Urban African American

Imagine This continues the saga of Pamela as she does jail time and has to decide who she really is: Pamela, a woman who, more than anything, loves her son and wants to be there to raise him, or Carmen, the ruthless baller, who does the crime, serves the time, and honors, at any expense, the code of the street.

''It's the penthouse or the morgue.'' This is the philosophy adopted by Keshawn Wilson, a.k.a. ''K-Dawg',' self-proclaimed lord of the streets. Keshawn is the youngest of five kids and one of only two that doesn't belong to his mother's husband. As a little boy he feels the distance between he and his stepfather, and life becomes increasingly difficult for him as the years pass. His childhood and young adult years are spent in a home for boys and state prison, where he serves time for manslaughter.

In this legendary sequel, Legend is dealing with how it feels to come close to losing the one he loves after Shanecia is taken by Mello, but once he gets her back, he vows to not only have his revenge but to never lose her again. However, the more Shanecia is shown a side of Legend that she'd only heard of but never knew existed, the more she wonders if she's really about that street life. Determined to hold on to a relationship that has quickly become more important to her than life, she decides to stick it out and stand by his side. But at what cost?

Black women have higher rates of premature birth than other women in America. This cannot be simply explained by economic factors, with poorer women lacking resources or access to care. Even professional, middle-class Black women are at a much higher risk of premature birth than low-income White women in the United States. Dána-Ain Davis looks into this phenomenon, placing racial differences in birth outcomes into a historical context, revealing that ideas about reproduction and race today have been influenced by the legacy of ideas which developed during the era of slavery.

Gutta Mamis includes four novellas featuring cold-hearted women who get ahead in America's grimiest underworld: "Twisted Loyalty" by Kai, "Three the Hard Way" by C. J. Hudson, "The Face of Death" by Brandie Davis, and "Chasers" by N'Tyse.

Two young people meet at a pub in South East London. Both are Black British, both won scholarships to private schools where they struggled to belong, both are now artists - he a photographer, she a dancer - trying to make their mark in a city that by turns celebrates and rejects them. Tentatively, tenderly, they fall in love. But two people who seem destined to be together can still be torn apart by fear and violence.

Along the streets of Manhattan, a young Nigerian doctor doing his residency wanders aimlessly. The walks meet a need for Julius: They are a release from the tightly regulated mental environment of work, and they give him the opportunity to process his relationships, his recent breakup with his girlfriend, his present, his past. Though he is navigating the busy parts of town, the impression of countless faces does nothing to assuage his feelings of isolation.

When souls are tied, it's never goodbye. A boy I was that summer evening I met you, pulling your belongings out of the truck and into your new home. I knew it was love then. A whole man I was the day that you met me at the altar and agreed to love me until death do us part. A shell of a man I've become since it did, unable to move on, move forward, or progress in any way until I discovered that not even death was permanent enough to keep us apart. A better man I'm destined to be, knowing that, at some capacity, you're still with me. Our love is one that never dies.

In the early 1990s, Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory and his brother, Terry "Southwest T", rose up from the slums of Detroit to build one of the largest cocaine empires in American history: the Black Mafia Family. They socialized with music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, did business with New York's king of bling Jacob "The Jeweler" Arabo, and built allegiances with rap superstars Young Jeezy and Fabolous. Yet even as BMF was attracting celebrity attention, its crew members struck fear in a city.

They were just kids when Claudette McPhearson took them all in. Eight of them all together. All different races and ethnic makeups, but she loved them as her own. One woman taught them how to love, trust, and respect one another. She was the only glue that kept them together, the only one they wanted to please and never let down. She had been their light at the end of a long troublesome tunnel - it shined so bright. Then, one dreadful day, it all came to a crashing halt.

In Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, Saidiya Hartman examines the revolution of black intimate life that unfolded in Philadelphia and New York at the beginning of the 20th century. Free love, common-law and transient marriages, queer relations, and single motherhood were among the sweeping changes that altered the character of everyday life and challenged traditional Victorian beliefs about courtship, love, and marriage.

Teen sensation Melissa Jones is dragged into a world of conspiracy and violence when her boyfriend is shot dead by police. Melissa joins forces with unlikely allies in a desperate search to uncover the shocking truth behind his murder. Her unlikely allies include a newly elected senator who refuses to be compromised by a wealthy donor, a conspiracy theorist who believes the worst of all enemies has infiltrated the corridors of power, and a Black Lives Matter leader who seeks justice for her brother's murder.

Luca Kareem and Riana Santee made an exchange a little over eight years ago - a heart for a heart. Riana had no problem relinquishing her heart to Luca, but Luca preferred spreading his love and his body thinly to almost every attractive woman he came in contact with. After a year of warring for a place in his heart, Riana finally gives up, but when Luca leaves her, he takes her heart with him. She becomes a heartless, emotionally detached hit-woman, stealing the hearts of men in her path just for fun.

Rio Duncan is one of the youngest children of the Duncan clan. With no solid position in the family business like his other siblings, he has been feeling out of place and decides to disappear. Rio leaves his Duncan identity behind and goes on a search for friends and family who can relate to him. His destination is Baltimore, and he is sure to find what he is looking for in the city with a community like no other.

Former "player" Terrell thinks he's got it going on. Then the past comes calling, and suddenly his best prospects are endangered.

When it comes to a real friendship, Kayla, Evelyn, and Trina have one last opportunity to get it right. If only for a short period, they appear to be on the same path and willing to put their chaotic past behind them. Evelyn's near-death experience has everyone embracing her, even Kayla's ex-husband Cedric, who uses his wealth and power to get whatever his heart desires.

Jewell Parker Rhodes follows up her acclaimed Voodoo Dreams with a present-day mystery surrounding the gifts of an ancestor of the Voodoo Queen. Doctor Marie Levant can't explain why she's drawn to New Orleans, or why it's comforting and unsettling at the same time. And she can't shake her haunting dreams. But when she delivers a dead woman's baby, Marie knows malevolent forces are at work, and it's up to her to stop them.

The riveting Hell's Diva series continues as Mecca Skyes returns to take her revenge on the only person she ever thought she could trust. Beautiful Mecca was only a kid when her parents were killed, and she was saved from the rough streets of Brooklyn when her aunt Ruby, the "Godmother of Crime", took her in. Ruby rubbed out the goons that murdered Mecca's parents, and everything seemed fine - until Ruby betrayed Mecca by sleeping with her man, setting in motion a series of events that nearly left Mecca dead from a gunshot wound.

The ultimate love story began in White Lines, and now, in this stunning conclusion, Jada and Born come full circle - but not without paying a hefty price. On the surface, Jada's life is back on track - she's battled her demons, her son is a permanent part of her life - but it still feels like she's on shaky ground. What she really needs to settle her soul is to have Born back in her life - and in her arms - again. But reuniting with the man she loves is proving to be the hardest thing she's ever fought for.

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.