Showing results by narrator "Kim Staunton" in All Categories

Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning White boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes she's been given a challenge.

When Cooper McQueen wakes up from a night with a beautiful stranger, it's to discover he's been robbed. The only item stolen: a million-dollar bottle of bourbon. The thief, a mysterious woman named Paris, claims the bottle is rightfully hers. After all, the label itself says it's property of the Maddox family, who owned and operated Red Thread Bourbon distillery since the last days of the Civil War, until the company went out of business for reasons no one knows...no one except Paris.

Rhine Fontaine is building the successful life he's always dreamed of - one that depends upon him passing for white. But for the first time in years, he wishes he could step out from behind the façade. The reason: Eddy Carmichael, the young woman he rescued in the desert. Outspoken, defiant, and beautiful, Eddy tempts Rhine in ways that could cost him everything...and the price seems worth paying.

A loving wife and a mother of three accomplished children, forty-six-year-old Trudy Marino has an uncomplicated life—until she’s blindsided by her husband’s affair. But in Trudy’s close-knit neighborhood, she’s not alone in navigating the sudden surprises in a woman’s life. Her neighbor Roberta has just lost her husband of sixty-two years and struggles with bittersweet memories and grief. Roberta’s granddaughter Jade is a divorcée who has taken up a cathartic new hobby to get over her cheating ex. And there’s Shannelle, whose creative aspirations are fracturing her marriage.

When Ruby King’s mother is found murdered in their home in Chicago’s South Side, the police dismiss it as another act of violence in a Black neighborhood. But for Ruby, it means she’ll be living alone with her violent father. The only person who understands the gravity of her situation is Ruby’s best friend, Layla. Their closeness is tested when Layla’s father, the pastor of their church, demands that Layla stay away. But what are his true motives? And what is the price for turning a blind eye?

Designer, activist, and educator Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller is legendary for her decades of scholarship and advocacy, and as a touchstone and conscience for the design profession. In HERE: Where the Black Designers Are, Holmes-Miller documents the history of—and answers to—the question she has been asking for decades: “Where are the Black designers?” Holmes-Miller explores this essential question through the lens of her own development as a designer and leader, beginning with her own family and its rich multiethnic history.

Loreli Winters never imagined she'd end up a "mail-order bride" in middle-of-nowhere Kansas - until the two adorable orphan nieces of a dusky dream named Jake Reed beg her to be their new "mama". And one look at the dark, devastatingly handsome man is enough to entice her to abandon her California plans and stay put for a while in this one-horse frontier town.

Beginning in 1864, Through the Storm chronicles the tumultuous lives of onetime lovers, Raimond Le Veq and Sable Fontaine. The Le Veq family was a proud, prominent black New Orleans family until their fortune was plundered in the chaos of the Civil War. It's the charge of former Union Major Raimond Le Veq to restore the lost wealth of his family. Raimond once loved a woman--the lusty, beautiful, and complex former slave, Sable Fontaine--but she coldly betrayed him during the war.

What kind of mail-order bride greets her intended with a bullet instead of a kiss? One like Regan Carmichael - an independent spirit equally at home in denims and dresses. Shooting Dr. Colton Lee in the shoulder is an honest error, but soon Regan wonders if her entire plan to marry a man she's never met is a mistake. Colton, who buried his heart along with his first wife, insists he only wants someone to care for his daughter. Yet Regan is drawn to the unmistakable desire in his gaze.

A group of cabinet ministers queries a supercomputer containing the minds of the country’s ancestors. A child robot on a dying planet uncovers signs of fragile new life. A descendant of a rain goddess inherits her grandmother’s ability to change her appearance—and perhaps the world. Created in the legacy of the seminal, award-winning anthology series Dark Matter, Africa Risen celebrates the vibrancy, diversity, and reach of African and AfroDiasporic science fiction and fantasy and reaffirms that Africa is not rising—it’s already here.

Mara Reed's been stirring up trouble since she was 18. With two thugs after her, she returns to her Texas hometown. When she's cornered, an unexpected rescuer comes to her aid - Dr. Ethan Stuart, the scientist whose heart she broke and betrayed....the only man Mara ever loved. Ethan is investigating a gruesome discovery - nearly 100 dead bodies dating back 50 years - a mystery linked to the church once headed by Mara's father. Ethan needs Mara's help; she needs his protection. And their search for a devastating truth could lead them to forgiveness, salvation, passion, and back to love.

Valinda Lacey’s mission in the steamy heart of New Orleans is to help the newly emancipated community survive and flourish. But soon, she discovers that here, freedom can also mean danger. When thugs destroy the school she has set up and then target her, Valinda runs for her life - and straight into the arms of Captain Drake LeVeq.

Banished by her grandfather at the age of 18, Spring Lee has survived scandal to claim her own little slice of Paradise, Wyoming. She’s proud of working her ranch alone and unwilling to share it with a stranger - especially one like Garrett McCray, who makes her second-guess her resolve to avoid men. Garrett escaped slavery years ago and is now a reporter in Washington. He’s traveled west to interview Dr. Colton Lee for an article, yet it’s Lee’s fearless sister, Spring, who captures his interest.

At a time when most of the public discourse was dominated by men, Anna Julia Cooper’s writings offered a blistering rebuke to that status quo. The essays and speeches collected here anticipated the debates about racism, sexism, and intersectionality that we are still having today. Cooper argues in particular for the importance of Black women’s participation in identifying and combating the structures of oppression that surrounded them - and that made life so much more difficult for many other groups as well.

Cara Lee Henson knows no soldier can be trusted to stay in one place - and that includes handsome Sergeant Chase Jefferson of the Tenth Cavalry. Dallying with the dashing man in blue could cost the pretty, independent Kansas schoolteacher her job and her reputation. So Cara is determined to repel Chase’s advances - even though her aloof facade barely masks her smoldering desire. Never before has Chase longed for a woman the way he ached for lovely Cara Lee. The strong-willed ebony beauty, however, will not surrender easily.

Jamaica has a problem. She's found a stuffed dog in the park, all dirty and worn from lots of hugging. Instead of taking it to the lost and found department, she's taken it home. Now, as she sits in her room staring at the dog, she's starting to feel bad. Maybe the toy dog belongs to a little girl just like Jamaica. When she decides to do the right thing and take the dog back to the park, she gets a very happy surprise.

Admired by George Washington, ridiculed by Thomas Jefferson, published in London, and read far and wide, Phillis Wheatley led one of the most extraordinary American lives. Seized in West Africa and forced into slavery as a child, she was sold to a merchant family in Boston, where she became a noted poet at a young age. Mastering the Bible, Greek and Latin translations, and the works of Pope and Milton, she composed elegies for local elites, celebrated political events, praised warriors, and used her verse to variously lampoon, question, and assert the injustice of her enslaved condition.

In Boston, revolution is in the wind - yet none would ever suspect Faith Kingston of treason. But under cover of darkness, the beautiful daughter of a Tory tavern owner becomes the notorious spy “Lady Midnight”, passing valuable secrets to the rebels. Dedicated to fighting British tyranny, she’ll let nothing distract her - until a dark, mesmerizing stranger enters her life.

Desperate to escape an arranged marriage, Olivia Sterling flees Chicago and heads west. She dreams of setting up her own seamstress shop in Henry Adams, a small all-Black town in Kansas. But her plans are derailed when her train is robbed by Neil July and his notorious band of outlaws.

Kate Love is an ambitious reporter on the trail of a swindler who has been preying on elderly Blacks. But when her investigation leads her into danger, she is snatched by Dix Wildhorse, a Black Seminole marshal from Oklahoman’s Indian country. Kate has no choice but to flee with the daring knight her father sent to rescue her. Despite the warm simmering fire Dix’s bronzed, muscled embrace ignites, she is determined to hold on to her independence, challenging him at every turn.