Urban African American

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.

In Secrets of a Side Bitch 2, Simone is struggling to keep together the web of lies that she has woven, all in attempts to be the number one woman in Omari Sutton's life. She continues to pull one devious and demented trick after another to maintain her role as Omari's leading lady. Her tower of lies begins crashing down as intricate parts of her schemes begin to unfold. Chance reemerges, threatening Simone's connection to the murder.

A Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Seen on the Today Show “If you like Practical Magic… you will love Black Candle Women.” —Jenna Bush Hager Named a Best Book of the Month by: Shondaland, MS. Magazine, TODAY.com, Reader’s Digest, Katie Couric Media, AARP Sisters, Goodreads, BookRiot...

Cobi Winslow, a handsome, well-educated district attorney, knows nothing about the life of his estranged twin brother, Eric Reed, a career criminal raised in the foster-care system. Following their parents' death, Cobi searches for and finds his brother, hoping to regain lost years. Meanwhile, Cobi navigates the pressures of society as he lives life in the closet. The stress comes to a head when he learns that, in order to inherit the wealth of his father's estate, he must marry a woman before he turns 35.

Jacari Thomson has had it all until she didn't. Upon learning her father's poor investments have ruined the stability of her family and the advancement of her career, Jacari's disparity kicks in. What started out as an All-Star weekend centered around enjoyment turns into a devious plan to trap a baller and at the very least, clout. What she didn't expect was to catch feelings in the middle of her target catching a case.

A menace, I was, the duration of my life. Unsure of what was next, who was next, or where I was headed next. The only for-sure shit in my world was my paper and my people. The ice around my heart was still intact, never being penetrated or as much as tapped.

The critically lauded author of The Beast Side and The Cook Up returns with an existential look at life in low-income Black communities, while also offering a new framework for how we can improve the conversations occurring about them.

Betrayal hurts worse when done by the ones you showed the most love to. The saying couldn't be truer for the Priest Brothers. In this finale, the three men learn more about themselves than Duke could've ever taught them. While Krypt is figuring out who the woman was that hit their stash spots, Khrome is learning what it really means to be a single parent. It was never in his plans, especially this way. With a pending homicide case hovering over his head, Kavalli promised to never let another woman catch him slipping. He didn't care how solid she seemed.

In South Africa, the future looks promising. Personal robots are making life easier for the working class. The government is harnessing renewable energy to provide infrastructure for the poor. And in the bustling coastal town of Port Elizabeth, the economy is booming thanks to the genetic engineering industry that has found a welcome home there. Yes, the days to come are looking very good for South Africans. That is, if they can survive the present challenges.

The Dopeman: Memoirs of a Snitch is a complex tale about the life and times of one the biggest drug traffickers the Midwest has ever seen. In the summer of 2009, the FBI has launched an intricate plot to take down one of the most prolific drug organizations, and Seven Smith is their main target. Seven establishes a relationship with an up-and-coming hustler and takes him under his wing. But unbeknownst to Seven, his protégé works for the authorities.

Once I was released from prison, I thought that all of the heartache was over. I was back with my family, and I assumed that the nightmare had come to an end. Little did I know, the nightmare had actually just begun. Everybody around me was keeping secrets that would send me right back to a dark place, a place way worse than the prison that I had just emerged from. This time of my life was supposed to be my "happily ever after the bullshit." In fact, I was so happy that I didn't see the deceit that was happening right under my nose.

In New York City, Joanna Marshall is an aspiring singer obsessed with success, determined to overcome the racism and sexism that stand in her way. Her childhood friends Maggie Ellersley and Peter Bye confront similar barriers but with different goals in mind: Maggie is focused on finding love; Peter, on becoming a surgeon. But as their interests overlap and their ambitions collide, the course of Joanna and Maggie’s lives seems destined to change forever. Written in response to the dominant stereotypes of the time, There Is Confusion paints a revelatory portrait....

Picking up where Essence best-selling author La Jill Hunt's Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda left off, Too Close for Comfort follows Paige Michaels and her no-nonsense friends as they search for love. Paige has finally broken loose from her no-good man, and she's loving the single life - until Quincy Westbrooke shows up.

Blazing with scandal, deception, temptation, and revenge, this third installment in the Twisted series blurs the lines of infidelity and tests the true meaning of love.

Kourtney “Ko-Ko” Jackson has no boundaries when it comes to being promiscuous. Known for having flirtatious behavior, along with an out-of-control sex addiction, Ko-Ko goes after every man who crosses her path. However, she will ultimately cross the line when she uses her playful seduction to catch her best friend Lynn’s only son, Rayshawn.

Disaya Morgan, a character first introduced in Girls from Da Hood 4, returns in this gritty tale of a money-hungry woman who finds her life spinning out of control. When Disaya meets Indie and falls hopelessly in love, she is determined to keep her lifestyle a secret - but everything done in the dark eventually comes to light. When she loses control of her own hustle, things go horribly wrong, and she learns the hard way that, in the game she’s playing, there are no winners.

The children we meet through the deepening friendships that evolve between Janathan Kozol and their families defy the stereotypes of urban youth too frequently presented on TV and in newspapers. Tender, generous, and often religiously devout, they speak with painful clarity about the poverty and racial isolation that have wounded but not hardened them. "It's not like being in a jail," says 15-year-old Isabel. "It's more like being hidden."

#1 Essence bestselling author K’Wan returns with The Diamond Empire, the explosive, hard-hitting follow-up audiobook to the street love story Diamonds and Pearl. It’s about to be an all-out war. While an ambitious rival has taken over Diamonds’s crew, Diamonds lies in wait in exile...

For more than a century, the city of Atlanta has been associated with Black achievement in education, business, politics, media, and music, earning it the nickname "the Black Mecca." Atlanta's long tradition of Black education dates back to Reconstruction, and produced an elite that flourished in spite of Jim Crow, rose to leadership during the civil rights movement, and then took power in the 1970s by building a coalition between White progressives, business interests, and Black Atlantans. But Atlanta's political leadership has consistently mishandled the Black poor.

While Jaylin fights his battle to stay out of jail for giving Felicia a major beat-down, he also has to do what it takes to maintain his marriage to Nokea. This time, she’s skeptical about standing by her man, and when she finds out that Scorpio and Jaylin can’t quite keep their feelings under control, throwing in the towel just might be the best thing to do. Till death do us part, Jaylin confirms, as losing his wife is not an option. For everyone, Scorpio’s cravings for the one man she’ll never be able to conquer must come to an end.