Contemporary African American Fiction

Ten years ago, Sheila Moore pushed Nicholas Washington out of her life because of her need to control and her inability to believe that she was worth loving. In the last book of the Prodigal series, Sheila returns more mature and the mother of two teens. Nicholas returns to Charleston to teach and reclaim the woman of his heart, but is she ready to accept his love?

Flash, the son of Philadelphia drug queen pin Vickie Lopez, decides he isn't going to prison, not even for his own mother. When he’s arrested for a small amount of cocaine, he spills his guts to Philadelphia homicide detectives, resulting in the arrest and federal conviction, under the RICO Act, of his own mother. She’s staring down a life sentence.

Mita "Sweet Lips" Cruz never had much chance to enjoy her youth because of her drug-addicted mother’s attraction to lowlife men. After she survives a vicious assault at the hands of her stepfather on her 14th birthday, Mita desperately searches for the meaning of unconditional love in the streets of North Philadelphia. When she discovers that she is carrying the child of her rapist, it’s too much for her damaged soul to bear. With an ugly future ahead of her, Mita puts the newborn up for adoption, vowing to seek revenge for the violations against her.

Albie has had his fair share of disappointment. It's become clear that the word loyalty has lost all meaning. In fact, it's become nothing more than a word etched in his flesh, lost in the sea of tattoos decorating his body. Were it not for the hate seething from his soul, he'd all but given up. His thirst for revenge brings us to his own saga. A tale of a real savage with nothing to lose and everything to get back. Follow Albie on his journey to right the wrongs he feels have been cast upon him and witness the creation of the next Kingpin.

The streets pump blood through Rocko’s heart, but his women are the electricity that spreads and causes it to contract. Though he’s madly in love with his fiancée, Troi, he can’t keep his past mistakes with other women from catching up with him. Troi is tired of Rocko’s constant lies and cheating ways, while Heather and Mai find being Rocko’s baby mamas comes with more than they bargained for. Troi discovers she’s pregnant just as she’s wishing she could shake Rocko for the last time. Then it’s revealed that Rocko has yet another baby mama.

Darnell Carter’s heart stopped working the moment he awoke from his coma. But he had been dead on the inside for quite some time. He hopes to resuscitate it, but that depends on his wife, Latavia. The Carters have been on an unimaginable journey of lies, secrets, betrayal, and infidelity. What happened to marital bliss? Does it exist? After the death of their friends and their marriage, is it possible to pick up the pieces and move on?

With the skills of Michael Vick and the looks of Tyreese, Andrew "Amir" Davis, a.k.a. Amir, is destined to be a star. But in the streets of Raleigh, North Carolina, NFL dreams can quickly vanish, and a Black man can either go with the flow or become another name added to the local obituaries. Amir has the whole hood behind him. He's a beacon of hope for young men who feel they've been discarded by society. North Carolina is breeding him to be their star, but he has other plans in mind.

Fresh out of high school and ready to focus on her true passion, teen rapper Monroe Westbrook is eager to step out of her famous siblings’ shadows and prove that she’s a star in her own right. Her lyrics are dope, her name is hot, and she’ll do whatever it takes to ride that wave. All she needs now is the support of Tailyn, the big sister who doesn’t think Monroe is ready for the gritty details of fame. Tailyn’s longtime rival sees Monroe’s boundless potential, though, and is ready to capitalize on it, forcing Monroe to face the biggest decision of her young life.

Being the daughter of a pastor, Erica Collins never got a chance to live a normal life. When she lost her mother at a very young age, she questioned her faith in the Lord. Pastor Collins tried to rescue her faith by tying her everyday life even more closely to the church. Now 21 years old, Erica’s only escape from her father and his Bible is when she hooks up with her best friend, Nicole. She finds a little freedom through Nicole’s wild stories, with most of them being about her boyfriend, Mekco. Erica is all in, craving the attention and the lifestyle that Nicole has.

No one knows better than Kennedi Westbrook that no amount of money, material possessions, or success can protect one from the torment of a broken heart. She has always been haunted by the grief, disappointment, and pain imposed upon her by those who should have loved her the most, and sadly, the two people closest to her have been added to her list of adversaries. Now, with her heart exposed and mental stability tested, will love be enough to save her sanity and relationships?

Natasha Thompson has an MBA, but it only succeeded in landing her a job she absolutely hates. Her boss is sleeping with his assistant, and its Natasha’s job to cover for them every day. How much more lying can she do before she gets sick of deceiving for the likes of her horrible boss? Danielle Harris certainly has big dreams. She knows that if she can just find the right break, she can become a Broadway star. As the latest contestant on a Broadway musical competition show, she will have to show America that she’s got the talent to make it to the top.

Twentysomething and restless, Skye flits between cities and stagnant relationships until she meets Scottie, a disarming and disheveled British traveler, and Pieces, an enigmatic artist living in New York. The three recognize each other as kindred spirits - Black, punk, whimsical, revolutionary - and fall in together, leading Skye on an unlikely adventure across the Atlantic. They live a glorious, subterranean existence in 1990s London, until their existence is jeopardized by the rise of CCTV and policing.

Hip music critic Dwayne Robinson has two main gigs: defending rap's rightful place in the music industry and scoring as many women as possible. But this smooth-talking b-boy has yet to try working love into his lingo - until "buppie" Danielle Embry slides into and rocks his world. A Connecticut suburbanite, Danielle is as far removed from Dwayne's Brooklyn ghetto upbringing as it gets. Yet despite this clash, these unlikely lovers are drawn together.

Cashmere and Demarco are married, own three hair salons, and have a big house in Inglewood, CA, with their timid 13-year-old daughter, Dominique, but things are far from perfect or even normal. Demarco holds deep resentment toward Cashmere and wants out of the marriage. His anger toward his wife makes him unable to have a close relationship with Dominique, who looks for a father’s love elsewhere.

College Professors Grace and David Andrews are a married couple keeping secrets from each other. This is no run-of-the-mill marital infidelity, though. David doesn’t know that his someone-on-the-side shares a painful link to Grace’s past. One man's actions have resulted in the dismemberment of three families. Now that the loose ends have begun to unravel, will any of them be able to pull their lives back together?

Ebony, Phoenix, and Joi are three 30-somethings with some serious man problems!

Part two of Borderline takes place one year later, amid the pandemic of 2020 and civil unrest in the United States. Not only has the current political climate affected Natasha’s mental health, but so has the mandatory isolation caused by being in quarantine. While briefly abandoning her therapy sessions, Natasha struggles to bridge a relationship with her siblings and mentally ill mother. As if all the chaos in her world isn’t enough, Natasha regresses to her old unhealthy habits, including entertaining the wrong men.

Giselle thinks she has the perfect life. Her fine and sexy husband, Giovanni, is obsessed with his perfect wife and gives her whatever her heart desires. Giselle thinks her husband can do no wrong. What she doesn’t know is that his lucrative adult film company is not as legit as it seems, and Giovanni’s seedy dealings put his precious wife in danger.

During football season, when NFL coaches gear up for war on the gridiron, their wives are left to fend for themselves. NFL wife B.J. Almond has had enough. When she walks in to find her head-coach husband in bed with one of his assistant coaches' wives, she is livid. But what really sets her off is when she discovers the other wives knew about the affair all along. Now she's furious and hungry for revenge. And what better way to exact that revenge than to air everyone's dirty laundry in a juicy tell-all book!

Would you compromise your marriage to get out of debt? Naomi and DeShaun seem to have the perfect life, but when money runs low, they have to face the hard truth: Nothing lasts forever.