Showing results by narrator "Susan Spain" in All Categories

After everything Farrah’s been through, it’s safe to say things are finally going her way. Her company, Glam Squad, has skyrocketed, and her career as a celebrity stylist has taken off faster than she can keep up. Partnering with her best friend, London, the pair has styled and done makeup for multiple celebrities. The unstoppable duo is working hard and getting paid!

In one shattering instant, schoolteacher Cassandra Miller lost everything that mattered to her. Stricken with guilt and sorrow, she has no reason to care about tomorrow. The last person she wants help from is the man she wants to forget. In childhood, Wylie Everett was her cherished best friend. In adulthood, he was the secret lover who left her without explanation. Now he's the person who won't let her go down without a fight.

Venus has the chance of a lifetime to take a trip alone. No children, no husband. The women's retreat promises daily massages, meditation, and divine meals prepared by a top chef. What she doesn't see in the ad are locked gates, militia-style security guards, and a mysterious driver who isn't who he appears. The trip she deserves turns into a dangerous, heart-pounding, sexy adventure she will never forget.

Venus wasn't planning on falling for someone else. Her heart always belonged to Jake Parson, the enviable hot boy, starting from the moment he swept her off her feet with an impromptu proposal and a surprise wedding she never expected. Not a dull moment in the Parson household, to say the least. Their heat and attraction could spark a flame in a cold, wet room. But marriage, children, and too much distance, along with the constant swirling rumors of Jake's infidelities, have put their relationship to the test.

The ever witty and fun Venus Johnston is back and the subject of a reality show with her movie star husband, Jake Parson. Her world is turned upside with cameras following their every move and revealing the chinks in their marriage armor. Their home becomes a battle ground for the stardom Jake craves and the normalcy Venus needs to raise their children. Including Christopher, Jake's son who he only recently found out about after pop starlet Sirena Lassiter admitted the young boy she's pretended to be her little brother is actually her and Jake's son from their teen years.

It wasn't easy for Yvonne Cable to get over a heartbreaking relationship and revamp her life. But now the once-broke single mom is Atlanta's most sought-after interior designer - and one-half of the media's hottest power couple. She and her celebrity fiance, Nathan, are a perfect, practical match, on - and off-camera. And with their new home improvement reality show the object of a fierce network bidding war, there's no limit to how far they can go....

She's generous, kind, and compassionate - yet Delilah Grey will forever be an outcast in the small seaside town of Camden Beach, Maryland. She takes in women shattered by abuse, poverty, illness, or events beyond their control. But no matter how far she's come or how many she's helped find their way back, there is no safe place for Delilah. Acquitted of her rich husband's mysterious death decades ago, she lives in her beautiful mansion consumed by secrets - and mistakes she feels she can never atone for...until she takes in desperate mother Tracey Walters and her two young children.

In this powerful debut novel set in New York City in the 1970s, Bonnie J. Glover explores the meaning of loss and family. Pamela is the middle of three sisters who are trying to keep their lives together after their mother kicks their father out of the house. Pamela only has an imaginary guide, a character from the television show Kung Fu, to help her and advise her when times turn tough.

Sometimes you go in search of a new beginning. Other times, it finds you. Tonya Martin enjoys her job as a professional chef for a Wall Street bank, her East Harlem walk-up, and the freedom to live and love by her own rules - right up until the day she finds herself suddenly downsized. But a spontaneous trip to New Orleans opens up a new opportunity. With time on her hands and her daughter soon graduating college, Tonya has the chance to reach for her own long-cherished dream - opening a restaurant on her friend Hannah's beautiful Garden District estate.

An unstable childhood and a bad marriage have left Nova unable to trust anyone - especially herself. She'd do anything for her young son but feels she'll never be a good enough mother. She's got major talent as a stylist and makeup artist, but big-time success would mean leaving the safety of Martha's Vineyard and the only family she has left. Still, she needs to kick-start her life in a new direction. The last thing she needs is her childhood frenemy, Tanner Brennan, confusing her even more.

Janelle Marshall's life is finally going according to plan. Her perfect, upscale career - and her perfect, successful boyfriend - will make her future as secure and predictable as her childhood never was. And with luck, Little Bill, the grandfather who raised her, will someday understand why she'd rather play it safe than be impulsive. But just when she should be happiest, she gets a distressing call: Little Bill has gone missing. Now Janelle must go to the one place she's long avoided - the tiny mountain town of Mammoth Falls, South Dakota.

Zoe Clarke is a spiritual woman with good friends and a good job. But her seemingly perfect world is turned upside-down on the day she plans to marry her college sweetheart. She is flabbergasted when he leaves her for his pregnant girlfriend. With her whole existence in complete disarray, Zoe wonders if it's prudent to seek comfort in the strong arms of her former fiancé's best friend.

After losing her grandmother, her home, and all her worldly possessions in the storm, Monique Deveraux has all but given up on life. Then at an evacuee shelter, a wealthy woman takes her in and introduces her to a billionaire businessman, starting Monique on a whirlwind of success. But something is lurking in the shadows that could take everything away again. In the chaos after the storm, a convict walked out of jail and blended in with the dishevelled evacuees - and she was looking for revenge when she met Monique.

Trudy Bell needs to do something to spice up her life and hopes that her new job with the Bon Voyage Travel Agency will do the trick. But envy for her boss' glamorous lifestyle turns into a downward spiral that could end up costing her more than just her job.

Popular author Cheryl Robinson is acclaimed for her novels featuring strong characters fighting against long odds. Here she tells the tale of Mia and Danielle, whose vow to remain best friends forever was shattered by an indiscretion. Twenty years later, the women are reunited by tragedy. Now, to forge the bond of friendship anew, they’ll have to revisit their painful past and confront the events that have kept them apart.

Critics have compared her work to that of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, but J. California Cooper has a warm, witty style that’s definitely her own. Each of her short stories is a gem of downhome wisdom, polished with a bit of gossip, some heartbreak, and lots of humor.

Rachel Harper’s debut novel has won praise for its vivid protrayal of a mixed-race girl coming of age in a family that’s falling apart. Nellie’s white mother and black father are breaking up. Nellie, whose black skin and blonde hair have always made her feel like an outsider, feels even more out of place traveling across the country with her dark-skinned dad, taking her white, sassy cousin Jess to meet her own father. But they might have more in common than they all think.

Thirty-something writer Regina lives in Harlem with her four-year-old daughter. And no matter what she does, drama follows her wherever she goes. Her world is thrown for a loop when shady Little Joe re-enters her life looking for some action. Unfortunately, her lingering feelings for her congressman ex-husband aren't helping either.

The small town of Belle Haven, Louisiana, is still struggling with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf oil spill, and its residents will do whatever it takes to get it back on its feet. So when local English teacher Carissa Melody Wayne is asked to appear on the weight-loss reality show Losing to Win, she agrees. She doesn't realize that others from her past will be joining her, including her high school nemesis, an acquaintance who's been nursing a long-time crush on her - and most shocking of all, Carissa's ex-fiancé...

Winner of the African American Literary Award for Fiction, Essence® best-selling author Victoria Christopher Murray delivers a cautionary tale about debt and the dangers of an overly tempting offer. Married at 17, Adam and Evia Langston have worked their way up from rags to riches. But as they are enjoying all the trappings of their success, a financial downturn leaves them teetering on the brink of disaster. And that’s when Evia’s boss makes the Langstons a fivemillion dollar offer they can’t refuse.