Contemporary African American Fiction

Something’s always been off with Eva Moss, but in the African-American community, everything is prayed away, including "crazy." What happens when the answer to prayer is therapy and medication? According to Eva’s mother, that’s taboo. All it takes is a little more Jesus, and Eva will be normal. Normal never lasts long. After Eva’s brother, Michael, is killed in a car accident, she is finally admitted to the psych ward for help.

Ms. Nova sacrificed her childhood to be a teenage mother and provider for her family. Working a dead-end job barely pays the bills, but her luck is due to change when her homegirl suggests she shake her ass at a jumping strip joint. Weary and self-conscious, she is reluctant at first, but the money is fast and easy and makes her life a lot easier. Although she has more bread, her bedroom life is at a standstill. Thinking with her head and not her heart, she makes a boss move on the club owner and is able to wrap him around her pinky.

Life can be hard to navigate at times, but for Lazarus Mitchell, it’s been a constant battle. Marrying his high school sweetheart and putting his dreams on hold to help her fulfill hers, he kept pushing through life’s adversities in hopes of seeing better days. Throughout the journey, he realized that she didn’t have the tenacity he had or the wherewithal to look difficulty in the face and choose to overcome it.

There’s a saying that if you come from my part of town, you're from around the way. Urban Books bestsellers Treasure Hernandez and Marcus Weber bring listeners a fast-paced look at the lives of some street-smart women who think they know it all.

Fate brought Terrence Montgomery and Tiffany Tate into each other’s lives. They seem like the perfect match. However, they couldn’t have met at a more inopportune time. Terrence is considering divorce from his wife, Patricia, who he’s never truly been in love with, while also struggling with the recent and sudden death of his father. Tiffany just got wind that her ex-fiancé, David, is battling cancer—supposedly. His dying wish is that she’ll give him another chance at love. Her heart wants to be there for him, but will this cost her newfound love with Terrence?

What would you do if you were close to hitting rock bottom? Would you exhaust every possible option to better your situation? Or would you accept defeat and throw in the towel? Meet Pete and Terrence. Both fathers are of a similar age and live in the same city, but their lives are profoundly different. Though they share the unquestionable love a father has for their children, what challenges await them? Will they end up making the right decisions or make their situation worse?

In the summer of 1985, Lisa Whitaker is a church kid headed to college on a scholarship while her best friend, Dana, is floundering in the wake of her mother’s latest eviction. Though Lisa tries to help, their paths diverge. Fifteen years later, Lisa has a beautiful family and is stepping into her dream job as the director for a social services organization. Everything is going right—until her future is snatched away by identity theft. Her life begins to unravel, and Lisa wants nothing more than to see the woman responsible pay for her crimes.

Fall in line or get replaced. That's how my businesses operate. Being named the Dallas representative for the Mr. Black Organization was an honor, not a job. However, it's not easy to change the way someone maneuvers. I was determined to make this year's Juneteenth celebration unlike anything this city had seen before, starting with a road trip focused on Black culture. I had a plan, my purpose was clear, and my team was set. Until a wild-card photographer got thrown in the mix.

His ability to launder money has him on the payroll of some of the city's most notorious criminals. When his father was sent to prison for life, Jagger's uncle made it his business to ensure that Jagger didn't suffer the same fate. He sent Jagger to college with plans to keep him on the cleaner side of the business, but unforeseen circumstances put Jagger in the midst of his uncle's empire.

Love continues to fail Nia and with the arrival of her daughter she doesn’t have the time or energy to pour into her failing relationship with East. Money is no longer the only thing on her mind; her daughter is. Nia realizes that family is above everything else and so she steps back from the demands of being a boss and running her own company. Torn between pride and his past, East uses the poor excuse of “not being enough” for his beloved Nia as the reason why he’s not around.

DaVinci is a fighter, fighting for more than just a title, but to stay out of the shadows of a family he didn't choose. Fighting was all he had until he encountered a woman just as driven and unfulfilled. Aria has never believed in happily ever afters or that mushy love that turned people into whole different folks. Instead, she was grounded, photographing by day and cuddling up with her bulldog by night. Surely that isn't a life, but it and her on and off again fling with an ex seem to be enough. That is until the fighter finds himself jabbing into her life.

During his career of drugs, murder, and dirty money, Clifton Brick never expected to find, nor was he looking, for love. He was accustomed to fast money and even faster women. But when he met Kiana “Ki” Bradshaw, a woman with her own lucrative criminal enterprise he knew that he found the love of his life. After years of a blissful union and building their empire, Clifton and Kiana’s loyalty to each other and their dynasty are at risk when enemies posing as friends decide that they’ve been on top long enough

Once upon a time, in a small town, lived a young girl who was abandoned by her mother. She was left with a pensive heart because she watched her father die at the hands of his brother. Beauty was left to fend for herself, along with the heartache of having not a soul to genuinely care for her. Daily, she would dream of being rescued by a prince, and he would take away the pain her past life caused. Until this day, Beauty still had those same dreams as she slept. Yet, instead of the knight in shining armor, the tribe of fairies delivered Tuson.

In this day and age, one would believe that skin color would not matter, but in this coming of age novel, Sandra Ray learns that it still matters in a painful way. Although she is twenty three, attends college full time and works as a sales associate, she has a little growing up to do. She realizes she can't live with her sister and brother-in-law forever and is angry and bitter from feeling a lack of control of what happens in her life. When her sister and brother-in-law try to set her up with a successful Pediatrician she resists with all her might.

Yazmeen Franklin is as green as they come. Her only real friend is her older sister, who raised her after their mother died. Because of their father’s poor example, Yazmeen has little trust in men, so dating is foreign to her. During her sophomore year of college, she lets her guard down and finally gets close to a man. However, he is a known womanizer, and she keeps him in the friend zone to protect her heart.

Adonis "Drayko" Loving had been trouble since he learned to walk. Living a risky lifestyle finally catches up with him, forcing him to suddenly leave Ohio and find a fresh start elsewhere. After relocating, he finds himself struggling with adjusting to his new surroundings. Living a single, drama-free life by getting money and staying out of the way comes to an abrupt end when Nyoka crosses his path. Her slanted, sly eyes pull him in and make him rethink and reevaluate his entire life.

Peace. That's what Synovi now had and cherished more than anything. Free from all the disturbances his chaotic life once ensued, he wanted nothing more than to keep it that way. With a thriving business and relationship, almost nothing could take him back to that dark place of no love. His Love didn't reside there. His world is still hers, and she is still his. Without warning, Torin inserted herself into Synovi's life and remained. She's the person he can run to when everything begins to fade, but there's a price to pay when you have a good heart.

Unsettled… That is the word Desire Chambries uses to describe how she feels. Although her preschool students bring her joy, her personal life needs resuscitating. She’d love to get married, but the dating scene lacks quality men. Most were barely boyfriend material and definitely not fit to be someone’s husband. At thirty-five years old, her hope of finding the man of her dreams and becoming a wife is fading fast, as is the idea of having children of her own. One lonely Friday night, after being stood up for the third time, she sees an ad for Arranged Hearts on social media.

Suvi Summers never had luck in the love department. Failed relationship after failed relationship leads her to an unforgettable interview with the matchmaking service. Blaze Snow was a ladies' man. He’d never had any trouble finding a woman, but keeping her was a different story. When his best friend signs up for a matchmaking service, he goes for moral support but ends up in an interview of his own. Neither of them expects to gain much from the service, but when they meet at the alter a few weeks later, they are forced to come to terms with feelings neither of them were prepared to reveal.

Kachelle Lewis is tired of waiting for love. As a successful pediatric orthodontist, she has everything else going for herself, but the one thing she desires most seems to be just out of reach. Coming home to an empty home has gotten old, and Kachelle longs for companionship. After dating every wrong man, she’s decided to put the fate of her love into the hands of Arranged Hearts, a professional matchmaking service, but there is a catch. While she’ll be paired with what she hopes is the man of her dreams, she will know nothing about him until she meets him at the altar.