African Urban Fiction

Tiffany is trapped in a life she never wanted for herself. The man she fell in love with turned out to be a lazy, good-for-nothing womanizer. Night after night Tiffany comes home to Blake’s physical, mental, and verbal abuse. She’s tried leaving it in the past, but somehow he always finds her. Each time, she comes back and convinces herself things will get better. Then one day Blake beats her for the last time. Tiffany decides death is the only way out - and she’s not the one being buried. Her life takes a drastic turn as she attempts to live the life she’s always wanted.

Layla Simone has been “faking it” for so long that she’s lost sense of self. Layla is tired of living her life for others, sick and tired of waiting on her man to marry her. Fed up with putting her dreams on hold, Layla moves to Los Angeles to find herself and to follow her dream of being a writer for the movies and television. She befriends gold digger Quassmirah and starts dating Wesley, one of the most popular record executives on the West Coast. Then she learns that her brother is in a coma and has to catch a flight back to Jersey.

When their parents are discovered brutally murdered in a ditch, Kenya and London are left orphaned and forced to navigate the unforgiving streets of Detroit. They might be identical twins, but they are as different as night and day. While one of them fights relentlessly to make it out of the ghetto, the other eagerly embraces true hood life and everything their parents believed in - selling drugs, living fast, and even dying young (if it means getting paid!).

Antonio, born of an affair between a beautiful actress and a notorious crime boss, lost his mother to drugs and was forced to navigate foster care and survive on the streets of the Bronx. He is ignored by his father, the infamous head of a powerful crime syndicate, and his half-brothers are living the life Antonio used to dream about. Antonio has turned his struggles into a career in the NBA, but when a devastating injury sidelines his basketball career and he finds out he has been duped out of millions by his best friend, Antonio is forced to turn to the father who never claimed him.

The girls are at it again and have taken revenge to the next level. Dana has gone through an ultimate test of will and faith, but she refuses to sit still and live her life being dependent on others. Stephanie is in a world of her own and wants to transition away from Dana and Brittany. Jeryca's future keeps her visiting her past and remembering how Farrah was there for her, which sets her teeth on edge. She is going to make everyone involved pay dearly - even the ones currently in her circle.

Vera Wright-Turner thinks she has it all under control until she meets and greets herself. Born on the flip side of the hustler's game, she is the child of a 15-year-old drug addict who places her in a trash dump with a note that read, "Please forgive me...my mother's only 15...." Well, that is of little consolation to Vera as she lives her gold-diggin' life full speed ahead, only to come to a crashing halt when she realizes that facing up to the flip side of the game is the only way she will survive.

For two years, Diamond and Black have been living comfortably on their high-class cul-de-sac with their daughter Dior. They're ready to leave the drug business behind them, having enough money to continue their lavish lifestyle without going back to the streets to re-up. With the loss of his sister Mica, Johnny can feel nothing but rage for the woman he once loved. Now he plans to strip her of everything that she loves. From behind bars on his death bed, he sets a plan in motion that will tear Diamond's world apart.

When Billie was eight years old, her father was murdered. Ever since that day, she has vowed to bring every criminal to justice, especially the man responsible for her father's death. Twenty years later, Billie is still on a mission to rid the streets of criminals. If she can't do it legally, then she takes matters into her own hands.

Blu thinks she knows all there is to know about the dope game. She's watched her momma serve out of the same place they lay their heads since she was a little girl. Then her brother's best friend, Budz, shows her that there is more to the game than just selling drugs. With love, loyalty, and wealth on her side, what more could she want? Blu finds out when she is introduced to Black, and Blu is determined to make him her reality. Torn between two men who have secrets and motives of their own, Blu has no idea what she's gotten herself into, but she knows there is only one way out.

Diamond, the sassy vixen that you love to hate, is back, and she has a few more tricks up her sleeve. After Kemp's death, she quickly moves on and shacks up with his best friend, Black. Unfortunately, things aren't running as smoothly as they expected. Diamond is quickly losing control of the situation - and her emotions - after multiple attempts on her life by one of the victims she believed she'd killed. To make matters worse, people from her past keep popping up and causing a ruckus, including the father that walked out on her 10 years earlier.

Diamond and Mica have been best friends since grade school and have always watched each other’s backs. After Mica moves out of their drug-infested neighborhood, they have a scandalous falling out and lose touch. It isn’t until Diamond hooks up with Kemp Lo, one of North Philly’s most notorious drug dealers, that she’s able to leave the hood. Under extreme circumstances, Mica and Diamond meet up and are back on the map as the Laverne and Shirley of the ghetto. Unfortunately, both women have ulterior motives for rekindling their friendship.

Ceazia Devereaux has seen it all on the streets. She's gone from a gangster's girl to being married to the game. After the murders of a few of her associates, she's ready to divorce herself from the lifestyle she once knew and become the "good girl" she was raised to be. Ceazia finds her way to Atlanta, where she hopes to find a man who can take care of her. Parlay is a big-name rapper who fits the bill perfectly. Ceazia sets up a chance encounter with him, thinking she's on her way to a fresh start.

Jewel climbed up the heap to become queen of the streets, diva of all divas. But now that she's expecting a baby, she's concerned about just one thing - giving her child a good life, away from the guns, the drugs, and the lies. However, that also means a life away from the glitz and glam that Jewel still craves, and she's not quite ready to give it all up...not until she's back on top. Flat broke and miles away from her fugitive baby daddy, Jewel will have to put every bit of her street savvy, as well as her sharp business skills, into action to gain back her place and her power.

Jewel used to be content with being a ride or die chick, playing Bonnie while the men in her life played Clyde. But now she realizes that it was her connections and street smarts that helped her man, Calico, rise to the top, and Jewel wants to be the one in control. She's tired of taking orders from men. She's willing to do anything to be queen of the streets, but when a deal she makes with the enemy comes back to haunt her, her dream is turned into a nightmare. Hopeless and struggling to keep her head above water, Jewel meets Misty, who seems to be her savior.

Brooklyn Johnson had it all - money, jewels, designer clothes, a successful modeling career, and men falling at her feet. Now she's struggling to keep up the facade. When life was good, she wasn't always good to those around her. Even as she developed a drug addiction and struggled to maintain her sanity, she never felt she needed anyone. Now that an illness has turned her life upside down, she finds herself having to make amends with all the people she's wronged.

When his father, one of Houston’s most notorious kingpins, is arrested and the money stops coming in, Chris King, not used to fending for himself, must learn how to rule the streets of Houston if he wants to survive another day.

When a military soldier dies, everyone feels the pain. When a street soldier dies, only those close to him mourn. But both soldiers have something in common: they fought for what they believed in. Home from their final tour, a team from the 82nd Airborne Division out of Ft. Bragg, NC faces harsh realities: a broken relationship, the death of a child, and even the murder of one of their own.

Sasha is a single mother and the youngest of her two sisters. Drama followers her everywhere and her sister, Stacey and Randi are fed up with her short temper and untamed tongue. Their relationship with Sasha seems toxic due to her unbearable irresponsible lifestyle. She faces many trails but relies on her good looks to get her out of trouble. Until she finally gets a wake up call.

Haitian-American Vodou priestess Mambo Reina Dumond runs a healing practice from her New Orleans home. Gifted with water magic since she was a child, Reina is devoted to the benevolent traditions of her ancestors. After a ritual slaying in the French Quarter, police arrest a fellow vodouisant. Detective Roman Frost, Reina’s ex-boyfriend - a fierce nonbeliever - is eager to tie the crime, and half a dozen others, to the Vodou practitioners of New Orleans. Reina resolves to find the real killer and defend the Vodou practice and customs.

With demanding careers and two children, Cherise and Mason McKenzie find themselves spending more time apart than together, which allows infidelity with a trusted loved one to darken their doorstep. It is only through a series of near-tragic events that the couple are able to rebuild their lives and rekindle their love.