Top African Amercian Fiction Ebooks

The top 100 best selling African American Ebooks at Apple's iBookstore. The chart list of the top African American ebook fiction best seller downloads is updated daily.

Chart of the most popular African American fiction ebooks was last updated:

Apple Books Top 100 African American Fiction Ebooks

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The Coldest Winter Ever - Sister Souljah Cover Art

The Coldest Winter Ever

The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah

A New York Times and USA TODAY Bestseller “50 Most Impactful Black Books of the Last 50 Years.” — Essence Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read The instant classic from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Life After Death brings the streets of New York to life in a powerful and utterly unforgettable novel. I came busting into the world during one of New York’s worst snowstorms, so my mother named me Winter. Ghetto-born, Winter is the young, wealthy daughter of a prominent Brooklyn drug-dealing family. Quick-witted, sexy, and business-minded, she knows and loves the streets like the curves of her own body. But when a cold Winter wind blows her life in a direction she doesn’t want to go, her street smarts and seductive skills are put to the test of a lifetime. Unwilling to lose, this ghetto girl will do anything to stay on top. Twenty-five years and over one million copies later, The Coldest Winter Ever is a bestseller and a national treasure, a classic handed down from one reading generation to the next. Whether you are reading it for the first time or have cherished it for years , you will never forget this Winter’s tale.

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A Pair of Aces: Reese's Book Club - Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray Cover Art

A Pair of Aces: Reese's Book Club

A Pair of Aces: Reese's Book Club by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray

REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • A gripping novel about two trailblazing women on opposite sides of the law—a prosecutor and a madam—who team up to bring down notorious Mob boss Lucky Luciano in 1930s New York, from the New York Times bestselling authors of the million-copy bestseller The Personal Librarian. Eunice Carter, assistant district attorney for the City of New York and Manhattan’s first Black female prosecutor, has her sights set on the one and only Lucky Luciano, head of New York City’s five largest organized crime families. Other prosectors have tried to bring down Lucky, but they’ve all focused on the crime syndicate’s traditional businesses—bootlegging, gambling, loan sharking, and drug dealing—or tax evasion. No one has thought to approach the mob through its role in prostitution. Until Eunice. But she can’t get Luciano alone. Polly Adler has worked long and hard to build up her high-class brothel business. Her client list is filled with well-known names, both the famous and the infamous, who all know her booze is top-notch, her music first-rate, her food exquisite, and her girls the best. But Lucky has gone too far, putting her girls in danger, and Polly finally sees the chance to end his reign once and for all. Together, Eunice and Polly fashion a case utilizing a network of women. Bridging the enormous divide between them and risking their own lives, they assemble evidence bit by bit, under the nose of the man they’re trying to convict. It is this very alliance—of two women from vastly different worlds—that launches the most sensational trial New York City has ever seen.

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The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman - Deesha Philyaw Cover Art

The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman

The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman A Novel by Deesha Philyaw

NATIONAL BESTSELLER New York Times Book Review Editors' Pick "Fierce, fabulous, and very funny." - Oprah Daily , Best Books of Fall 2026 list "A raucous and moving tale of triumph told with biting wit." - #1 on People ’s Must-Read Books of Fall 2026 "A smart and saucy delight. The church ladies still have secrets.... Gird up thy loins." - Ron Charles The wife of a popular and powerful megachurch pastor upends her charmed “rags-to-Rolex” life when her secret past comes roaring into the spotlight—in this "funny and juicy and sexy and delicious peek behind the pulpit" (Samantha Irby) from the acclaimed and beloved author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies . From the moment Scharisse Freeman ditched her humble roots and married a megachurch pastor fifteen years her senior, she’s been labeled too brash and too “of the world” by church folks who grudgingly accepted her into their fold, and too holy by her estranged childhood bestie Petra. Schar doesn’t have many allies, but that hasn’t stopped her from building an enviable business empire spanning books to clothing to branded products, and living the comfortable life her husband's power affords her. On the eve of her 40th birthday, Schar gets the final bit of validation she’s always dreamt of: a coveted invitation to participate in the First Lady USA pageant. This is her chance to be accepted by the other pastors’ wives—First Ladies—who are “like Jesus’ disciples if they had been a group of mean girls.” Finally, blissfully, the ice between Schar and the other First Ladies begins to thaw. But as the pageant nears, a sensational scandal breaks with Schar at its center, and her carefully curated life implodes. Schar faces down shame and terrible secrets from her childhood and is reminded that in the eyes of the church, optics can matter more than the truth. Unflinchingly funny, frank, and splendidly unruly, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman exults in the luscious, messy pleasure of finally feeling free. "Smart and juicy and compulsively readable." - Jasmine Guillory, New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Date and The Proposal "Philyaw has created a heroine you can’t help but root for, and a book you can’t help but love." - Rufi Thorpe, author of Margo's Got Money Troubles A Most Anticipated Book by Goodreads, Audible, PEN America, Kirkus Reviews , Electric Literature , The Root , BookPage , Lit Hub , Ms. Magazine , Debutiful , Country Living , She Reads, Book Riot

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The Wilderness - Angela Flournoy Cover Art

The Wilderness

The Wilderness A Novel by Angela Flournoy

NATIONAL BESTSELLER FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE FOR FICTION FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITIC CIRCLES AWARD FOR FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE Named one of the Washington Post 's 10 Best Books of the Year One of Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of the Year" Named a Best of the Year by The New Yorker , The Boston Globe , Publishers Weekly, Vogue , Elle , Time , Kirkus Reviews , Electric Literature , Town & Country , Alta Journal , NPR, New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Book Riot, Audible "Flournoy has delivered a future classic—the kind of novel that generations to come will read to understand the nuances and peculiarities of this time." — Harper's Bazaar An era-defining novel about five Black women over the course of their twenty-year friendship, as they move through the dizzying and sometimes precarious period between young adulthood and midlife—in the much-anticipated second book from National Book Award finalist Angela Flournoy. Desiree, January, Monique, and Nakia are in their early twenties and at the beginning. Of their careers, of marriage, of motherhood, and of big-city lives in New York and Los Angeles. Together, they are finding their way through the wilderness , that period of life when the reality of contemporary adulthood—overwhelming, mysterious, and full of freedom and consequences—swoops in and stays. Desiree is estranged from her sister Danielle, and the two nurse bitter family wounds in different ways. January’s got a relationship with a “good” man she feels ambivalent about, even after her surprise pregnancy. Monique, a librarian and aspiring blogger, finds unexpected online fame after calling out the university where she works for its plans to whitewash fraught history. And Nakia is trying to get her restaurant off the ground, without relying on the largesse of her upper middle-class family who wonder aloud if she should be doing something better with her life. As these friends move from the late 2000’s into the late 2020’s, from young adults to grown women, they must figure out what they mean to one another—amid political upheaval, economic and environmental instability, and the increasing volatility of modern American life. The Wilderness is Angela Flournoy’s masterful and kaleidoscopic follow-up to her critically acclaimed debut The Turner House . A generational talent, she captures with disarming wit and electric language how the most profound connections over a lifetime can lie in the tangled, uncertain thicket of friendship.

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The Personal Librarian: A GMA Book Club Pick - Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray Cover Art

The Personal Librarian: A GMA Book Club Pick

The Personal Librarian: A GMA Book Club Pick A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel) by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray

Over one million copies sold! The Instant New York Times Bestseller! A Good Morning America * Book Club Pick! Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR! Named a Notable Book of the Year by the Washington Post ! “Historical fiction at its best!” * A remarkable novel about J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, the Black American woman who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as white in order to leave a lasting legacy that enriched our nation, from New York Times bestselling authors Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture in New York City society and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps create a world-class collection. But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle’s complexion isn’t dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white—her complexion is dark because she is African American. The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths she must go to—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.

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With Love from Harlem - ReShonda Tate Cover Art

With Love from Harlem

With Love from Harlem A Novel of Hazel Scott by ReShonda Tate

USA TODAY BESTSELLER "Tate blends fact and fiction with elegance...A captivating, emotionally resonant portrait of a singular woman who refused to be diminished." — LIBRARY JOURNAL "Tate has a rare gift for storytelling that strikes straight to the heart." — SADEQA JOHNSON, New York Times bestselling author of Keeper of Lost Children From The Queen of Sugar Hill author ReShonda Tate—a new novel inspired by beloved Harlem jazz performer Hazel Scott and the equal parts exhilarating and tumultuous relationship that changed the course of her life. Harlem, 1943. At just twenty-three, Hazel Scott is a woman on fire. A jazz prodigy, a glamorous film star, and a fierce advocate for civil rights, she’s breaking barriers and refusing to play by the rules. Then Adam Clayton Powell Jr. walks into her life. Harlem’s most electrifying preacher-turned-politician, Adam is as bold and unyielding as Hazel—charismatic, powerful…and married. This kicks off a decades-long relationship that propels them into the center of a political and cultural revolution. As Hazel’s star rises, Adam takes the national stage in Congress and the couple becomes the toast of the country. But when their affair turns into a marriage, behind the glamorous façade is a battlefield of ego, ambition, and sacrifice. Forced to choose between her music and her family, Hazel must decide what she’s willing to lose—and what she refuses to give up. Set against the pulsing backdrop of twentieth-century Harlem and featuring icons like Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes, and James Baldwin, With Love from Harlem is a sweeping, emotionally charged romantic drama, rich with historical detail. ReShonda Tate delivers a powerful portrait of love, art, and the price of being unforgettable. "[A] vivid and compelling picture of the life of this singular woman." — MARIE BENEDICT, New York Times bestselling author of The Queens of Crime

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The Revelation of Dionne Daphne - Mara Brock Akil Cover Art

The Revelation of Dionne Daphne

The Revelation of Dionne Daphne A Novel by Mara Brock Akil

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Mara Brock Akil, the award-winning creator of Girlfriends, Being Mary Jane, Love Is, and Forever , pens an emotionally enthralling debut novel about enduring love, world-shattering secrets, and self-awakening. What happens when one knock at your door sends your entire world into chaos? When a stranger becomes a lifeline? When the reality you’ve meticulously curated seems to be a mirage? From the outside looking in, one might say that Dionne Daphne had it all: being the beauty editor at a prestigious New York magazine, a boyfriend who could have been plucked out of its model pages, the social life of the upper echelon, and a girlhood steeped in debutant balls. But that is from the outside. When the now ex-boyfriend arrives at her Brooklyn doorstep Dionne imagines reconciliation, going back to the good life brimming with the possibility of marriage; the life her mother always wanted for her. Instead, he delivers life-threatening news that creates a crack in her picture-perfect world. A crack that grows legs and runs her right into her past, unearthing a secret that she has hidden since childhood. In an effort to run toward the truth and away from a lie, Dionne sets out on a spur-of-the-moment road trip with an unlikely stranger to confront the long-buried darkness of her past and the family who made it so. As Dionne comes to a final reckoning, she begins to unravel new layers of herself and fresh possibilities for her life, her family, and even her love. The Revelation of Dionne Daphne is at once a deeply moving and provocatively gripping novel that shows when you dig deep enough into the shadows of your life, light can be revealed. It’s a novel of broken lovers, a fractured family, and distant friendships all making their way back to one another.

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Black Cake: A Read with Jenna Pick - Charmaine Wilkerson Cover Art

Black Cake: A Read with Jenna Pick

Black Cake: A Read with Jenna Pick A Novel by Charmaine Wilkerson

NOW A HULU STREAMING SERIES • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • Two estranged siblings delve into their mother’s hidden past—and how it all connects to her traditional Caribbean black cake—in this immersive family saga, “a character-driven, multigenerational story that’s meant to be savored” ( Time ).   “Wilkerson transports you across the decades and around the globe accompanied by complex, wonderfully drawn characters.”—Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones & The Six, and Malibu Rising ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Oprah Daily, NPR, BuzzFeed, Glamour, PopSugar, Book Riot, She Reads We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become? In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves. Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right”? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever? Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.

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Where the Wildflowers Grow - Terah Shelton Harris Cover Art

Where the Wildflowers Grow

Where the Wildflowers Grow A Novel by Terah Shelton Harris

NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR BY Goodreads, Essence, Sunset Magazine, SheReads, BookBub, and more! From acclaimed author Terah Shelton Harris comes a poignant story of survival and redemption that questions what it means to stop existing and start living. Leigh is the last of the Wildes. She knows this because she watched them all die. Grief never truly fades and even as the tragedy haunts her, Leigh carries on, because survival is in her blood. So, when the transport bus taking her to prison careens off the road, killing everyone onboard except her, she does what’s in her nature. She survives.  While searching for a place to hide, Leigh stumbles upon an unexpected sanctuary: a flower farm in rural Alabama tucked away from the world. What Leigh doesn’t expect is the found family there who have built something from the wreckage of their own lives. Especially Jackson, the farm’s owner, who sees through Leigh’s defenses, offers her small moments of tenderness, encourages her to face her own tragedies. Slowly, Leigh finds peace with the hard pace and soft nature of the farm, taking comfort in the life blooming around her. Maybe she’s not beyond redemption, not too broken for something good. And maybe, just maybe, Leigh starts to heal. But the past isn't so easily buried. No matter how far she runs, the truth of who she is and the ghosts of the Wildes follow. And when those secrets catch up to her, threatening everything she’s come to love, Leigh will have to truly face what she can survive.

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The Good Lord Bird (National Book Award Winner) - James McBride Cover Art

The Good Lord Bird (National Book Award Winner)

The Good Lord Bird (National Book Award Winner) A Novel by James McBride

Now a Showtime limited series starring Ethan Hawke and Daveed Diggs Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction From the bestselling author of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store , Deacon King Kong (an Oprah Book Club pick) and The Color of Water comes the story of a young boy born a slave who joins John Brown’s antislavery crusade—and who must pass as a girl to survive. Henry Shackleford is a young slave living in the Kansas Territory in 1856--a battleground between anti- and pro-slavery forces--when legendary abolitionist John Brown arrives. When an argument between Brown and Henry's master turns violent, Henry is forced to leave town--along with Brown, who believes Henry to be a girl and his good luck charm. Over the ensuing months, Henry, whom Brown nicknames Little Onion, conceals his true identity to stay alive. Eventually Brown sweeps him into the historic raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859--one of the great catalysts for the Civil War. An absorbing mixture of history and imagination, and told with McBride's meticulous eye for detail and character, The Good Lord Bird is both a rousing adventure and a moving exploration of identity and survival.

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Moth to a Flame - Ashley Antoinette Cover Art

Moth to a Flame

Moth to a Flame by Ashley Antoinette

In the little city of Flint, MI, the good die young and the people left standing are the grimiest of characters. With reign over the city's drug trade, Benjamin Atkins made sure that his precious daughter, Raven, was secluded from the grit that the city had to offer. But when Raven's young heart gets claimed by Mizan, a stick-up kid in search of a come-up, there's nothing Benjamin can do about losing her to the streets. She chooses love over loyalty and runs off with Mizan, but her new role as wifey soon proves to be more than she can handle. Puppy love always feels right, but things turn stale, and she soon finds that everyone she loves has disappeared. All she has is Mizan, but when hugs and kisses turn to bloody lips and black eyes, she realizes that Mizan is not who she thought he was. Raven becomes desperate for a way out, but this time, Daddy can't save her. Every time she finds the courage to leave, fear convinces her to stay. Like a moth to a flame, Raven is drawn to Mizan, even though she knows he'll be the death of her. When the hood life she chose becomes unbearable and the only way out is in a coffin, what will she do?

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Love On The Low 9 - Mia Black Cover Art

Love On The Low 9

Love On The Low 9 by Mia Black

Mika’s troubles should be over now that Trill is gone, but unfortunately for her, his death has created more problems for her. The police want answers and are willing to go to extremes to get them, even if that means trying to intimidate Mika to get them. As Royce fights for his freedom, Mika fights to hold him down on the outside and lean on trusted friends to get them through the latest challenge. With so much strain on the psyches and strain on their relationship, can they hold things together and find their way out of this nightmare?

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American Daughters - Piper Huguley Cover Art

American Daughters

American Daughters A Novel by Piper Huguley

In the vein of America’s First Daughter, Piper Huguley’s historical novel delves into the remarkable friendship of Portia Washington and Alice Roosevelt, the daughters of educator Booker T. Washington and President Teddy Roosevelt. At the turn of the twentieth century, in a time of great change, two women—separated by societal status and culture but bound by their expected roles as the daughters of famed statesmen—forged a lifelong friendship.  Portia Washington’s father Booker T. Washington was formerly enslaved and spent his life championing the empowerment of Black Americans through his school, known popularly as Tuskegee Institute, as well as his political connections. Dedicated to her father’s values, Portia contributed by teaching and performing spirituals and classical music. But a marriage to a controlling and jealous husband made fulfilling her dreams much more difficult.  When Theodore Roosevelt assumed the presidency, his eldest daughter Alice Roosevelt joined him in the White House. To try to win her father’s approval, she eagerly jumped in to help him succeed, but Alice’s political savvy and nonconformist behavior alienated as well as intrigued his opponents and allies. When she married a congressman, she carved out her own agendas and continued espousing women’s rights and progressive causes.  Brought together in the wake of their fathers’ friendship, these bright and fascinating women helped each other struggle through marriages, pregnancies, and political upheaval, supporting each other throughout their lives.   A provocative historical novel and revealing portrait, Piper Huguley’s American Daughters vividly brings to life two passionate and vital women who nurtured a friendship that transcended politics and race over a century ago. 

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The First Ladies - Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray Cover Art

The First Ladies

The First Ladies by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray

The Instant  New York Times  Bestseller!  A novel about the extraordinary partnership between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune—an unlikely friendship that changed the world, from the New York Times bestselling authors of the Good Morning America Book Club pick The Personal Librarian . The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, Mary McLeod Bethune refuses to back down as white supremacists attempt to thwart her work. She marches on as an activist and an educator, and as her reputation grows she becomes a celebrity, revered by titans of business and recognized by U.S. Presidents. Eleanor Roosevelt herself is awestruck and eager to make her acquaintance. Initially drawn together because of their shared belief in women’s rights and the power of education, Mary and Eleanor become fast friends confiding their secrets, hopes and dreams—and holding each other’s hands through tragedy and triumph.   When Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected president, the two women begin to collaborate more closely, particularly as Eleanor moves toward her own agenda separate from FDR, a consequence of the devastating discovery of her husband’s secret love affair. Eleanor becomes a controversial First Lady for her outspokenness, particularly on civil rights. And when she receives threats because of her strong ties to Mary, it only fuels the women’s desire to fight together for justice and equality.   This is the story of two different, yet equally formidable, passionate, and committed women, and the way in which their singular friendship helped form the foundation for the modern civil rights movement.

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The Street - Ann Petry Cover Art

The Street

The Street by Ann Petry

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION FROM NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR TAYARI JONES "How can a novel’s social criticism be so unflinching and clear, yet its plot moves like a house on fire? I am tempted to describe Petry as a magician for the many ways that The Street amazes, but this description cheapens her talent… Petry is a gifted artist." — Tayari Jones, from the Introduction The Street follows the spirited Lutie Johnson, a newly single mother whose efforts to claim a share of the American Dream for herself and her young son meet frustration at every turn in 1940s Harlem. Opening a fresh perspective on the realities and challenges of black, female, working-class life, this classic American novel became the first novel by an African American woman to sell more than a million copies.

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Parable of the Talents - Octavia E. Butler Cover Art

Parable of the Talents

Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

From a celebrated author, the thrilling sequel to  The Parable of the Sower —a cautionary novel ahead of its time, perfect for fans of The Broken Earth trilogy. In 2032, Lauren Olamina has survived the destruction and ruin of everything she knew. Her peaceful community based on her newly founded faith, Earthseed, provides refuge for outcasts facing persecution after the election of an ultra-conservative president. Under his rule, Lauren's colony—a minority religious faction led by a young Black woman—becomes a target for the president’s reign of terror and oppression. Years later, Asha Vere reads the journals of a mother she never knew. As she searches for answers, she struggles to reconcile with the legacy of a mother caught between her duty to her chosen family and her calling to lead humankind into a better future. "In the ongoing contest over which dystopian classic is most applicable to our time, Octavia Butler's 'Parable' books may be unmatched."— The New Yorker

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Hanging and Burning - Walter Mosley Cover Art

Hanging and Burning

Hanging and Burning A King Oliver Novel by Walter Mosley

A dying gangster's plea sends Joe King Oliver on a quest for a missing woman across America's coasts—unraveling a dark and violent family history along the way—in this engrossing new novel from one of the most celebrated and acclaimed crime writers at work today. Joe King Oliver is the big man you call to solve the most delicate and dangerous of problems. Fresh off unraveling the mystery of his own parents’ fates, King finds himself accepting (again at his grandmother’s request) a case from Arman Babylon, a powerful Los Angeles gangster now dying from cancer. Babylon’s granddaughter, Twyla Mann, has been missing for years, and he’s desperate to find her before he passes. The search pulls King into the Babylons’ stained past and the cold case of Dalia Shorts, a torch singer who vanished without a trace and whom Arman was once suspected of killing. As King follows her trail from L.A. to New York and back, he’ll realize nothing is what it seems as he uncovers a pattern of violence that has targeted the women around Babylon for decades. How much will King be willing to risk to finally set things right?

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Mules and Men - Zora Neale Hurston Cover Art

Mules and Men

Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston brings us Black America’s folklore as only she can, putting the oral history on the written page with grace and understanding. This new edition of Mules and Men features a new cover and a P.S. section which includes insights, interviews, and more. For the student of cultural history, Mules and Men is a treasury of Black America’s folklore as collected by Zora Neale Hurston, the storyteller and anthropologist who grew up hearing the songs and sermons, sayings and tall tales that have formed and oral history of the South since the time of slavery. Set intimately within the social context of Black life, the stories, “big old lies,” songs, voodoo customs, and superstitions recorded in these pages capture the imagination and bring back to life the humor and wisdom that is the unique heritage of Black Americans.

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The Secret Keeper of Main Street - Trisha R. Thomas Cover Art

The Secret Keeper of Main Street

The Secret Keeper of Main Street A Novel by Trisha R. Thomas

"A pure delight from start to finish!"—Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Diamond Eye Acclaimed author Trisha R. Thomas delivers a masterful new historical mystery of scandal and intuition. In 1950s oil-rich Oklahoma, Bailey Dowery, a dressmaker with the gift of “second sight,” reluctantly reveals the true loves and intentions of her socialite clients, making her a silent witness to a shocking crime. 1954: In the quaint small town of Mendol, Oklahoma, Bailey Dowery is a Black dressmaker for the wives and daughters of local oil barons. She earns a good living fitting designer gowns and creating custom wedding dresses for the town’s elite. But beyond her needle and thread lies a deeper talent, a psychic gift of insight passed down from her mother. With just a fleeting touch or brush against the skin, Bailey has sudden flashes of intuition— witnessing the other person’s hopes, dreams, and nightmares, as well glimpses of their past and future. To protect herself, she wears gloves to keep from grazing the skin of her clients as she pins them into their gowns. Brides have whispered that Bailey can see if their true love is faithful, or if their marriage will be a success. Her aunt Charlene has always warned her, “It’s safer to stay out of White folks’ business.” But Bailey will reluctantly provide a reading during a fitting, as long as the bride promises to be discreet. Now Elsa Grimes, daughter of one of the richest oil men in Oklahoma, has come to the Regal Gown as the least joyful bride Bailey has ever seen. Elsa’s big society wedding is imminent and her gown is gorgeous, but what Bailey’s intuition uncovers when she touches Elsa’s hand horrifies her. Against her better judgment, she’s determined to help Elsa in whatever way she can. But when a shocking murder mystery unfolds and the son of a prominent family turns up dead on the eve of Elsa’s wedding, and the bride-to-be is arrested for his murder, Bailey is suddenly at the center of a firestorm that threatens to overtake her and everyone she loves.

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Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi Cover Art

Homegoing

Homegoing A novel by Yaa Gyasi

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE'S JOHN LEONARD PRIZE • WINNER OF THE PEN / HEMINGWAY AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION • Ghana, eighteenth century: two half sisters are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and sold into slavery. One of Oprah’s Best Books of the Year, Homegoing follows the parallel paths of these sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem. Yaa Gyasi’s extraordinary novel illuminates slavery’s troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed—and shows how the memory of captivity has been inscribed on the soul of our nation.

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Kindred - Octavia Butler Cover Art

Kindred

Kindred by Octavia Butler

NEW FOREWORD BY JANELLE MONÁE Experience the time travel science fiction classic from the New York Times bestselling author of Parable of the Sower and winner of the MacArthur “Genius” Grant, Nebula, and Hugo Awards. A modern Black woman is pulled through time to face the horrors of slavery in this “Great American Novel” about racism, sexism, and white supremacy—then and now ( The Atlantic ). “I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm.” Dana’s torment begins when she suddenly vanishes on her 26th birthday from California, 1976, and is dragged through time to antebellum Maryland to rescue a boy named Rufus, heir to a slaveowner’s plantation. She soon realizes the purpose of her summons to the past: protect Rufus to ensure his assault of her Black ancestor so that she may one day be born. As she endures the traumas of slavery and the soul-crushing normalization of savagery, Dana fights to keep her autonomy and return to the present. Blazing the trail for neo-slavery narratives like Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad and Ta-Nehisi Coates’s The Water Dancer , Butler takes one of speculative fiction’s oldest tropes and infuses it with lasting depth and power. Dana not only experiences the cruelties of slavery on her skin but also grimly learns to accept it as a condition of her own existence in the present. “Where stories about American slavery are often gratuitous, reducing its horror to explicit violence and brutality, Kindred is controlled and precise” ( New York Times ). “Reading Octavia Butler taught me to dream big, and I think it’s absolutely necessary that everybody have that freedom and that willingness to dream.” —N. K. Jemisin

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Pimp - Iceberg Slim Cover Art

Pimp

Pimp The Story of My Life by Iceberg Slim

“[In Pimp ], Iceberg Slim breaks down some of the coldest, capitalist concepts I’ve ever heard in my life.” —Dave Chappelle, from his Nextflix special The Bird Revelation Pimp sent shockwaves throughout the literary world when it published in 1969. Iceberg Slim’s autobiographical novel offered readers a never-before-seen account of the sex trade, and an unforgettable look at the mores of Chicago’s street life during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. In the preface, Slim says it best, “In this book, I will take you, the reader, with me into the secret inner world of the pimp.” An immersive experience unlike anything before it, Pimp would go on to sell millions of copies, with translations throughout the world. And it would have a profound impact upon generations of writers, entertainers, and filmmakers, making it the classic hustler’s tale that never seems to go out of style.

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Addicted to a Dirty South Thug 2 - Myss Shan Cover Art

Addicted to a Dirty South Thug 2

Addicted to a Dirty South Thug 2 by Myss Shan

The drama continues in Addicted to A dirty South Thug 2 picking right up where you left off... Cuba was determined more than ever to stay away from the bad guys, but after being bit by the Prince bug, she realizes that she's sick and in love. "No fear and no more running," she tells herself, but with Khi's overwhelming baby mama drama and heat from the Prince brothers, she finds every excuse she can to run from her one true love. Khi is trying everything to get a hold on his life. After getting Dae out the way, the problems seem to continue to fall into his lap. With trying to figure out if Selena is really playing for the other team and keeping an eye on Briana, his love and attention for Cuba seems to fall in last place. With the threat of losing Cuba on his shoulders, will Khi make the right the decision and choose the woman that he's been waiting his whole life for? And what happens when decisions made causes brother to be against brother? They are in the middle of a war, how will they come out on top if they're beefing with each other? KaeDee is no longer able to keep the cool demeanor that he is known for having once he realizes that it's more to Deonna's suicide. Once a pretty Detective walks into his life and turns things upside down for him, KaeDee finds out the woman he married is only one of many. It all seems to break him down and forces him to be angry at the world, even his brothers. Mistakes are made and KaeDee is unable to keep it together and is quickly falling apart, but what happens when the one person he's never noticed is the one to piece him back together? In the midst of all the madness, will KaeDee see that his true soulmate had been hiding in the shadows all along. Dae's finally forced to face his problems now that he has nowhere to turn. Realizing that the only person that he could count on is the one to put him in his predicament, will Dae finally get his life together or will it be too late for him? The newest addition to the Prince brothers saga is home. The wild hair, funny looking eyes Cassidy has touched down and back to claim the only woman he's ever loved but things won't be so easy for him. His past issues was never resolved and the secret he's been holding onto has no choice but to be revealed. He works hard to fix all the issues he's caused. Once the smoke finally clears, will Cassidy have his woman, or will end up paying for more of his mistakes in the end? Things are just heating up in this installment of Addicted To a Dirty South Thug.

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Love On The Low 10 - Mia Black Cover Art

Love On The Low 10

Love On The Low 10 by Mia Black

Royce has vowed to get out of the game, but it’s harder than he thinks to leave it all alone and move away and start building a legitimate business.  As he and Mika reunite and try to forge a new path together, the lure of the streets and the fast-money life keeps pulling him back in. If he doesn’t reset and focus on what truly matters, he could lose everything including the woman who has remained by his side when things went bad.  Will he make the right choice and finally marry Mika and live the kind of life they both deserve?

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Strangers Behind Closed Doors - Catherine Adel West Cover Art

Strangers Behind Closed Doors

Strangers Behind Closed Doors A Novel by Catherine Adel West

"A thought-provoking thriller filled with jaw-dropping twists that kept me racing through the pages." —Gigi Pandian, USA Today bestselling author of the Secret Staircase Mysteries A twisty thriller about a woman who vanishes from a luxury hotel, and the detective who believes the case is tied to the unsolved disappearances of other Black women in the city. Giovanni Mason worked hard to become the first Black head concierge at Chicago’s exclusive and glamorous Ivory Hotel. It’s a job that requires patience, perfection, and, above all, self-control. But when Giovanni reunites with her former best friend, makeup influencer Natalie Moore, things get heated as a mending of fences morphs into a public argument in the hotel restaurant, and Giovanni loses her cool. Hours later, Natalie is missing. Evidence piles against Giovanni—a ransacked, blood-spattered hotel room, fresh bruises on her body, and a troubling gap in her memory from the last twelve hours. Detective Redding Stark is the only one unconvinced of Giovanni’s guilt. She sees disturbing parallels to a series of disappearances targeting Black women and believes Natalie’s case is part of something bigger. Together, she and Giovanni are pulled into a dangerous web of privilege, power, and betrayal inside—and far beyond—the walls of the Ivory Hotel. Will Giovanni and Detective Stark find Natalie or join the missing?  

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The Final Revival of Opal & Nev - Dawnie Walton Cover Art

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton

An electrifying and “provocative, rich, and assured” ( Vogue ) debut novel about the meteoric rise of an iconic interracial rock duo in the 1970s, their sensational breakup, and the dark secrets unearthed when they try to reunite decades later for one last tour. “A packed time capsule that doubles as a stick of dynamite.” — The New York Times Book Review Opal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, Afro-punk before that term existed. Coming of age in Detroit, she can’t imagine settling for a 9-to-5 job—despite her unusual looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her at a bar’s amateur night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together for the fledgling Rivington Records. In early seventies New York City, just as she’s finding her niche as part of a flamboyant and funky creative scene, a rival band signed to her label brandishes a Confederate flag at a promotional concert. Opal’s bold protest and the violence that ensues set off a chain of events that will not only change the lives of those she loves, but also be a deadly reminder that repercussions are always harsher for women, especially black women, who dare to speak their truth. Decades later, as Opal considers a 2016 reunion with Nev, music journalist S. Sunny Shelton seizes the chance to curate an oral history about her idols. Sunny thought she knew most of the stories leading up to the cult duo’s most politicized chapter. But as her interviews dig deeper, a nasty new allegation from an unexpected source threatens to blow up everything. Provocative and chilling, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev features a backup chorus of unforgettable voices, a heroine the likes of which we’ve not seen in storytelling, and a daring structure, and introduces a bold new voice in contemporary fiction. A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK * NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY BARACK OBAMA * THE WASHINGTON POST * NPR * ESQUIRE * ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY * GOODREADS * THE MILLIONS * READER’S DIGEST * PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER * CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY

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Love On The Low 8 - Mia Black Cover Art

Love On The Low 8

Love On The Low 8 by Mia Black

Mika’s new relationship has just begun and already there’s a problem, but this problem could cost lives, including her own. Royce may not have been able to keep the girl, but he’s not about to let any man bring her harm. When he discovers who Mika’s new man is, he seeks her out to reveal what he knows, but Mika’s guard is up and she’s not sure he can be trusted. Will Mika heed Royce’s warnings or will their relationship history make her doubt him? Find out what happens in part eight of Love on the Low!

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Addicted to a Dirty South Thug 4 - Myss Shan Cover Art

Addicted to a Dirty South Thug 4

Addicted to a Dirty South Thug 4 by Myss Shan

After Cuba and Emon are kidnapped by the brother that Emon had never knew he had, the two of them come home to try and start their lives as if everything is normal. With a secret dangling over their heads, Cuba leaves her marriage to Khi and decides that she's better off on her own. Khi refuses to let his wife go and does everything in his power to get his wife back with him where she belongs especially when something comes up that may have Khi fighting for all the time he has left. Tangie and Cass are back together and Tangie finds herself being a mother to a child that she never wanted to accept. After Cass brings his daughter home to live with them, Tangie finds out that Cass is still up to his same old ways and has the both of them questioning if their relationship is even meant to be. KaeDee's police girlfriend's intentions are finally revealed and just when KaeDee thinks he has her out of the way, she comes back harder than ever showing him how better they were together as a team than apart. Dae finds that it's easier to move on and start over when it's revealed that Amber is dating other men. No longer the one to fight fire with fire when it comes to the ones he love, Dae is ready to put in work while in his search for love. The finale is fast and filled with drama from the very first page. Be sure to read along in full and stay tuned to see why everyone is Still Addicted to a Dirty South Thug.

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Friends and Family - Natalie Baszile Cover Art

Friends and Family

Friends and Family A Novel by Natalie Baszile

From the author of Queen Sugar, a piercing examination of friendship and loyalty as two best friends find themselves at odds over their beliefs on race, identity and allyship, especially when it comes to their teenage children Babs and Nora became friends thanks to their kids. Now, the desire to protect their children might tear them apart. Babs and Nora have spent a decade’s worth of morning walks sharing family secrets, local drama, and advice—everything from tips on lingerie choices to Babs’s suggestions to Nora, a white woman, on how to raise Nathan, her adopted Black son. But their worlds are turned upside down when the cops are called on their kids while they’re home alone, leading to a traumatic police encounter for Nathan. In the aftermath, Babs and Nora find themselves divided as never before, and Nathan looks for refuge with Babs and her family, where, unlike in his own home, race, identity, and culture are always up for discussion. Babs can see that Nathan is a young Black man without community trying to find himself. Torn between respecting Nora’s boundaries and embodying the values so important to her own family, Babs will make a choice that will shape their lives forever. Set in a tight-knit enclave in the Bay Area, Friends and Family is an eye-opening exploration of friendship and privilege, race and community, and what it means to truly be a good friend and ally.

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Friday Black - Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Cover Art

Friday Black

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “An unbelievable debut, one that announces a new and necessary American voice.”— New York Times Book Review The acclaimed debut short story collection from the author of Chain Gang All Stars ; a piercingly raw and, at times, heartbreakingly satirical look at what it’s like to be young and Black in America. From the start of this extraordinary work of social satire, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s writing will grab you, haunt you, enrage and invigorate you. By placing ordinary characters in extraordinary situations, Adjei-Brenyah reveals the violence, injustice, and painful absurdities that Black men and women contend with every day in this country. This collection of speculative stories tackles urgent instances of racism and cultural unrest, and explores the many ways we fight for humanity in an unforgiving world. In “The Finkelstein Five,” Adjei-Brenyah gives us an unforgettable reckoning of the brutal prejudice of our justice system.In “Zimmer Land,” we see a far-too-easy-to-believe imagining of racism as sport.“Friday Black” and “How to Sell a Jacket as Told by Ice King” show the horrors of consumerism and the toll it takes on us all. Entirely fresh in its style and perspective, and sure to appeal to fans of Colson Whitehead, Marlon James, and George Saunders, Friday Black confronts readers with a complicated, insistent, wrenching chorus of emotions, the final note of which, remarkably, is hope.

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The Darkest Child - Delores Phillips & Tayari Jones Cover Art

The Darkest Child

The Darkest Child A Novel by Delores Phillips & Tayari Jones

A new edition of this award-winning modern classic, with an introduction by Tayari Jones ( An American Marriage ), an excerpt from the never before seen follow-up, and discussion guide.   Pakersfield, Georgia, 1958: Thirteen-year-old Tangy Mae Quinn is the sixth of ten fatherless siblings. She is the darkest-skinned among them and therefore the ugliest in her mother, Rozelle’s, estimation, but she’s also the brightest. Rozelle—beautiful, charismatic, and light-skinned—exercises a violent hold over her children. Fearing abandonment, she pulls them from school at the age of twelve and sends them to earn their keep for the household, whether in domestic service, in the fields, or at “the farmhouse” on the edge of town, where Rozelle beds local men for money.   But Tangy Mae has been selected to be part of the first integrated class at a nearby white high school. She has a chance to change her life, but can she break from Rozelle’s grasp without ruinous—even fatal—consequences?

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Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right - Walter Mosley Cover Art

Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right

Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right A King Oliver Novel by Walter Mosley

In the latest from “mystery master” Walter Mosley, a family member’s terminal illness leads P.I. Joe King Oliver to the investigation of his life: tracking down his long-lost father, and meanwhile, a new case pits King’s professional responsibility against his own moral code. ( The Washington Post ) Joe King Oliver’s beloved Grandma B has found a tumor, and at her age, treatment is high-risk. She’s lived life fully and without regrets, and now has only a single, dying wish: to see her long-lost son. King has been estranged from his father, Chief Odin Oliver, since he was a young boy. He swore to never speak to the man again when he was taken away in handcuffs. But now, Grandma B’s pure ask has opened King’s heart, and through his hunt, he gains a deeper understanding of his father as a complicated, righteous man—a man defined by women, a man protected by women, a man he wants to know. Although Chief was released from prison years ago, he’s been living underground ever since. Now, King must not only find his father, but prove his innocence, and protect the future of his entire family. Simultaneously, King finds himself in a moral bind. Marigold Hart, the wife of a powerful Californian billionaire, has gone missing, along with their seven-year-old daughter. Orr is brutish and dangerous, and King realizes after locating her that it’s in her best interest to stay hidden. But are his motives pure? There is something magnetic about Marigold; he can’t help but want her near.   In the latest installment in the Joe King Oliver series, no good deed goes unpunished. Emotionally stirring, pulse-pounding, and undeniably sexy, Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right shows Walter Mosley at his best.

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Your Heart Is Mine 2 - Vivian Blue Cover Art

Your Heart Is Mine 2

Your Heart Is Mine 2 A Criminal Romance by Vivian Blue

Death has been dealt to the Wilson Family, and revenge is the inevitable! The devastation that it brought to Big Lee and Ax will cause one of them to crack and the other one to fold. Big Lee blames herself for her brother’s death, and her hidden secrecies are beginning to be exposed. Will she be able to mend all her mistakes and stay in the good graces of her loved ones, or will she lose everything she loves most at the hands of a fake marriage and the lies it held? Lay is trying to deal with the loss of her uncle and the fleeting love affair she had with Byrd. She realized that keeping their relationship a secret was a stupid idea, and she’d lost the only man she ever wanted to love. Can she convince Byrd that she was an idiot for hiding him and that she’s ready to shout from the rooftops that he’s her man? No one knows how things are going to turn out, but always remember: You are mine, and a powerful woman always gets her man!

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Bluebird, Bluebird - Attica Locke Cover Art

Bluebird, Bluebird

Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke

A thrilling novel about the explosive intersection of love, race, and justice from a writer and producer of the Emmy-winning Fox TV show Empire . "In Bluebird, Bluebird Attica Locke had both mastered the thriller and exceeded it." —Ann Patchett When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules—a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about growing up black in the lone star state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home. When his allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he travels up Highway 59 to the small town of Lark, where two murders—a black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman—have stirred up a hornet's nest of resentment. Darren must solve the crimes—and save himself in the process—before Lark's long-simmering racial fault lines erupt. From a writer and producer of the Emmy winning Fox TV show Empire , Bluebird, Bluebird is a rural noir suffused with the unique music, color, and nuance of East Texas. "Heartbreakingly resonant" — USA Today​

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God Don't Like Ugly - Mary Monroe Cover Art

God Don't Like Ugly

God Don't Like Ugly by Mary Monroe

The captivating first book in the acclaimed, award-winning and New York Times bestselling God series sweeps readers back to the streets, porches, and parlors of civil rights-era Ohio to bring to life the beginning of an enduring friendship between two girls from opposite sides of the track. "Reminiscent of Zora Neale Hurston." — Publishers Weekly Annette Goode is a shy, awkward, overweight child with a terrible secret. Frightened and ashamed, Annette withdraws into a world of books and food. But the summer she turns thirteen, something incredible happens: Rhoda Nelson chooses her as a friend. Dazzling, generous Rhoda, who is everything Annette is not—gorgeous, slim, and worldly—welcomes Annette into the heart of her eccentric family, which includes her handsome and dignified father; her lovely, fragile “Muh’Dear;” her brooding, dangerous brother Jock; and her colorful white relatives—half-crazy Uncle Johnny, sultry Aunt Lola, and scary, surly Granny Goose. With Rhoda’s help, Annette survives adolescence and blossoms as a woman. But when her beautiful best friend makes a stunning confession about a horrific childhood crime, Annette’s world will never be the same.

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Miss Pearly's Girls - ReShonda Tate Billingsley Cover Art

Miss Pearly's Girls

Miss Pearly's Girls A Captivating Tale of Family Healing by ReShonda Tate Billingsley

In this captivating family drama from award-winning, bestselling author ReShonda Tate Billingsley, four estranged sisters must return to rural Arkansas when their mother is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Their mother wants them to repair their shattered relationships, but first they’ll have to face the lies and obstacles they’ve worked so hard to leave behind…   Raising four very different daughters on her own in rural Arkansas wasn't easy for Miss Pearly Bell. And she's always regretted that the sisters went their separate ways for good—and never wanted to see each other again. But when Pearly is stricken with a terminal illness, she summons them all home—determined to somehow help them get right with each other and forgive. . . But that means dealing with past secrets and lies first.    As the oldest sister, pastor's wife Maxine took her responsibility way too seriously—and never fails to judge everyone else. But a secret she can no longer keep will explode everything she stands for. Youngest sister Leslie is all about making a very different life with her new love—but she didn't expect a shattering past truth to be suddenly revealed and uproot everything she ever thought she knew. Elegant PR professional Stella and her earthy twin, Star, don’t see eye-to-eye on anything—and now a long-ago deception could wipe out their last chance at a relationship.   Soon each sister must confront the illusions they've taken refuge in for so long and deal with each other woman-to-woman. But can building an all-too-fragile trust repair the damage done—and help them come together when they are needed most?  

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Sky Full of Elephants - Cebo Campbell Cover Art

Sky Full of Elephants

Sky Full of Elephants A Novel by Cebo Campbell

In this “bold and imaginative” (Tananarive Due) “truly powerful and riveting story” ( Booklist ) set in a world where white people no longer exist, college professor Charlie Brunton receives a call from his estranged daughter Sidney, setting off a chain of events as they journey across a truly “post-racial” America in search of answers. In a world without white people, what does it mean to be Black? One day, a cataclysmic event occurs: all of the white people in America walk into the nearest body of water. A year later, Charlie Brunton is a Black man living in an entirely new world. Having served his time in prison for a wrongful conviction, he’s now a professor of electric and solar power systems at Howard University when he receives a call from someone he wasn’t even sure existed: his daughter Sidney, a nineteen-year-old left behind by her white mother and step-family. Traumatized by the event, and terrified of the outside world, Sidney has spent a year in isolation in Wisconsin. Desperate for help, she turns to the father she never met, a man she has always resented. Sidney and Charlie meet for the first time as they embark on a journey across a truly “post-racial” America in search for answers. But neither of them are prepared for this new world and how they see themselves in it. Heading south toward what is now called the Kingdom of Alabama, everything Charlie and Sidney thought they knew about themselves, and the world, will be turned upside down. Brimming with heart and humor, “this stunning allegory will spark much discussion” ( Publishers Weekly , starred review) about the power of community and connection, about healing and self-actualization, and a reckoning with what it means to be Black in America, in both their world and ours.

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Love On The Low 7 - Mia Black Cover Art

Love On The Low 7

Love On The Low 7 by Mia Black

Mika and Royce have been through a lot more than either thought they could handle. Now that their wedding is off, it’s time for Mika to move on and heal her broken heart. She thinks Detroit is the perfect place to begin that journey. Her future looks brighter, but before she leaves, she meets someone new. The only problem is what looks like perfection may bring her life with Royce full-circle. Royce is consumed by rage. His sole focus is to get revenge for Keith’s murder, but he’s still pining over Mika and what they could have had together. He can’t get her out of his head and he’s not sure he’s completely ready to let her go – at least, not like this. The combination of revenge and heartache make him start to lose his grip and actively search for the man he blames for his losses.

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Love by the Book - Jessica George Cover Art

Love by the Book

Love by the Book A Novel by Jessica George

AN INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER • A New York Times Most Anticipated Book of Spring • "A beautiful and all-too-rare look at the importance of platonic love." — Kirkus Reviews (starred) Friendship is the love story you can count on. Remy is lucky. Her debut novel, based on her three best friends, became an instant bestseller when it was released, and her agent and publisher are clamoring for a follow-up. But just as Remy’s creative inspiration seems to leave her, so too do her friends: one moves to New York, one gets pregnant, and one gets back together with her (awful) boyfriend. After an ill-advised one-night stand complicates matters further, Remy is left deeply alone—and unable to find her next book idea. Simone is successful. A Kindergarten teacher with a passion for kids, and a well-paying side hustle that affords her all the material comforts she desires, she doesn't have time for a robust social life. All Simone needs is her close-knit family—but after the true nature of her work is revealed, they cut her off, and she realizes for the first time just how isolated she is. When Simone and Remy bump into each other (literally) in a bookstore, it isn’t exactly soulmates at first sight. Simone is guarded and prickly, Remy is insecure and heartbroken, and each woman is harboring a secret. And yet they might just be the missing piece the other has been searching for—if only they can let each other in. Can Simone help Remy make one of the most important decisions of her life—and can Remy help Simone recover all that she’s lost? In Jessica George’s heartwarming, funny, and soulful second novel, she explores the restorative nature of female friendship and the life-changing power of platonic love.

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Addicted to a Dirty South Thug 3 - Myss Shan Cover Art

Addicted to a Dirty South Thug 3

Addicted to a Dirty South Thug 3 by Myss Shan

Cuba has been through it all, and even then, it seems like her love for Khi grows more and more with each day. After her fairytale proposal and saying yes to the man she loved, Cuba was hit with the bitter and jealous filled rage of Brianna. Cuba's first thought is to run, but Khi isn't going to let that happen. He does everything in his power to show Cuba that she is his queen and he her king and ensures nothing ever happens to her again. Showering Cuba with love, affection, and gifts send these two right down the aisle of matrimony, but what happens just as the two are united? Life and betrayal has sent Khi back to the man that he had so long tried to escape. After everything that happened to his Cuba, Khi becomes the ultimate gentleman at home, but more ruthless than ever in the streets. He and his brothers are determined to reign supreme in the streets and with the new deal that's been handed to them, they plan to take it all while suffering no losses. The money begins to roll in effortlessly and the Prince name is own its way to being a legacy, but while things seem to be going great for them, someone isn't with it, and they're coming for Khi with all they have. KaeDee and Detective Destiny Henson's love story was written before KaeDee had even known. After Deonna's past was revealed and finding out the sacrifices that Destiny has made for him, KaeDee has decided to take things easy and get away for a while. Knowing he's no good for his brothers right now, he and Destiny embark on a journey to see if there a such thing as true happiness. Cassidy tried his best to be a good man to Tangie but one simple mistake causes him to lose his relationship with her. Feeling resentful and as stubborn as ever, Cassidy refuses to beg for forgiveness again and puts his all into the Prince legacy. He no longer wants to love, but when Jourdin the mother of his child walks back into his life and shows him unconditional love and Tangie finally confesses that she no longer wants to live without him, Cassidy finds himself in love with two women unsure of which one deserves his heart the most. Dae awakes from his coma feeling colder than ever. A character you all know pushes Tamar to forgive Dae and his wrongdoings against Taylana for the sake of their child. And now that things seem to be back on the right path, Dae no longer wants what he is now able to have and seeks to win back the heart of the one woman that he cost the most pain to. He wants Amber back and to build the relationship that he coldly tore apart, but she won't make it easy for him and nor will Taylana. Now that Khian, Cassidy, and Daelan are all together, the Prince legacy is in the midst of being written. These brothers have a point to prove and will stop at nothing to do so. You've never seen them so ruthless before especially when the biggest blow to come their way yet involves the last piece to the Prince brother puzzle...Emon. The Prince brothers love hard this round, but gun harder showing you just why everyone is Addicted to A Dirty South Thug.

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The Prada Plan 2 - Ashley Antoinette Cover Art

The Prada Plan 2

The Prada Plan 2 Leahs's Story by Ashley Antoinette

When you’ve been labeled crazy all of your life, it’s easy to commit a murder, and now street fiction’s most infamous bad girl, Leah Richards, holds the fate of an entire family in her hands. After coming in second place to YaYa in the race to win Indie’s affection, Leah decides that enough is enough and kidnaps the loving couple’s baby girl. Playing a deadly game of cat and mouse, she turns their world upside down. They desperately fight to keep their daughter alive, but there is more to her insanity than meets the eye. YaYa’s world is falling apart, and all she wants is to have her daughter back unharmed. After leaving her old lifestyle behind, she thought that she could start anew, but old demons have surfaced, and now she needs to form a Prada Plan more than ever to come out on top. When truths turn out to be lies and revenge is the motive for death, she doesn’t know who to trust or where to turn. Will Leah kill baby Skylar? Will YaYa and Indie live happily ever after? Can Indie keep his reign over Houston without falling victim to the game? What happened to Leah to make her so insane? All of your questions will be answered in this heart-pounding sequel.  

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Kingpin Wifeys Part 7: Who Do You Love? - K. Elliott Cover Art

Kingpin Wifeys Part 7: Who Do You Love?

Kingpin Wifeys Part 7: Who Do You Love? by K. Elliott

The action picks up right where we left off and many questions remain! The beef with Black and Mike continues and Black is on a mission to get it all back - his son and his money! Things could turn deadly and Mike will have to make a hard choice - family or money. Which will he choose? Shamari now has a completely new face and a mission to remain free. But he needs money and he needs it fast! At Jada's suggestion, Shamari gets another partner and his identity will surprise the hell out of you. While transporting a shitload of cocaine, Trey is pulled over by a State trooper. Is this the end for Trey? Will he panic? Will he talk his way out of this very volatile situation? Meanwhile, Lani is still in the middle of Mike and Black's beef. Will she let her history with Black cloud her judgement? Or will she break away once and for all? And Trey's brother Troy is still trying to push up on Starr. Will she give in to Troy's advances just to get back at Trey? Part 7 is the most explosive part yet. So buckle up and enjoy the rollercoaster ride.

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The Perfect Find - Tia Williams Cover Art

The Perfect Find

The Perfect Find by Tia Williams

A forty-year-old woman risks her new career for a secret romance with the one person who could destroy her comeback in this "deliciously good time" of a novel (Nicola Kraus, author of The Nanny Diaries ). Now a Netflix film starring Gabrielle Union. Jenna Jones, former It-girl fashion editor, is forty, broke and desperate for a second chance. When she’s dumped by her longtime fiancé and fired from  Darling magazine, she begs for a job from her arch nemesis, the beyond-bitchy Darcy Vale, who agrees to hire her–but Jenna soon realizes she’s in over her head. What’s worse is that the twenty-two-year-old videographer assigned to shoot her web series is driving her crazy. Eric Combs is way off-limits–but almost too delicious to resist. Does Jenna have room for a new career, a new life, and a new man? Or will her not-so-secret infatuation bring everything crashing down around her?

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Miracle at St. Anna - James McBride Cover Art

Miracle at St. Anna

Miracle at St. Anna by James McBride

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Good Lord Bird , winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction, and Deacon King Kong James McBride’s powerful memoir, The Color of Water , was a groundbreaking literary phenomenon that transcended racial and religious boundaries, garnering unprecedented acclaim and topping bestseller lists for more than two years. Now McBride turns his extraordinary gift for storytelling to fiction—in a universal tale of courage and redemption inspired by a little-known historic event. In Miracle at St. Anna , toward the end of World War II, four Buffalo Soldiers from the Army’s Negro 92nd Division find themselves separated from their unit and behind enemy lines. Risking their lives for a country in which they are treated with less respect than the enemy they are fighting, they discover humanity in the small Tuscan village of St. Anna di Stazzema—in the peasants who shelter them, in the unspoken affection of an orphaned child, in a newfound faith in fellow man. And even in the face of unspeakable tragedy, they—and we—learn to see the small miracles of life. This acclaimed novel is now a major motion picture directed by Spike Lee.

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God Still Don't Like Ugly - Mary Monroe Cover Art

God Still Don't Like Ugly

God Still Don't Like Ugly by Mary Monroe

New York Times bestselling author Mary Monroe's heart-stopping tale about a woman who's suffered too much to give up on herself, even if everyone else has. . . Growing up, Annette Goode thought all men were as low-down as the father who abandoned her, including the boarder who abused her for years and the men she slept with to earn the money she needed to run away from her life. Now, after decades of heartache and severing ties with her dangerously unstable friend Rhoda, Annette's real life has started to take shape. . . But her dark past won't let her go. When an old secret scares away her fiancé, Annette settles with Pee Wee Davis, her on-again, off-again sweetheart since childhood. Then her ex-friend Rhoda suddenly walks back into her life, forcing Annette to decide what she should believe--and what she can forgive--as she tries to salvage the one relationship she just can't seem to let go. . . Praise for Mary Monroe "Reminiscent of Zora Neale Hurston." -- Publishers Weekly "Watch out Toni Morrison, there is a new sister in town." -- Rapport

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Thugs and the Women Who Love Them - Wahida Clark Cover Art

Thugs and the Women Who Love Them

Thugs and the Women Who Love Them by Wahida Clark

New York Times best-selling author Wahida Clark is all too familiar with the terrifying truths of ghetto life. The first novel in her gritty, gripping Thug Series takes you into a world where a wrong choice can be the last choice a person ever makes. In a 'hood boiling over with sex, brutality, and crime, three friends are at a turning point. They can surrender to the streets and the murderous men who rule there, or walk a totally different path. But nothing is simple for women addicted to life on the edge. And everything has consequences. Angel, Jaz, and Kyra are all leading double lives, torn between working hard to leave the ghetto behind--and being dragged back in by the lying, pimping, drug-dealing men they can't seem to let go. From jealous rampages to bloody turf wars to rage-fueled vendettas, a tangled web of sex and violence binds these women to the very place that can destroy them. Get ready to enter a heart-pounding world of danger and eroticism mixed with a glimmer of hope.

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Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? - Kathleen Collins Cover Art

Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?

Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? Stories by Kathleen Collins

A collection of newly discovered and never-before-published stories by the late Kathleen Collins, a brilliant yet little-known African American writer, artist, and filmmaker. Exuberant, poignant, perceptive, and full of grace, these sixteen stories by Kathleen Collins explore deep, far-reaching issues—relating to race, gender, family, and sexuality—that shape the ordinary moments in our lives. Collins's work masterfully blends the quotidian and the profound in a personal, intimate way, seamlessly integrating the African American experience into her characters' lives and creating rich and devastatingly familiar characters who transcend symbolism. In "The Uncle," a young girl who idolizes her handsome uncle and his beautiful wife makes a haunting discovery about their lives. In "Only Once," a woman reminisces about her charming daredevil of a lover and his ultimate—and final—act of foolishness. And in the title story, a recent college graduate realizes the limits of the civil rights movement—and the personal and romantic consequences it holds for her. Both contemporary and timeless, Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? is a major and long- overdue addition to our literary canon.

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Deacon King Kong (Oprah's Book Club) - James McBride Cover Art

Deacon King Kong (Oprah's Book Club)

Deacon King Kong (Oprah's Book Club) A Novel by James McBride

Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction   Winner of the Gotham Book Prize One of Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of the Year" Oprah's Book Club Pick New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century Named one of the Top Ten Books of the Year by the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly and TIME Magazine A Washington Post Notable Novel From the author of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store , the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, and the bestselling modern classic The Color of Water , comes one of the most celebrated novels of the year. In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and, in front of everybody, shoots the project’s drug dealer at point-blank range. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong , James McBride’s funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird . In Deacon King Kong , McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the white neighbors, the local cops assigned to investigate, the members of the Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was deacon, the neighborhood’s Italian mobsters, and Sportcoat himself. As the story deepens, it becomes clear that the lives of the characters—caught in the tumultuous swirl of 1960s New York—overlap in unexpected ways. When the truth does emerge, McBride shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, that the best way to grow is to face change without fear, and that the seeds of love lie in hope and compassion. Bringing to these pages both his masterly storytelling skills and his abiding faith in humanity, James McBride has written a novel every bit as involving as The Good Lord Bird and as emotionally honest as The Color of Water . Told with insight and wit, Deacon King Kong demonstrates that love and faith live in all of us.

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Only For A Boss 4 - Mia Black Cover Art

Only For A Boss 4

Only For A Boss 4 by Mia Black

Nia knew falling in love with Jason wasn’t a good idea, but her heart had other plans. Now, she knows the truth about his past and is left feeling betrayed. Jason never wanted Nia to find out the truth, but it’s too late. She knows. But before he can work on healing their relationship, he must stop the people who are out to sabotage his business holdings and somehow find a way to keep Nia safe. Can he handle this situation before it’s too late? Find out what happens in part four of Only for a Boss!

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Heaven, My Home - Attica Locke Cover Art

Heaven, My Home

Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke

In this thrilling crime novel, Texas Ranger Darren Mathews is on the hunt for a missing child—but it's the boy's family of white supremacists who are his real target. 9-year-old Levi King knew he should have left for home sooner; now he's alone in the darkness of vast Caddo Lake, in a boat whose motor just died. A sudden noise distracts him—and all goes dark. Darren Mathews is trying to emerge from another kind of darkness; after the events of his previous investigation, his marriage is in a precarious state of re-building, and his career and reputation lie in the hands of his mother, who's never exactly had his best interests at heart. Now she holds the key to his freedom, and she's not above a little maternal blackmail to press her advantage. An unlikely possibility of rescue arrives in the form of a case down Highway 59, in a small lakeside town where the local economy thrives on nostalgia for ante-bellum Texas—and some of the era's racial attitudes still thrive as well. Levi's disappearance has links to Darren's last case, and to a wealthy businesswoman, the boy's grandmother, who seems more concerned about the fate of her business than that of her grandson. Darren has to battle centuries-old suspicions and prejudices, as well as threats that have been reignited in the current political climate, as he races to find the boy, and to save himself. "Captivating" — People A Best Book of the Year: New York Times • Houston Chronicle • NPR • Wall Street Journal • Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel • Book Page • Financial Times • Kirkus • SheReads • Sunday Times • LitHub • Guardian • Book Riot • South Florida Sun Sentinel Longlisted for the Orwell Political Fiction Book Prize

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The Upper Room - Mary Monroe Cover Art

The Upper Room

The Upper Room by Mary Monroe

The “magnificent, funny, and terrifying” debut novel from the New York Times bestselling author of God Don’t Like Ugly ( The San Francisco Chronicle ).   Mama Ruby’s known for taking things that aren’t rightfully hers, like her best friend’s stillborn infant, who she brought back to life and christened Maureen. She’s also rumored to have done away with her husband. Some fear her, others try their best to avoid her. But Mama Ruby doesn’t pay them any mind. Not when she’s got the one gift God gave her—her precious baby girl.   But growing up with a mama like Ruby is enough to make any half-sane girl wish for something—anything—else. And when Maureen gets the chance to explore the “real” world, you can bet she’s going to take it . . . and run like hell.   “[An] engaging debut novel . . . The dialogue and setting are reminiscent of Zora Neale Hurston, but the story has a bizarre, violent edge la Stephen King . . . a candid portrayal of the cold-blooded yet fascinating Mama Ruby.” — Publishers Weekly   “A chilling story that is bound to astound Monroe’s fans.” — Booklist   Praise for Mary Monroe   “An exceptional writer and phenomenal storyteller!” —Kimberla Lawson Roby, New York Times bestselling author   “A remarkable talent.” — Chicago Sun-Times   “Monroe is a masterful storyteller.” — Philadelphia Inquirer

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Luxe - Ashley Antoinette Cover Art

Luxe

Luxe A Novel by Ashley Antoinette

From the New York Times bestseller Ashley Antoinette, author of the Prada Plan series comes a boldly fierce and strikingly dramatic novel, Luxe. Bleu Montclair knew as a young girl that she would one day escape the hard, unrelenting streets of Flint, Michigan, and when her desperate prayers are answered in the form of a scholarship to UCLA, Bleu knows she's struck gold. But soon after arriving, all her beautiful, bright dreams begin to fall apart. Endless temptations abound in the form of cars, clothes, booze, drugs, and Bleu cannot keep up. When her roommate gives her the opportunity to make a lot of money fast, Bleu goes all in-and heads straight down a path of violence and addiction that only her newest protector, Iman, can save her from.

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Every Thug Needs a Lady - Wahida Clark Cover Art

Every Thug Needs a Lady

Every Thug Needs a Lady by Wahida Clark

Every Thug Needs a Lady is the spellbinding sequel to Wahida Clark's Thugs and the Women Who Love Them. After taking us through the rugged, thug-filled lives of Jaz, Kyra, and Angel, Wahida now takes us into the drama filled life of their best friend Roz aka Tasha. She is sexy, beautiful, and torn between her desires to distance herself from the streets and the magnetic attraction to the irresistible and thuggish Trae Macklin who acknowledges that mature women are a turn on. However, women come and go for a thug who is more about his business over everything else, yet Trae surprisingly falls head over heels for his business partner's woman, Tasha. Since the streets must come first, Trae decides to patiently wait for his partner's relationship with Tasha to come to nothing. Will Tasha and Trae's love ever get off the ground?

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This Motherless Land - Nikki May Cover Art

This Motherless Land

This Motherless Land A Novel by Nikki May

Shortlisted for the Nigeria Prize for Literature READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR "A vibrant coming-of-age story." — Charmaine Wilkerson "I was completely immersed.” — Nita Prose From the acclaimed author of Wahala, a stunning reimagining of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park: Split between England and Nigeria, two extraordinary cousins are set on vastly different paths as they come to terms with their shared family history—a masterful exploration of race, identity, and love.  Quiet Funke is happy in Nigeria. She loves her art teacher mother, her professor father, and even her annoying little brother (most of the time). But when tragedy strikes, she’s sent to England, a place she knows only from her mother’s stories. To her dismay, she finds the much-lauded estate dilapidated, the food tasteless, the weather grey. Worse still, her mother’s family are cold and distant. With one exception: her cousin Liv. Free-spirited Liv has always wanted to break free of her joyless family. She becomes fiercely protective of her little cousin, and her warmth and kindness give Funke a place to heal. The two girls grow into adulthood, becoming the closest of friends in this coming of age story. But the choices their mothers made haunt Funke and Liv and when a second tragedy occurs their friendship is torn apart. Against the long shadow of their shared family history, each woman in this compelling work of literary fiction will struggle to chart a path forward, separated by country, misunderstanding, and ambition. Moving between Somerset and Lagos over the course of two decades, This Motherless Land is a sweeping family saga and an examination of identity, culture, race, and love that asks how we find belonging and whether a family’s generational wrongs can be righted.

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They Don't Know About Us 3 - Vivian Blue Cover Art

They Don't Know About Us 3

They Don't Know About Us 3 A Love Story by Vivian Blue

Tempers are raging when Rowdy is faced with a harsh reality that he never thought he’d encounter. Infinity is at the hospital, fighting for her life, while Coco challenges the same fate somewhere else. He has to cope with all this uncertainty by himself, and if only Riley were there to keep him calm and help him through this tough time, maybe it would help Rowdy from becoming unnerved. Diana forced Riley to break up with Rowdy with hopes that she would go back to Will, but Riley had another course of action planned for them. She would never go back to a loveless relationship with Will, even if it meant she would lose everything. Riley knew that her father was in control of her future, so all of Diana’s idled threats would fall on deaf ears. Lies, betrayal, and murder seem to be the path that all these dysfunctional relationships are heading toward with the hopes that, somehow, love will conquer all. Loyalties will be questioned and pushed to the test while relationships and friendships will come to an end. There are so many things mounted up against a love affair that was destined to be. It will leave you questioning whether the statement that Rowdy once told Riley was true. ‘They Don’t Know About Us.’

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Runner - Ashton Lattimore Cover Art

Runner

Runner A Novel by Ashton Lattimore

“Buckle up, readers! Ashton Lattimore’s gripping Prohibition-era tale of two lady rumrunners who risk everything to rescue their families and their futures is a twisting, turning, thrill ride of a book.”—Marie Bostwick, New York Times bestselling author of The Book Club for Troublesome Women “A beautifully written, quintessential tale of family secrets, set against the backdrop of prohibition and the rich history of a Black community on Martha’s Vineyard.”—Crystal Smith Paul, author of Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? Martha’s Vineyard, 1923 . The sea was the gift that kept on giving to Lena Jameson’s father, Earl, a fisherman turned successful rumrunner who built up a small fortune smuggling liquor from offshore ships to thirsty customers back on the island. But when Earl and his entire crew are lost in a mysterious shipwreck that some whisper was no accident, his loved ones are left reeling and penniless—and Lena, who’d been on the cusp of a college career in Boston, sees her future slipping away. Desperate to save her family as well as her own hopes of escaping their small town, Lena decides to take over Earl’s rum-running business. For a crew, she ropes in Walter, her roguish big brother who leans too hard on the bottle; Sam, her steadfast local boyfriend who wants to keep her tethered to shore; and Dee, a glamorous young woman from Boston who is summering in the Vineyard and offers Lena a glimpse of the future that she still wants for herself—and who’s keeping her own explosive secret. The foursome embarks on a journey from the quaint, colorful streets of Oak Bluffs through gangland Boston to the jazz-filled clubs of Harlem during its Renaissance, all in search of quick money—and the truth about the shipwreck. But as buried secrets rise to the surface and the temptations of the glittering underworld pull Lena in deeper, everything she’s fought to protect soon hangs in the balance: her heart, her family, and her place in a world that’s quick to condemn women who dare to want more.

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Murder Mamas - Ashley & JaQuavis Cover Art

Murder Mamas

Murder Mamas by Ashley & JaQuavis

Robyn and Aries are "The Murder Mamas," contract killers taking no prisoners in Los Angeles. It doesn't take them long to link up with Hollywood's biggest drug kingpin, who hires them to take out a snitch and a judge. But the plans backfire and they only complete half the job. Robyn gets caught and put on Death Row, and Aries goes on the run. She winds up in the Islands, where she takes up a new life as a mother and wife, and tries to forget who she once was. But unfinished business has a way of coming back to haunt you; and when it's the killing kind, there's a huge price to pay. Now Aries has to put it all on the line as she sets out to finish what the Murder Mamas started, leaving her family and her sanity and her soul behind. . ..

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Sleeping With The Enemy - Wahida Clark & Kiki Swinson Cover Art

Sleeping With The Enemy

Sleeping With The Enemy by Wahida Clark & Kiki Swinson

Wahida Clark and Kiki Swinson are two mistresses who have the street lit genre on lock. --The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers Enemy in My Bed Wahida Clark Kreesha can't control her dangerous feelings for Reign—a brother who's married, just out of prison, and one strike away from lockdown-for-life. But when Reign betrays her to the Feds, she'll risk everything to save her empire and give Reign one last seduction—with a bullet. . . Keeping My Enemies Close Kiki Swinson Larissa is fed up with lying, cheating men. Her best friend Tenisha's suggestion: try a guaranteed-to-be-faithful brother in prison. But when hooking up with Sean lands Larissa behind bars, she'll do whatever it takes to make sure Tenisha and Sean get the ultimate payback. . . Includes An Excerpt From Kiki's New Novel!

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Sister, Sister - Eric Jerome Dickey Cover Art

Sister, Sister

Sister, Sister by Eric Jerome Dickey

Here is New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey's debut novel, a celebration of Black sisterhood hailed by Essence as one of the “50 Most Impactful Black Books Of The Last 50 Years”. Valerie, Inda, and Chiquita are three women looking for love in Los Angeles. Valerie became the perfect wife to please her husband, Walter, whose football career has gone nowhere—along with their marriage. Then she meets Daniel. Valerie's divorced sister, Inda, has Raymond, who has a hot body, smooth moves—and another girlfriend on the side. Now Inda's scheming to get even. After telling her last boyfriend to hit the road, Chiquita takes up with Thaddeus, Inda and Valerie's irresistible brother. Has Chiquita finally found a good man? Sexy and in-your-face, Sister, Sister depicts a modern world where women may have to alter their dreams, yet never stop embracing tomorrow. “Brims with humor, outrageousness, and affection.”— Publishers Weekly

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Someday, Maybe - Onyi Nwabineli Cover Art

Someday, Maybe

Someday, Maybe A Good Morning America Book Club Pick by Onyi Nwabineli

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • A BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB PICK • A LIBRARYREADS PICK “If you are someone who gravitates toward emotional gut punch reads, allow me to introduce you to this spectacular debut…”—BuzzFeed Here are three things you should know about my husband: He was the great love of my life despite his penchant for going incommunicado.   He was, as far as I and everyone else could tell, perfectly happy. Which is significant because…   On New Year’s Eve, he died. And here is one thing you should know about me: I found him. Bonus fact: No. I am not okay. Someday, Maybe is a stunning, witty debut novel about a young woman’s emotional journey through unimaginable loss, pulled along by her tight-knit Nigerian family, a posse of friends, and the love and laughter she shared with her husband. “Incisive and witty. I couldn’t put it down.”—Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström, internationally bestselling author of In Every Mirror She's Black “A masterfully woven exposition on love and loss. Nwabineli is magic with words.”—Bolu Babalola, internationally bestselling author of Honey and Spice Don't miss Onyi Nwabineli's next stunning page-turner, ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF, where a former kidfluencer must overcome her toxic family, reclaim her identity and, ultimately, find the freedom to be herself...

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This Here Is Love - Princess Joy L. Perry Cover Art

This Here Is Love

This Here Is Love A Novel by Princess Joy L. Perry

Winner of the 2026 Stowe Prize for Literary Activism Longlisted for the 2026 Aspen Words Literary Prize One of the New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Historical Fiction Books of the Year Longlisted for the Crooks Corner Book Prize A Library Journal Best Book of the Year A BookBrowse Best Book of the Year “Searing.… [G]ripping.… Impressive[ly] guides us through her characters’ emotional depths.” —Alida Becker, New York Times Book Review Three people—two enslaved, one indentured—living beside each other, struggling against their circumstances, trying to bend destiny. As the seventeenth century burns to a close in Tidewater, Virginia, America’s character is wrought in the fires of wealth, race, and freedom. Young Bless, the only child left to her enslaved mother, stubbornly crafts the terms of her vital existence. She stands as the lone bulwark between her mother and irreparable despair, her mother’s only possibility of hope, as Bless reshapes the boundaries of love. David is a helping child and a solace to his parents, and he gave a purpose to their trials. His survival hinges on his mother’s shrewd intellect and ferocious fight, but his sustenance is his freed Black father’s dream of emancipation for the entire family. Jack Dane, a Scots-Irish boy, sails to Britain’s colonies when his father sells him into indentured servitude as an escape from poverty. There Jack learns from the rich the value of each person’s life. A breathtaking, haunting, and epic saga, This Here Is Love intimately intertwines us with these beautifully drawn, unforgettable American characters. Bless, taken to serve the slaveowner’s daughter, must decide where she belongs: with the enslaved or above them. David, sold away from his people, retreats into himself even as he yearns to unite with others. Jack, acting impetuously, changes his fortune, but will doing so sacrifice his humanity? All three come together on Jack’s land. As they face and challenge each other, they will relinquish and remake beliefs about family and freedom, even as they confront the limits of love.

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Rock Hard Alpha Male: BWWM Romance Novel For Adults - Jamila Jasper Cover Art

Rock Hard Alpha Male: BWWM Romance Novel For Adults

Rock Hard Alpha Male: BWWM Romance Novel For Adults by Jamila Jasper

"If you want me, you have to submit..." Dr. Kayla Williams, an alpha female, finally meets her match. Grant Middleton knows what he wants,  how he wants it. 10-inches long, chiseled gym body, and a cocky freakin' smile, this alpha shows no mercy. When he wants a woman, he has her. Right now, he wants Kayla... She doesn't just play hard to get, She IS hard to get. A therapist lost inside her own head, She's not ready for a man like this one... A man who oozes appeal from every pore. A man with a body fit for a full-sized Times Square ad. He’ll take her to the edge of glory. He’ll make her plead for mercy. He’ll have her squirming beneath his grasp. His dirty talk leads her down a dark path... She's never accepted her own desire like this. He’s rock hard. He’s her alpha. He owns every inch of her. The man she’s always wanted. The man she didn’t believe existed. A true alpha, hiding in plain sight. GET SOAKED by this bubbling hot alpha man meets alpha woman love story. You may need a love wand and a hot towel by the time you're done reading this book. Jamila Jasper isn't responsible for any squirming in your seat, excessive fanning, or pearl-clutching that may ensue from reading this spicy interracial romance romp. No holds barred, this is real love where the bedroom scenes leave nothing to the imagination. Take a peek inside if you're curious...  

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Ex-Player - Shaquanda Dalton Cover Art

Ex-Player

Ex-Player by Shaquanda Dalton

For ex-player, Malcolm, trying to become a good, one-woman man for his beautiful girlfriend Kayla is turning out to be harder than he ever expected. The thing is, the hoes keep coming whether he's single or not. The past is not easily forgotten and old habits are hard to break. When old flings come knocking at his door and new women introduce themselves, will he have enough willpower to resist temptation or will his player instincts kick in and end up turning his life back to where he started, alone and single? One thing's for sure. It's easy to say you're good, but it's hard as hell to stay that way. Ex-Player is a stunning novella based off the Jaylen and Jessica series that will take you through every emotion and leave you feeling excited, warm, and thankful for the people in your life. 

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Rootless - Krystle Zara Appiah Cover Art

Rootless

Rootless A Novel by Krystle Zara Appiah

WINNER OF THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD • A provocative debut novel about a marriage in crisis that asks the question: Can you ever be rooted in a home that’s on the brink of collapse? “Beautiful, gripping, and tender . . . a powerful and unforgettable meditation on love, belonging, and motherhood.”—Emilia Hart, author of Weyward On a spring afternoon in London, Sam races up the stairs of his flat two at a time. There’s £1,300 missing from the bank account he shares with his wife, Efe, and his calls are going straight to voicemail. When he finally reaches someone, he learns that Efe is over four thousand miles away, as their toddler looks around and asks, “Where’s Mummy?” When Efe and Sam met as teens headed for university, it seemed that everyone knew they were meant to be. Efe, newly arrived in the UK from Ghana and sinking under the weight of her parents’ expectations, found comfort in the focused and idealistic Sam. He was stable, working toward a law career, and had an unwavering vision for their future—a vision Efe, now a decade later, finds insufferable. From the outside, they’re the picture-perfect couple everyone imagined, but there are cracks in the frame. Faced with a life-altering decision, Efe and Sam find themselves on opposing sides, forced to confront just how radically different they want their lives to be. Then one day, Efe disappears. Rootless is a heartrending story about sacrifice, family, and ambition, providing an intimate look at what happens after a marriage collapses—and if it can still be saved.

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Mafioso Part Five: Getting Lucky - Nisa Santiago Cover Art

Mafioso Part Five: Getting Lucky

Mafioso Part Five: Getting Lucky by Nisa Santiago

Family Feuds The stunning acquittals of Scott and Layla West reverberate throughout the justice system, and the powerful cartels take notice. The Wests were untouchable, and their drug empire is still intact, but family ties begin to unravel. New mom Lucky has a lot on her shoulders as she continues to deceive the head of the Juarez cartel. Partnering with her twin brothers, Lucky lines up the pieces on the chessboard, but she underestimates the king and queen.

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Queen Divas - De'nesha Diamond Cover Art

Queen Divas

Queen Divas by De'nesha Diamond

Female gang members in Southern Memphis fight for power, money, and love in this dramatic street lit series finale. It’s scorched-earth, all-or-nothing war for Memphis’s most merciless ride-or-die women, and even their survival skills are no guarantee. And once alliances splinter and explosive revelations rip apart their empire, one diva’s revenge will become the ultimate deadly reign . . . Between total gang exterminations and brutal collateral damage, the stakes have never been higher for the women of the Dirty South. Good-girl-gone-lethal Ta’Shara is in for the fight of her life—her own. To work a dangerous truce, Vice Lord ex-chief Lucifer pulls a deadly play as wrenching secrets put her at ground zero. Beautiful Cleo will do anything to destroy the man now controlling her—and no killer price is too high. And as police captain Hydeya Hawkins closes in on gangland’s elite, she’ll fight to survive her department’s dirtiest secrets. Now these queen divas have each other dead in their sights—and only one can live to rule . . .   Praise for the Divas series  “As . . . Game of Thrones has reminded us that “all men must die,” so goes many members of these battling gangs. This work is urban fiction at its rawest core.” — Library Journal “This terrifying saga keeps you turning the pages as you hope for the best.” —RT Book Reviews (starred review)

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When Stars Rain Down - Angela Jackson-Brown Cover Art

When Stars Rain Down

When Stars Rain Down by Angela Jackson-Brown

Opal is an eighteen-year-old Black woman working as a housekeeper in a small Southern town in the 1930s—and then the Klan descends. A moving story that confronts America’s tragic past, When Stars Rain Down is both heartwarming and heart-wrenching. The summer of 1936 in Parsons, Georgia, is unseasonably hot, and Opal Pruitt senses a nameless storm brewing. She hopes this foreboding feeling won’t overshadow her upcoming 18th birthday or the annual Founder’s Day celebration in just a few weeks. She and her Grandma Birdie work as housekeepers for the white widow Miss Peggy, and Opal desperately wants some time to be young and carefree with her cousins and friends. But when the Ku Klux Klan descends on Opal’s neighborhood, the tight-knit community is shaken in every way possible. Parsons’s residents—both Black and white—are forced to acknowledge the unspoken codes of conduct in their post-Reconstruction era town. To complicate matters, Opal finds herself torn between two unexpected romantic interests—the son of her pastor, Cedric Perkins, and the white grandson of the woman she works for, Jimmy Earl Ketchums. Faced with love, loss, and a harsh awakening to an ugly world, Opal holds tight to her family and faith—and the hope for change. “When Stars Rain Down is so powerful, timely, and compelling . . . an important and beautifully written must-read of a novel.” —Silas House, author of Southernmost 2021 Langum Prize in American Historical Fiction – FinalistStand-alone novelIncludes discussion questions for book clubs

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The Preacher and The Prostitute - Brenda Barrett Cover Art

The Preacher and The Prostitute

The Preacher and The Prostitute by Brenda Barrett

Maribel struggled to forget her past, when she used to dabble in prostitution, made porn videos and was a nude poster girl. She became a Christian and turned her life around and made a decision to use her singing talent to give glory to God. However, she quickly realized that a young, single, attractive, talented girl was never going to remain unnoticed at church. First, she captures the attention of a jealous church sister who is determined to dig into her mysterious past and then the new pastor who seemed to reciprocate her affection. After falling in love with him, her past rears its ugly head and Maribel realizes that she has to tell her new-found love the truth about her history before she can accept his marriage proposal. Can a preacher and an ex- prostitute ever be happy together?

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What Looks Like Crazy On an Ordinary Day - Pearl Cleage Cover Art

What Looks Like Crazy On an Ordinary Day

What Looks Like Crazy On an Ordinary Day A Novel by Pearl Cleage

This New York Times– bestselling novel is "lively, topical, and fantasy filled. Watch out, Terry McMillian. Cleage is on your tail" ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review). After a decade of elegant pleasures and luxe living with the Atlanta brothers and sisters with the best clothes and biggest dreams, Ava Johnson has temporarily returned home to Idlewild—her fabulous career and power plans smashed to bits by cold reality. But what she imagines to be the end is, instead, a beginning. Because, in the ten-plus years since Ava left, all the problems of the big city have come to roost in the sleepy North Michigan community whose ordinariness once drove her away; and she cannot turn her back on friends and family who sorely need her in the face of impending trouble and tragedy. Besides which, that one unthinkable, unmistakable thing is now happening to her: Ava Johnson is falling in love. Acclaimed playwright, essayist,  New York Times– bestselling author, and columnist Pearl Cleage has created a world rich in character, human drama, and deep, compassionate understanding, in a remarkable novel that sizzles with sensuality, hums with gritty truth, and sings and crackles with life-affirming energy. "Very funny and charming . . . Following Cleage's twists and turns of the human spirit, readers may find themselves on a very inspired and uplifted plane well before the last page." — Washington Post Book World "Cleage . . . delivers a work of intelligence and integrity. . . . [A] memorable tale." —- Publishers Weekly , starred review

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The Last Dreamwalker - Rita Woods Cover Art

The Last Dreamwalker

The Last Dreamwalker by Rita Woods

From Hurston/Wright Legacy Award-winning author Rita Woods, The Last Dreamwalker tells the story of two women, separated by nearly two centuries yet inextricably linked by the Gullah-Geechee Islands off the coast of South Carolina—and their connection to a mysterious and extraordinary gift passed from generation to generation. In the wake of her mother's passing, Layla Hurley unexpectedly reconnects with her mother's sisters, women she hasn't been allowed to speak to, or of, in years. Her aunts reveal to Layla that a Gullah-Geechee island off the shore of South Carolina now belongs to her. As Layla digs deeper into her mother’s past and the mysterious island’s history, she discovers that the terrifying nightmares that have plagued her throughout her life and tainted her relationship with her mother and all of her family, is actually a power passed down through generations of her Gullah ancestors. She is a Dreamwalker, able to inhabit the dreams of others—and to manipulate them. As Layla uncovers increasingly dark secrets about her family's past, she finds herself thrust into the center of a potentially deadly, decades-old feud fought in the dark corridor of dreams. The Last Dreamwalker is a gripping, contemporary read about power and agency; family and legacy; and the ways trauma, secrets, and magic take shape across generations. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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Our Gen - Diane McKinney-Whetstone Cover Art

Our Gen

Our Gen A Novel by Diane McKinney-Whetstone

“Our Gen is warm and smart, accessible yet meaningful, a beach read with strong writing and emotional heft.”—BookPage Residents of an active-living retirement community revert to lives of youthful indulgence, even as time-bomb secrets of their pasts tick toward explosion.  The Gen—short for Sexagenarian—is an upscale fifty-five-plus community located in the bucolic suburbs of Philadelphia. Main character Cynthia befriends the Gen’s two other Black residents, Bloc and Tish, as well as Lavia, who everyone assumes is from India. They regularly convene to smoke weed, line dance, and debate politics and philosophy as the wine goes down like silk. Their camaraderie is exhilarating.  But beneath the fun and froth, storms gather. With its walls of windows gushing light and air, the Gen becomes the catalyst for secrets to be exposed.  Shifting the narrative between the characters’ pasts and the present day, Diane McKinney-Whetstone deftly builds suspense as she captures with insight, poignancy, and humor, the scars, tenderness, and swagger of those not yet old, but no longer young, coming to the mean acceptance that life is finite after all, who knew. 

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The Other Side - Trice Hickman Cover Art

The Other Side

The Other Side by Trice Hickman

“Hickman proves to be a master of suspense, plot twists, exhilaration and killer climaxes.”  — RT Book Reviews , 4.5 Stars Top Pick   After one too many failed relationships, businesswoman Bernadette Gibson is resigned to singlehood. Yet on the heels of her fiftieth birthday she meets Cooper “Coop” Dennis, a charismatic nightclub owner who literally sweeps her off her feet. But just as they’re ready to make the ultimate commitment, a secret from Coop’s past threatens to end their relationship . . .   As her fortieth birthday approaches, bestselling novelist Testimony “Tess” Sinclair is hurting—especially since her ex-boyfriend got married. For a change of scenery she travels to the sleepy southern town of Bourbon, NC, to visit her cousin, Bernadette—and finds unexpected love. Yet as wedding bells promise to ring, Tess wrestles with a secret that could end their happily ever after before it begins . . .   Up-and-coming makeup artist and single mom Arizona May is thrilled to be just a few months away from marrying the love of her life. Until then, she and her fiancé are committed to celibacy. But on the eve of Arizona’s thirtieth birthday, they surrender to passion—and she discovers something about her Prince Charming that leads her to rethink their plans . . .   As Bernadette, Tess, and Arizona strive to find happiness, they develop a bond that strengthens and surprises them—and carries them through their struggles, to the other side.   “Readers will enjoy the twist and turns in Hickman’s tale, which has a definite soap opera vibe. We know there’s a romantic train wreck ahead, but we can’t turn away from the drama.” — Library Journal  on  Secret Indiscretions

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Black No More - George S. Schuyler & Danzy Senna Cover Art

Black No More

Black No More by George S. Schuyler & Danzy Senna

For fans of the Oscar-winning film American Fiction : the landmark comic satire that asks, “What would happen if all black people in America turned white?”—featuring an introduction by Danzy Senna, the bestselling author of Caucasia and Colored Television A Penguin Classic It’s New Year’s Day 1933 in New York City, and Max Disher, a young black man, has just found out that a certain Dr. Junius Crookman has discovered a mysterious process that allows people to bleach their skin white—a new way to “solve the American race problem.” Max leaps at the opportunity, and after a brief stay at the Crookman Sanitarium, he becomes Matthew Fisher, a white man who is able to attain everything he has ever wanted: money, power, good liquor, and the white woman who rejected him when he was black. Lampooning myths of white supremacy and racial purity and caricaturing prominent African American leaders like W. E. B. Du Bois, Madam C. J. Walker, and Marcus Garvey, Black No More is a masterwork of speculative fiction and a hilarious satire of America’s obsession with race. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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No Reservations - Sheryl Lister Cover Art

No Reservations

No Reservations A Novel of Friendship by Sheryl Lister

"Warm and wise--a feel good story. Sheryl Lister's No Reservations is a heartfelt tribute to sisterhood and found-family. The feelings linger long after the last page." --Vanessa Riley, Award-winning author of Island Queen and Queen of Exiles True friendship never ends. Best friends forever. That's the vow Joy, Diane, Rochelle and Yvette made when they were children, and even in their mid-thirties, the friends have always been there for each other--through the highs and lows of life and love. Until forever comes up against a terminal cancer diagnosis. Nothing could have prepared them for what life would look like when four became three. But Yvette was prepared. Her final gift to her girls is an all-expenses-paid trip to Jamaica like they had always talked about but kept putting off as life got in the way. The Jamaican getaway seems to come at the perfect time as the remaining friends deal with their grief, dashed hopes, and unexpected relationship drama. Sick of putting her dreams to open a spa on hold, not to mention her husband's lack of support, Joy decides she's moving forward with her new business--with or without him. The thunderous ticking of Diane's biological clock has her wondering if her desire to have a baby will ever come true, and her husband's bizarre behavior has her questioning if he's still on board. And after witnessing her friends' imploding relationships, single mother Rochelle is content to do life on her own, but her heart doesn't seem to get the memo when a new man unexpectedly enters the picture. Guided by Yvette's spirit, the friends must lean on each other now more than ever before as they learn to navigate their new normal, take unexpected risks and live life with no reservations. Fans of Jane Green, Nancy Thayer, and Kimberla Lawson Roby will laugh, cry and cheer for the best friends in No Reservations, a captivating story of enduring friendships tested by life's harshest trials--including cancer, infertility, infidelity, and the challenges of pursuing dreams. With included discussion questions, this standalone novel delivers an engaging experience perfect for book clubs, diving deep into themes of grief, resilience, the power of sisterhood, and the courage it takes to live life with no reservations. "At times both deeply emotional and heartwarmingly funny, No Reservations encapsulates the beauty of the unbreakable bond of enduring friendships and true sisterhood." --Farrah Rochon, New York Times bestselling author of The Hookup Plan

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Unlovable - Jamila Jasper Cover Art

Unlovable

Unlovable by Jamila Jasper

Benjamin Fox, the heir to a billion dollar fortune, develops a dark obsession with African American scholarship student, Libby Jones. She stands up to him. Once. It's like she doesn't know her place and Ben has to teach her... Libby's first semester at Rapetti Academy has been complete hell from day one. Attracting the attention of her bully's cruel, twisted boyfriend just makes the situation worse. Avoiding drama at a small, English boarding college is downright impossible... Especially when an entitled 6'5" rugby player makes Libby his new favorite toy. This is book 1 in a completed 6 book dark interracial romance series with potential triggers, no cheating and a guaranteed HEA. Dive into this collection of slow-burn interconnected spicy bwwm romance books...

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Royalty: BWWM Reverse Harem Romance - Jamila Jasper Cover Art

Royalty: BWWM Reverse Harem Romance

Royalty: BWWM Reverse Harem Romance by Jamila Jasper

To protect their love, they need a wedding. With a baby on the way, Madison must marry… Choosing one of her princes feels wrong. The men must adjust to sharing their woman after the royal wedding. And Madison must survive becoming the unwanted duchess of a racist European country… A dark and potentially triggering black woman/white man reverse harem story.

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The Engineer's Baby - Jamila Jasper Cover Art

The Engineer's Baby

The Engineer's Baby by Jamila Jasper

Dale is a top-tier engineer and his wife Monique is a successful African American financial manager. Monique is a gorgeous, full-figured, dark-skinned woman who finally completed her life's dream to become the true definition of success.  Together, they are unstoppable except for one little problem. No matter how hard they tried in the past, Monique can't have a baby.  Dale and Monique decided to start a family the non-traditional route through in vitro fertilization. As they proceed with their choice, both of their families push back against their decision. Dale and Monique are forced to face their families or risk ruining their relationship. Matters get more complicated when Dale's long-lost ex-girlfriend comes into the picture with a secret she's kept for years that could change their lives forever... A devastating event pushes them all over the edge and puts the Dandridge family to the ultimate test. EXCERPT: Monique lay next to her husband Dale as he half-heartedly flipped through The New Yorker. Their fifth wedding anniversary was approaching in a day or two and as usual, they were going to throw the “Dandridge Anniversary Dinner”, a formal dress affair where their closest friends and family gathered to celebrate their love. “It feels silly to do a fifth anniversary dinner don’t you think?” Dale asked. Monique scoffed, “You say that every year Dale.” “Well, we haven’t really been together five years, have we?” “Twelve this December technically. But it didn’t really count until we were married.” “Seven years didn’t count?” “You know what I mean,” Monique said. Dale smiled, “Okay fine… I guess I’ll have to get used to this five year event. It’s almost a milestone I guess…” Monique leaned over and kissed her husband, “Almost.” Monique looked into Dale’s gorgeous, aquamarine eyes. From the moment she’d met him, she’d fallen completely in love with him. Dale was handsome, well over six feet tall with a thick, body builder’s body. He had a shock of brown hair with blond streaks and the most beautiful aquamarine eyes that allowed Monique to read him like a book. “I’m glad we got married Monique,” Dale said. Monique hugged her husband tightly, “Me too…”   There had been a time when Monique had assumed she would never marry Dale and she would have to be his girlfriend for years. He’d taken seven long years to be sure that she was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Monique eyed the giant ring on her chubby finger. It looked beautiful… Dale had selected a gold band and a gorgeous square cut 2 carat diamond. Monique loved looking at her engagement ring even if now it was just another fixture in her life. It reminded her of the freshness of their romance and the beauty of everlasting love…

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Defining Moments - Jacquelin Thomas Cover Art

Defining Moments

Defining Moments by Jacquelin Thomas

Essence best-selling author Jacquelin Thomas returns with a poignant, passionate, and inspirational novel about one woman's journey to overcome the mistakes of her past and face the truths of an inescapable future. A year ago, successful career woman Sheila Moore left her home on the South Carolina coast to escape the pain of loving a man who would never love her back-her married business partner, Jake. Now Sheila has returned to Charleston and the past, into the guarded lives of Jake and his suspicious wife, Tori. But out of Sheila's fears and regrets comes unexpected sanctuary in the unconditional love of a handsome writer. All she has to do is accept it. Can she trust him?

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The Life I Didn't Live - D Lovell Cover Art

The Life I Didn't Live

The Life I Didn't Live by D Lovell

The Life I Didn't Live by D Lovell In her Dominican family, she's the quiet one. The reliable one. The one who never needs anything. But after her grandfather's death and a chance encounter with Eli Yager—a man who sees her when she's used to being invisible—Vivian's carefully built walls start cracking. Now she's facing everything she's spent years avoiding: grief that won't stay buried, a secret that's kept her from letting anyone close, and the terrifying possibility that maybe she's worth loving after all. Between therapy sessions, which she never thought she'd need, and open mic nights, she never thought she'd survive. Vivian begins the messy work of choosing herself. With her fierce best friend Tasha and Eli's quiet faith in her corner, she's learning that healing isn't pretty—it's just persistent. The Life I Didn't Live is for anyone who's ever felt like too much and not enough at the same time and wondered if it's too late to rewrite their story. Note: This story deals with mental health struggles, including brief references to suicidal thoughts, but ultimately focuses on healing and hope. Resources included.

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Addicted to A Dirty South Thug - Myss Shan Cover Art

Addicted to A Dirty South Thug

Addicted to A Dirty South Thug by Myss Shan

After being so In love with a thug named Rue, Cuba Lance ends up doing 3 years in prison after he places blame on her for one tragic night that took place. Now that she's home, she's ready to move on with her life. Her cousin Tangie has a job waiting for her and gives her a place to stay. Everything is more than what she could've asked for. But when loneliness sets in, she feels like she's missing something. She vowed after her last relationship that she was done with thugs and all things hood, but when she runs into the sexy, Khi with the cocky and dirty south swag, she realizes that it's something about a bad boy that she can't get enough of. She's convinced herself that there is no need to stop what seems meant to be. But will it be another mistake and this time will she get away with her life? Khian "Khi" Prince is just one of the Prince brothers that has the ladies going crazy. He's a certified boss with what seems to be the weight of the world on his shoulders. His job is to ensure that he and his brothers maintain their status in the streets along with caring for his 2 baby mamas and the kids he shares with them. After failing at love twice, Khi's not ready to give up on finding his queen just yet and when running into Cuba, he's for certain he has finally gotten it right. But when Cuba mends his heart to only be the cause of shattering it all over again, will Khi give up on love once and for all, or will he fight to keep the woman that he feels is everything he's been looking for? Daelan "Dae" Prince is the ultimate bad boy with pretty boy looks and a no nonsense type of attitude. He's feared by many men and lusted after by plenty of women, which he can't get enough of. With the love of his life Amber by his side and their 5-year old son, Daelan seems to have his happily ever after but things are never what they seem. Daelan can't seem to stop messing up. After one bad decision after the other, his loved ones are always there to pick up the shattered pieces he constantly leaves behind. But what happens when Daelan makes a decision that puts he and the lives of everyone around him in danger, will his brothers be there to save him once again? Amber has been with Daelan for five long years. Her high school sweetheart was once sweet and charming, but the streets had a way of changing and hardening a person and that's exactly what happened to Daelan at least that's what Amber believes. With all the lies, cheating, and beatings amongst other things, Amber has always stuck by Daelan's side. She was addicted to him and always forgave him no matter how hurt it left her in the end. But when Daelan does the unthinkable, will Amber be able to walk away from the only love she's ever known or will she once again forgive him? Kaedee Prince, not only is he known in the streets along with his brothers, but also in the courtroom as one not to be messed with. With his wife Deonna by his side, they run the most sought out law firm in the city. Kaedee knew that getting his degree in law would somehow come in handy for he and his brothers, but never once did he think his wife Deonna would ever need his services. Hit with money laundering charges from business she did with her ex, Tyrin Walker, a drug kingpin out of Florida, Deonna learns that your past doesn't always stay behind you. When Tyrin shows up in her husband's office, Deonna finds herself in love with two men at the same time. Straddling both sides of the fence has never been good for anyone and Deonna finds that out the hard way. She's forced to pick the one to have her heart, but when that decision lands someone in a grave, are the Prince brothers ready for a war? Welcome to the life of the Prince Brothers and feel what it's like to be Addicted to A Dirty South Thug.

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Junie: A GMA Book Club Pick - Erin Crosby Eckstine Cover Art

Junie: A GMA Book Club Pick

Junie: A GMA Book Club Pick A Novel by Erin Crosby Eckstine

GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • As the Civil War looms, a young girl must face a life-altering decision after awakening her sister’s ghost in this “poignant story of love, family and friendship [that] celebrates the power of liberation” ( People ). “An enrapturing tale of survival . . . Eckstine has poured a ton of heart into her characters.”— The Atlanta Journal-Constitution “The richly textured prose quickly pulled me into [Junie’s] treacherous yet magical world.”—Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama, cooking and cleaning alongside her family, and tending to the white master’s daughter, Violet. Her daydreams are filled with poetry and faraway worlds, while she spends her nights secretly roaming through the forest, consumed with grief over the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie. When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie’s life, she commits a desperate act—one that rouses Minnie’s spirit from the grave, tethered to this world unless Junie can free her. She enlists the aid of Caleb, the guests’ coachman, and their friendship soon becomes something more. Yet as long-held truths begin to crumble, she realizes Bellereine is harboring dark and horrifying secrets that can no longer be ignored. With time ticking down, Junie begins to push against the harsh current that has controlled her entire life. As she grapples with an increasingly unfamiliar world in which she has little control, she is forced to ask herself: When we choose love and liberation, what must we leave behind?

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Parable of the Sower - Octavia E. Butler Cover Art

Parable of the Sower

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

From a celebrated, award-winning author, a modern classic about a young girl fighting for survival in a post-apocalyptic world, perfect for fans of N.K. Jemisin and Margaret Atwood. Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding social chaos and anarchy caused by climate change and economic crisis. In a society where any vulnerability is a risk, she suffers from hyperempathy—a debilitating sensitivity to others' emotions. Precocious and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones from the imminent disasters her small community stubbornly ignores. But what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: the birth of a new faith . . . and a startling vision of human destiny. Includes a foreword by LeVar Burton and an afterword by N. K. Jemisin Lauren's story continues in The Parable of the Talents.  "In the ongoing contest over which dystopian classic is most applicable to our time, Octavia Butler's 'Parable' books may be unmatched."— The New Yorker  

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Hood Rat - K'wan Cover Art

Hood Rat

Hood Rat A Novel by K'wan

In the heart of Harlem, four women fight to survive the gritty streets and find love in a world that threatens to tear them apart. Yoshi is young, fine, and larcenous. She lives her life playing on men's hearts as well as their pockets, but learns the hard way that all that glitters isn't gold. Billy, a former high school basketball star, has been looking for love. Then she meets someone new and her whole world is turned upside down, leaving her forever changed. Reese is an around-the-way chick, trying to keep up with the Joneses. Her promiscuity leads to an unexpected pregnancy from a one-night stand, forcing her to break an age-old family cycle and stand on her own. Rhonda is twenty-something with three kids by three different men, riding the system all the way to the bank. Her games soon turn ugly when one of her "sponsors" decides to seek revenge. In this gritty urban fiction novel, national bestselling author K'wan weaves a dramatic tale of four friends as they navigate the perils of street life, love, and betrayal in Hood Rat , a scandalous story that will leave Harlem forever changed.

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Push - Sapphire Cover Art

Push

Push by Sapphire

A new 25th anniversary edition of the instant classic that inspired the major motion picture and Sundance Film Festival winner Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire, whose power and ferocity influenced a generation of writers. Precious Jones, an illiterate sixteen-year-old, has up until now been invisible to the father who rapes her and the mother who batters her and to the authorities who dismiss her as just one more of Harlem's casualties. But when Precious, pregnant with a second child by her father, meets a determined and radical teacher, we follow her on a journey of education and enlightenment as she learns not only how to write about her life, but how to make it truly her own for the first time.

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A Harlem Wedding - Tiffany L. Warren Cover Art

A Harlem Wedding

A Harlem Wedding A Novel by Tiffany L. Warren

From The Unexpected Diva author Tiffany Warren—a dishy and dramatic novel of the Harlem Renaissance and its most famous Black debutante, Yolande Du Bois, daughter of W.E.B. Du Bois, whose spectacular wedding to poet Countee Cullen was the society event of the year...even though the bride and groom were not-so-secretly in love with other people. A century ago, Harlem’s glittering social scene had a single princess: Yolande Du Bois, the only child of N.A.A.C.P. icon W.E.B. Du Bois. Yolande was bold, vivacious, and beloved of every gossip columnist. A true daddy’s girl, Yolande followed her father’s advice on everything: from where she went to college (Fisk—Papa’s alma mater) to which sorority she joined (Delta Sigma Theta). But in matters of the heart, Yolande and her father did not agree. Dr. Du Bois himself curated a string of handsome suitors from the “Talented Tenth” for her, but Yolande’s true love was jazz musician Jimmie Lunceford, son of a working-class family from far-off Denver, Colorado. Their romance was an open secret, and more than a little scandalous. Despite it all, Yolande wound up marrying her father’s choice: famed poet Countee Cullen. Their lavish uptown wedding was the hottest social ticket of 1928. With three thousand attendees, sixteen bridesmaids, and Langston Hughes as a groomsman, it was truly a sight to behold. But, immediately after the wedding, Yolande’s carefully constructed fairy tale begins to crumble. Torn between the expectations of her father and society and her heart’s true desire, Yolande is forced to decide whether she must leave Harlem to create a more authentic life on her own terms. A Harlem Wedding is a heady read about love, notoriety, Black excellence, deception, and the très chic lifestyles of the Black elite, from speakeasies of Harlem and the green fields of Fisk University, all the way to Le Grand Duc in Paris.

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The Spook Who Sat by the Door - Sam Greenlee Cover Art

The Spook Who Sat by the Door

The Spook Who Sat by the Door by Sam Greenlee

An explosive, award-winning novel in the black literary tradition, The Spook Who Sat by the Door is both a satire of the civil rights problems in the United States in the late 1960s and a serious attempt to focus on the issue of black miltancy. A classic in the black literary tradition, The Spook Who Sat by the Door is both a comment on the civil rights problems in the United States in the late 1960s and a serious attempt to focus on the issue of black militancy. Dan Freeman, the "spook who sat by the door," is enlisted in the CIA's elitist espionage program. Upon mastering agency tactics, however, he drops out to train young Chicago blacks as "Freedom Fighters" in this explosive, award-winning novel. As a story of one man's reaction to ruling-class hypocrisy, the book is autobiographical and personal. As a tale of a man's reaction to oppression, it is universal.

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Love After Midnight - Sister Souljah Cover Art

Love After Midnight

Love After Midnight A Novel by Sister Souljah

Sister Souljah returns to her beloved character Winter Santiaga in the captivating and heart-pounding sequel to instant #1 New York Times bestseller Life After Death . After suffering a horrifying, yet soul stirring death experience, worldwide top bitch Winter Santiaga, of The Coldest Winter Ever , is alive and facing a dilemma that every living person faces: how to respond to the Fear of God, awareness of heaven and hell, while pursuing and satisfying deep desires for sex, fun, love, money, revenge, and fame. In Love After Midnight , Sister Souljah delivers a powerful hip-hop hood style, global romantic comedy.

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Love On The Low 6 - Mia Black Cover Art

Love On The Low 6

Love On The Low 6 by Mia Black

Trill has ramped up his efforts to be the new go-to dealer in town. But as he grows his empire, he begins targeting his enemies. It just so happens, Royce and anyone he cares for will fall into that category. With a wedding in their near future, Mika worries that they’ll never get married, especially not with all that’s going on around them. The pressure is on for everyone. Royce and Mika have choices to make. In the meantime, Trill is ready to make a bold move – one that could be deadly.

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The Plug Next Door - Sol Cover Art

The Plug Next Door

The Plug Next Door by Sol

Can you imagine what it would be like to live next door to The Plug? God, his name says it all. He's rich, handsome, powerful and has a heart of gold. But don't let his kindness fool you. He's the street king of New York and rules The Empire State with no holds barred. His reign, both lengthy and fierce, is one to reckon with and everyone knows it. With the type of power and respect he has, there's nothing or no one challenging enough to knock him off his game nor his throne. That is until he meets the likes of the gorgeous Dr. Vaughn. Both witty, and domineering, she whisked her way into his life unexpectedly and proved to be his biggest challenge yet. He wants her and will stop at nothing to get her, but there's one problem. He has a family, and his Queen isn’t ready to relinquish her crown just yet. Reese, aka Dr. Vaughn, both beautiful and brainy, has a booming medical career that affords her a luxurious lifestyle. The Doc has just about everything going for herself except for one thing. She doesn't have a man to call her own...not that she's looking. After having her heart broken on numerous occasions, she vowed to never love again. But then she crossed paths with her next door neighbor and he changes her life forever. Young has too much money for his age and is about as handsome as they come. His good looks and endless cash flow makes him the most eligible bachelor in New York. All the ladies love him, yet he can't seem to find the one. Being the go-to, under the watchful eye of his big brother, God, finding time for love has always been a difficult task. Then he meets the baddest chick walking, Alexa. She gives him a run for his money. But you know what they say...you can't run forever. Alexa has played the fool to her long term boyfriend in Texas for years. Once she finally walks away, she has $200 dollars in her bank account and no plan on how she's gonna get by. Along her journey back home to New York, she meets a man who turns her world upside down. Nas hails all the way from Texas and just like the Lone Star State, everything about him is big, especially his ego. His main goal for migrating up north is to find his long lost brothers. However, with less than a hundred grand to his name, he's determined to takeover the street of New York no matter who's toes he steps on in the process. But what if taking over means eliminating the brothers he never knew? In this gripping tale of street love, drugs, lies and murder; many will not make it out alive, some will find love in a hopeless place while others get caught in the crossfire. Dive into the life of women who deserve more, and find out what it’s like to date the plug next door.

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The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois - Honorée Fanonne Jeffers Cover Art

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois A Novel by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

A Kirkus "Best Book of the 21st Century" An instant New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today Bestseller • AN OPRAH BOOK CLUB SELECTION • ONE OF THE ATLANTIC'S "GREAT AMERICAN NOVELS" • BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2021 • WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR FICTION A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: New York Times • Time • Washington Post • Oprah Daily • People • Boston Globe • BookPage • Booklist • Kirkus • Atlanta Journal-Constitution • Chicago Public Library Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel • Longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction • Finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction • Nominee for the NAACP Image Award "Epic. . . . I was just enraptured by the lineage and the story of this modern African-American family. . . . I’ve never read anything quite like it. It just consumed me." —Oprah Winfrey The NAACP Image Award-winning poet makes her fiction debut with this magisterial epic of African American historical fiction—an intimate yet sweeping novel with all the luminescence and force of  Homegoing ;  Sing, Unburied, Sing ; and  The Water Dancer —that chronicles the journey of one American family, from the centuries of the colonial slave trade through the Civil War to our own tumultuous era.  The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about the Problem of race in America, and what he called "Double Consciousness," a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois’s words all too well. Bearing the names of two formidable Black Americans—the revered choreographer Alvin Ailey and her great grandmother Pearl, the descendant of enslaved Georgians and tenant farmers—Ailey carries Du Bois’s Problem on her shoulders. Ailey is reared in the north in the City but spends summers in the small Georgia town of Chicasetta, where her mother’s family has lived since their ancestors arrived from Africa in bondage. From an early age, Ailey fights a battle for belonging that’s made all the more difficult by a hovering trauma, as well as the whispers of women—her mother, Belle, her sister, Lydia, and a maternal line reaching back two centuries—that urge Ailey to succeed in their stead. In this powerful coming-of-age story, Ailey must learn to embrace her full heritage, a legacy of slavery and oppression, resistance, bondage and independence, cruelty and resilience that is the story—and the song—of America itself.

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Burn Down Master's House - Clay Cane Cover Art

Burn Down Master's House

Burn Down Master's House A Novel by Clay Cane

Inspired by true, long-buried stories of enslaved people who dared to fight back, a searing portrayal of resistance for readers of Colson Whitehead, Jesmyn Ward, and Percival Everett, from Clay Cane, award-winning journalist and  New York Times  bestselling author of  The Grift . INSTANT  NEW YORK TIMES  &  USA TODAY  BESTSELLER! As turmoil simmers within a divided nation, smoke from another blaze begins to rise. Sparked by individual acts of resistance among those enslaved across the American South, their seemingly disparate rebellions fuel a singular inferno of justice, connecting them in ways quiet at times, explosive at others. As these flames rise, so will they. Luke, quick-witted and literate, and Henri, a man with a strong and defiant spirit, forge an unbreakable bond at a Virginia plantation called Magnolia Row. Both seek escape from unimaginable cruelty. And sure as the fires of hell, Luke and Henri will leave their mark, sparking resistance among the lives they touch… One is Josephine, a young, sharp, and observant girl who wields silence as her greatest weapon. A witness to Luke and Henri’s resilience, she listens, watches, waits for the moment to make her move. Then there is Charity Butler, her husband a formerly enslaved man who proved his ferocity as a young boy standing alongside Josephine. At his encouragement, Charity fights for her freedom in court and wins – only to battle a deeply unjust system designed to destroy the life they’ve built. And finally, there is Nathaniel, who ruthlessly exploits other Black people and mirrors the cruelty of the white men who, like him, are enslavers. A perversion of the system of slavery, his fragile and contradictory rule will become a catalyst of its own. Inspired by the true stories of the profoundly courageous men and women who dared to fight back,  Burn Down Master’s House  is a singular tour de force of a novel—breathtaking in scope, compassion, and a timeliness that speaks powerfully to our present era.

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The Water Dancer - Ta-Nehisi Coates Cover Art

The Water Dancer

The Water Dancer A Novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • From the National Book Award–winning author of Between the World and Me, a boldly conjured debut novel about a magical gift, a devastating loss, and an underground war for freedom. “This potent book about America’s most disgraceful sin establishes [Ta-Nehisi Coates] as a first-rate novelist.”— San Francisco Chronicle IN DEVELOPMENT AS A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • Adapted by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Kamilah Forbes, directed by Nia DaCosta, and produced by MGM, Plan B, and Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films NOMINATED FOR THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD • NAMED ONE OF PASTE ’S BEST NOVELS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time • NPR • The Washington Post • Chicago Tribune • Vanity Fair • Esquire • Good Housekeeping • Paste • Town & Country • The New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews • Library Journal Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her—but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known. So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the Deep South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North. Even as he’s enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram’s resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures. This is the dramatic story of an atrocity inflicted on generations of women, men, and children—the violent and capricious separation of families—and the war they waged to simply make lives with the people they loved. Written by one of today’s most exciting thinkers and writers, The Water Dancer is a propulsive, transcendent work that restores the humanity of those from whom everything was stolen. Praise for The Water Dancer “Ta-Nehisi Coates is the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race with his 2015 memoir, Between the World and Me . So naturally his debut novel comes with slightly unrealistic expectations—and then proceeds to exceed them. The Water Dancer . . . is a work of both staggering imagination and rich historical significance. . . . What’s most powerful is the way Coates enlists his notions of the fantastic, as well as his fluid prose, to probe a wound that never seems to heal. . . . Timeless and instantly canon-worthy.” — Rolling Stone

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The Dopeman's Wife - JaQuavis Coleman Cover Art

The Dopeman's Wife

The Dopeman's Wife by JaQuavis Coleman

Once the streets pull you in, they own you. Or at least that's the way it's been for Nautica. Growing up in the ‘hood, all she's ever known is the fast life—fast money ill-gotten through scandals and relentless scheming. But when a big scam nearly finishes her off, she decides to seek more out of life than the "hustle" and tries to make a new life for herself on the East Coast. It isn't long, though, before she falls in with Manny, a drug kingpin, who sweeps her off her feet. He promises to marry her and make her "Queen of the Street." Then everything falls apart. As their relationship unravels, both of their dark secrets are uncovered, pitting them against each other in this exciting tale of love and deception.

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Good Dirt - Charmaine Wilkerson Cover Art

Good Dirt

Good Dirt A Novel by Charmaine Wilkerson

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The daughter of an affluent Black family pieces together the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom in this moving novel from the bestselling author of Black Cake, a Read with Jenna Book Club Pick “Engrossing . . . Wilkerson masterfully weaves these threads of love, loss and legacy [into] a thoroughly researched and beautifully imagined family saga.”— The New York Times LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME , NPR, Marie Claire, People, Chicago Public Library, Christian Science Monitor, Denver Public Library When ten-year-old Ebby Freeman heard the gunshot, time stopped. And when she saw her brother, Baz, lying on the floor surrounded by the shattered pieces of a centuries-old jar, life as Ebby knew it shattered as well. The crime was never solved—and because the Freemans were one of the only Black families in a particularly well-to-do enclave of New England—the case has had an enduring, voyeuristic pull for the public. The last thing the Freemans want is another media frenzy splashing their family across the papers, but when Ebby's high profile romance falls apart without any explanation, that's exactly what they get. So Ebby flees to France, only for her past to follow her there. And as she tries to process what's happened, she begins to think about the other loss her family suffered on that day eighteen years ago—the stoneware jar that had been in their family for generations, brought North by an enslaved ancestor. But little does she know that the handcrafted piece of pottery held more than just her family's history—it might also hold the key to unlocking her own future. In this sweeping, evocative novel, Charmaine Wilkerson brings to life a multi-generational epic that examines how the past informs our present.

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Love On The Low 5 - Mia Black Cover Art

Love On The Low 5

Love On The Low 5 by Mia Black

This should be the happiest time of their lives, but Mika and Royce’s life is full of turmoil behind the scenes. While Mika blissfully plans their wedding, Royce keeps an eye on what’s happening in the streets. With the new arrival of Trill, a new enemy working so hard to make a name for himself in the drug game, a turf war has made it almost impossible for Royce to continue with his plans to step away. And Mika has no idea how bad things have gotten. As Trill ramps up his efforts, Royce knows it’s only a matter of time before someone gets hurt. He just hopes that no one he cares about will get caught in the crossfire.

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Glory Daze - Danielle Arceneaux Cover Art

Glory Daze

Glory Daze A Glory Broussard Mystery by Danielle Arceneaux

"Glory Broussard's talents and foibles as a human and a crime-solver on full display in Arceneaux’s sublime Glory Daze ."––Sarah Weinman, The New York Times Book Review, " Best Mystery Novels of the Year" In the highly anticipated follow-up to the award-winning Glory Be, Glory Broussard finds herself enmeshed in the mystery of her ex-husband's death . . . with an unlikely ally at her side. After her life was turned upside down by solving the murder of her best friend, Sister Amity Gay, all Glory Broussard wanted was a little peace and quiet. That included getting back to her Sunday morning routine as a bookie in a coffee shop, and planning the annual Mardi Gras gala for her church. But there’s no rest for Glory once the woman who broke up her marriage walks in to CC's Coffee House and asks for help finding her missing husband. It doesn’t take long before Glory finds him . . . with a knife impaled in his chest. No one knew the man—and his dark side—better than Glory Broussard, who would rather let the local authorities take the lead. But Glory’s daughter, still reeling from problems of her own, insists on her involvement. Glory’s search for the murderer takes her deep inside the seedy world of Louisiana casinos and racetracks, from their high roller VIP rooms with chatty dealers to stables filled with thoroughbred horses and shady dealings. As if solving a murder and sparring with the woman who had an affair with her ex-husband isn’t enough, Glory has to get to the bottom of her daughter’s secrets, and there are a few members of her church group who would love to see her fail in her Mardi Gras responsibilities. Walloped with one revelation after another, Glory’s no-nonsense, tellit-like-it-is attitude and strength is tested like never before. But it’s going to take more than that to keep her down in this charming and gripping new novel in the award-winning and critically acclaimed Glory Broussard mystery series.

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Butterfly 3 - Ashley Antoinette Cover Art

Butterfly 3

Butterfly 3 by Ashley Antoinette

“One of the biggest names in urban-fiction.” - Red Carpet Crash on Butterfly The hardest thing Morgan Atkins has ever done is let go of love. After losing Messiah, she never thought she’d find someone who understood her again. Until she reunited with Ahmeek Harris and their friendship quickly transformed into something deeper, but there was one problem... she was engaged to a man she didn’t love and he’s holding a deadly secret over her head. If that wasn’t enough, her long lost love Messiah returned to claim her as his own. Three men plus one woman equals inevitable heartbreak. Morgan wants to follow her heart and take the risk of a lifetime, but she risks destroying her family in the process. Will Morgan enter a loveless marriage? Or will Messiah and Ahmeek fix their brotherhood and work together to save the woman they both love?

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My Monticello - Jocelyn Nicole Johnson Cover Art

My Monticello

My Monticello Fiction by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

“A badass debut by any measure — nimble, knowing, and electrifying.” — Colson Whitehead, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Nickel Boys and Harlem Shuffle "...'My Monticello' is, quite simply, an extraordinary debut from a gifted writer with an unflinching view of history and what may come of it." — The Washington Post Winner of the Weatherford Award in Fiction A winner of 2022 Lillian Smith Book Awards A young woman descended from Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings driven from her neighborhood by a white militia. A university professor studying racism by conducting a secret social experiment on his own son. A single mother desperate to buy her first home even as the world hurtles toward catastrophe. Each fighting to survive in America. Tough-minded, vulnerable, and brave, Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s precisely imagined debut explores burdened inheritances and extraordinary pursuits of belonging. Set in the near future, the eponymous novella, “My Monticello,” tells of a diverse group of Charlottesville neighbors fleeing violent white supremacists. Led by Da’Naisha, a young Black descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, they seek refuge in Jefferson’s historic plantation home in a desperate attempt to outlive the long-foretold racial and environmental unravelling within the nation. In “Control Negro,” hailed by Roxane Gay as “one hell of story,” a university professor devotes himself to the study of racism and the development of ACMs (average American Caucasian males) by clinically observing his own son from birth in order to “painstakingly mark the route of this Black child too, one whom I could prove was so strikingly decent and true that America could not find fault in him unless we as a nation had projected it there.” Johnson’s characters all seek out home as a place and an internal state, whether in the form of a Nigerian widower who immigrates to a meager existence in the city of Alexandria, finding himself adrift; a young mixed-race woman who adopts a new tongue and name to escape the landscapes of rural Virginia and her family; or a single mother who seeks salvation through “Buying a House Ahead of the Apocalypse.” United by these characters’ relentless struggles against reality and fate, My Monticello is a formidable book that bears witness to this country’s legacies and announces the arrival of a wildly original new voice in American fiction.

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Kingpin Wifeys Part 6: A Starr is Born - K. Elliott Cover Art

Kingpin Wifeys Part 6: A Starr is Born

Kingpin Wifeys Part 6: A Starr is Born by K. Elliott

In Part 6 Starr confronts Trey about the package and all his indiscretions. She is ultimately faced with a choice, whether to stay with the man that keeps breaking her heart, or leave. And if she leaves, where would she go? What would she do without his financial support and most importantly who will love her? Mike brings the beef with Black to Black's doorstep and could cost him someone very dear to him. Can the invincible Black stand the pressure of Mike and his goons or will he cave? Shamari is running from the Feds and running out of time. His lawyer is urging him to turn himself in but he and Jada have better plans. Part 6 leaves you with a twist that will make you re-read the final chapter.

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The Cartel - Ashley & JaQuavis Cover Art

The Cartel

The Cartel by Ashley & JaQuavis

The port of Miami brings in millions of dollars worth of cocaine every year, and The Cartel controls eighty percent of it. The Diamond family is a force to be reckoned with, but all hell breaks loose when they lose their leader. The most ruthless gangster Miami has ever seen, Carter Diamond leaves behind a wife, twin sons, a daughter, and a secret. The secret is his illegitimate son, Carter Jones. When Young Carter learns of his father's death, he comes to town and is introduced to the legacy of The Cartel. Miamor is a woman who uses her beauty to enhance her skill as a contract killer. She is the leader of The Murder Mamas. When her crew is hired to take down The Cartel, they get caught slipping, and Miamor loses her sister in the process. She is determined to get revenge from The Cartel. Unknowingly, she meets the son of Carter Diamond, and he immediately catches her heart. She is sleeping with the enemy, and when she finds out, she is torn between love and revenge. Young Carter and Miamor lead two different lifestyles. They are on opposing teams, and when their worlds collide, the truth will be unveiled in an unpredictable ending.