As Jacob lies dying, he begins to write a letter to his only son, Isaac. They have not met or spoken in many years, and there are things that Isaac must know. Stories about his ancestral legacy in rural Arkansas that extend back to slavery. Secrets from Jacob's tumultuous relationship with Isaac's mother and the shame he carries from the dissolution of their family. Tragedies that informed Jacob's role as a father and his reaction to Isaac's being gay.

Ever since she was little, Leah Vernon was told what to believe and how to act. There wasn’t any room for imperfection. "Good" Muslim girls listened more than they spoke. They didn’t have a missing father or a mother with a mental disability. They didn’t have fat bodies or grow up wishing they could be like the white characters they saw on TV. They didn’t have husbands who abused and cheated on them. They certainly didn’t have secret abortions.

Welcome to the fast-paced, high-stakes world of Rasheed, an antihero you'll love to hate, much like Scarface. Caught up in a game of fast money, faster women, and a hustler's dream, Rasheed's secrets and lies threaten to sever his alliance with his baby's mother, Michelle.

Sometimes, the worst lies are the ones we tell ourselves. They build and build into a façade of transparency and false truth that we present to the world...until it comes crashing down because of that one person who sees right into you. “Just one more time.” “It’s not even like that.” “I’m not tripping about it.” “I’m fine. Really.”

There's a saying in Brooklyn that if you come from my part of town, you're from around the way. Around the Way Girls is a fast-paced look at the life of some street-smart women who think they know it all but are about to get the lessons of their lives.

Meet Justice, a half-black, half-Filipino goddess whose appetite for a quick dollar is insatiable. Having moved from Chi-town to Charlotte, North Carolina, at an early age, Justice and her younger brother, Monk, decide to take the streets of the Queen City by storm. All is well and their hustle is fruitful until Justice's ex-boyfriend, Carlos (a vicious drug dealer), is robbed, and all fingers are pointed towards Justice and Monk. Subsequently, a war ensues between Monk and Carlos' clique of dealers and killers. No one is exempt from the bloodbath!

Tori McNabb and Ashton Spencer, based on appearances, believe they have no reason to breathe the same air. But when startling circumstances align their paths on the campus of Blakewood State University, the two have no choice but to look beyond their exteriors. McNabb is a fighter in life as well as in the ring. She knows what she’s capable of...and she doesn’t want to be tested. Her only goal is to never return to Millville, New Jersey. Spencer, the most popular athlete on campus, is well on his way to success as a professional athlete....

In a gritty and cautionary tale, a former drug dealer must deal with ghosts from his past when he's reunited with one of his best customers. Smoke used to supply Breanne with crack so she could block out an existence she couldn't escape from, and he was hungry enough to take anything she had to offer in exchange for his magic rocks. Fast-forward 16 years and Breanne is back to tell him he is the father of her 16 -year-old son.

What happens when the boy next door doesn’t want to be your homeboy anymore? That’s the question 25-year-old JaNair Livingston has to ask herself when the sexy and charming Semaj Jones wants to become more than just her neighbor. Any woman in her right mind would be attracted to the tall, dark, talented, and sexy Mr. Jones. So what was JaNair’s problem? Jerome Hayes, JaNair’s newest love and current boyfriend, has been sweeping her off of her feet since the day they met.

A life filled with fast money and violence lands 23-year-old Candice Holmes in a witness protection program. When she finds out that no one is capable of saving her from the wrath of the ruthless family she is scheduled to testify against, she finds herself on the run. With nowhere to hide, Candice ends up fleeing to New York City where she is introduced to Daddy - who owns a house where little girls are doing big things. Candice soon realizes that the street life she left behind is nothing compared to what goes on at Daddy’s House.

Tanisha Hopkins, aka Tiny, dreams of living the glamorous life by any means necessary. A bona fide, certified, authentic material girl in every sense of the description, Tiny is Feenin' to live life fast and furious and has found the perfect man to make all her dreams a reality. But everything that glitters isn't always gold. Meeting her match, Roscoe proves to be a disaster in the making. A hustler with a dream, a scheme, and his hand in the mix of everything. Tiny quickly learns why many people not only despise Roscoe, but fear him, too.

Everything that looks good isn't good for you. From the outside, Kevin Davis' world leaves nothing to be desired. It is a life of luxury, comfort, and money, but never judge a book by its cover. His pretend world hides the verbal, physical, and sexual abuse he endures at the hands of his perfect man. Passion Marks finds Kevin entangled in a dark web of love, violence, depravity, and torment at the hands of his lover, James Lancaster, the ambitious CEO of a rising Houston software firm. In order to free himself from the cycle of violence, Kevin must overcome his personal demons.

Cameron is a young, sexy hustler who's always used her book and street smarts to survive. A full-time student at Cleveland State University, she's destined to take the path leading to success - even if means twirling around a pole every night just to make ends meet. Although dancing isn't Cameron's ideal career, she's more than willing to deal with the drama and chaos that comes with the territory.

An unambitious twenty-two-year-old, Darren lives in a Bed-Stuy brownstone with his mother, who wants nothing more than to see him live up to his potential as the valedictorian of Bronx Science. But Darren is content working at Starbucks in the lobby of a Midtown office building, hanging out with his girlfriend, Soraya, and eating his mother's home-cooked meals. All that changes when a chance encounter with Rhett Daniels, the silver-tongued CEO of Sumwun, NYC's hottest tech startup, results in an exclusive invitation for Darren to join an elite sales team on the thirty-sixth floor.

Named for her beauty, Belle Dubois is as sweet as can be. Born with a silver spoon in her mouth, she is always given the best - until her world is turned upside down. When she's away in her second year of college, she receives a call informing her that her parents have been murdered. She soon finds out that they were broke, and subsequently, so is she. With no home and nowhere to go, Belle is whisked under the wing of a woman named Aria, better known by her stage name, Passion. Before she knows it, Belle becomes a part of an underground world that she knows nothing about.

Pain is a survival mechanism of fundamental importance. It plays a crucial role in our lives, and eventually molds us into whoever it is that we become. At least it did for Zuri. After her world is brutally destroyed, she feels she has nothing left to hold on to but the fading dream of escaping the ghetto. Young, beautiful, and naïve, she is drawn into the world of sex and money, working at a hole in the wall strip club in South Philly.

Everything that looks good isn't good for you. From the outside, Kevin Davis' world leaves nothing to be desired. It is a life of luxury, comfort, and money, but never judge a book by its cover. His pretend world hides the verbal, physical, and sexual abuse he endures at the hands of his perfect man. Passion Marks finds Kevin entangled in a dark web of love, violence, depravity, and torment at the hands of his lover, James Lancaster, the ambitious CEO of a rising Houston software firm. In order to free himself from the cycle of violence, Kevin must overcome his personal demons.

They say the love of money is the root of all evil, but for Ken Swift, it's the love of a woman. Ken is 21, hurting people for cash to try to pay his way through college, when he lays eyes on Jimi Lee, the woman who will change the course of his entire life. What's meant to be a one-night stand with the Harvard-bound beauty turns into an explosion of sexual chemistry that neither can quit. And when Jimi Lee becomes pregnant, their two very different worlds collide in ways they never could have anticipated.

When his roof caves in, Sean Lovett thinks things can't get any worse. Until he loses his job, adding yet another bump in the rocky road of his life. None of his so-called friends can—or will—help. And asking a favor from his abusive ex? Hard pass. Luckily, his sister comes to the rescue and offers him a great apartment—in the city, no less—until he can get back on his feet.

Joey Diamonds is on the verge of being a “made” man, with ice-cold blue eyes that pierce through the hearts of women...and men. After being disowned by his Mafia family, losing the love of his life, and realizing the world at large is his enemy, Joey throws extreme caution to the wind on his journey of self-debauchery in the name of fame and fortune. The Purple Don is the story of how self-destruction is never simply an internal state, and everyone around can be destroyed in the process.

My name is Kennedy Desiree Carter. I met the love of my life, Damion "King" Carter, five years ago. Back then, you would not have been able to convince me of the way that he would change my life, in good ways and bad. I was a good girl; on my way to college with a high GPA and big dreams of becoming a child psychologist. Yet, as soon as I met King, I also dreamed of being the best rider that any street nigga had ever seen. I was a good girl with a bad boy fetish, and King was the ultimate bad boy that came to love me in ways that I had never felt before.

A completely revised edition of the first Henry Rios mystery, The Little Death, Lay Your Sleeping Head introduces Michael Nava’s singular protagonist, gay Latino criminal defense lawyer Henry Rios. Rios, beset by personal and professional problems, begins a passionate affair with the black sheep heir to a great California fortune who tells Rios an improbable tale of murder and sexual predation in his wealthy family. When the young man is found dead of an apparent drug overdose, Rios begins an investigation that ultimately reveals much more than murder.

With heart-racing urgency and unflinching honesty, Jenkins takes you inside the grips of addiction and the desperate decisions it breeds. She is a born storyteller who lived an incredible story, from blackmail by an ex-boyfriend to a soul-shattering deal with a drug dealer, and her telling brims with suspense and unexpected wit. But the true surprise is her path to recovery. Tiffany breaks through the stigma and silence to offer hope and inspiration to anyone battling the disease - whether it’s a loved one or themselves.

Azu Wilson gave his oldest daughter the name Snow because she was born amongst his snowfall on the city of Gary, Indiana in 2001. Then, Azu had just began to drop tons kilos of coke on the city, starting the birth of his empire. Fast forward 18 years later, Snow is Azu's favorite girl and only daughter. She has been doted on by her father. Now, she is off to college with her best friends, Tristan and Bae. They hope that their move out of the violent streets of Chicago to Tallahassee will bring positive change to the brutally savage lives they have lived.

A searing confessional infused with the darkest humor, Permanent Midnight chronicles the opiated abyss of a Hollywood screenwriter and his formidable climb into sobriety. Made into a major motion picture starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, Permanent Midnight is revered by critics and an ever-growing cult of devoted fans as one of the most compelling contemporary memoirs.

Striking in their emotional immediacy, the stories in Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self are based in a world where inequality is reality but where the insecurities of adolescence and young adulthood, and the tensions within family and the community, are sometimes the biggest complicating forces in one's sense of identity and the choices one makes.

How long does it take to fall in love? It most certainly can't happen in one night . . . can it? A one-night stand, an engagement, and a wedding, all within the space between New Year's and Valentine's Day. Could it be love? If so, is it meant to be?

Simone is a woman on a mission: Stop being boring, and fall in love. That's easier said than done with no prospects on the table...or under the table...or near the table. Her luck changes when fellow neighborhood business-owner Roman Taylor walks through the door of her flower shop. Roman is single, successful, and sexy - everything Simone is looking for to embark on a whirlwind summer romance with the potential to spark an everlasting love. But things are never as "perfect" as they seem.

Eric Jerome Dickey strides boldly over the minefield that is modern marriage. The central couple's biggest challenge is timing: He works days; she works nights. Instead of growing together, they're rapidly drifting apart, coexisting on stolen phone calls from work, punctuated by occasional bedroom encounters that leave them both feeling even emptier and more alone. When she finds out about his affair - and starts her own - the delicate fabric of their marriage is torn irrevocably asunder. Or is it?

Pittsburgh, 1995. The son of a black father he’s never known and a white mother he sometimes wishes he didn’t, 22-year-old Bobby Saraceno is passing for white. Raised by his bigoted maternal grandfather, Bobby has hidden his truth from everyone, even his best friend and fellow comic-book geek, Aaron, who has just returned home from prison a hardened racist.