son of a black gangster and an Italian mother with ties to a high profile mobster, the deadly mixture allows Spaz to become the most ruthless gangster in the City of Brotherly Love. What starts off as a plot to move his mother out of the lethal streets of North Philly, turns into a multi-million dollar drug enterprise.

Blackboard best-selling author Bertice Berry delivers an entertaining cautionary tale. Everything hip-hop music producer "Freedom" Hudson touches turns to gold. But when he buys a haunted brownstone in Harlem, he gets an earful from a group of ghosts. One of the spirits, an African drummer whose life was destroyed by slavery, has a warning for Freedom: We've passed the drum to you - now use it to send the right message.

Some things that happen in the dark should stay in the dark, but that never seems to be the case. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Niya Brown learns this the hard way. The code of the streets is passed down to her from her mother, and to Niya, the code of the streets is law. Life deals Niya a bad hand that forces her to fend for herself at an early age when her mother and sister are taken away from her in a twist of fate. You will never believe what happens next. Truth and falsehood collide in a way that brings Niya face to face with a secret that will change her life forever.

What was the pastor of New Day Temple of Faith thinking, approving the creation of the New Day Singles Ministry? Better yet, what were its members thinking when they joined? Doreen, lovingly known as the Church Mother of New Day, thought that when she presented the idea of the ministry to the pastor, it could serve as a foundation to empower, encourage, and enlighten the church's single members.

After she brought down the Make Money Crew, Newark's most notorious bank-robbing gang, she was able to make peace with the son she never knew. His memory is even starting to feel like a blessing rather than a curse. She and her on-again, off-again husband, Tank, are back on and stronger than ever. But just when she thought she could put away her undercover identity as Queen and just be Naeema, Tank is attacked while out on a job guarding a high-profile celebrity.