African American Literature Fiction

Essence® best-selling authors Kiki Swinson and De’nesha Diamond are two rising stars in the world of urban fiction. Heist presents two novellas starring young women hustling their way to the top of the game through daring robbery schemes. In Swinson’s The Ultimate Heist, pampered Shannon Marshall is accustomed to a big-money lifestyle. Her world is shattered, however, when her man is thrown into prison for gun running.

Tiffanie has lived a sheltered life in a very strict household with her pastor grandfather and her grandmother in Washington, DC. But when she meets Damon, she falls for the successful entertainment businessman despite his history as a drug dealer. Everyone sees a bright future for the couple - yet when Tiffanie meets Trey, her lustful feelings leave her confused just days before her wedding....

At 12 years old, Cornelius secretly takes over his father's job at a silent film theater in New York's East Village. Five years later, as his father, Herman, lives out his last days, he shares his wisdom with his son, explaining that the person who controls the narrative of history controls their own fate. After his father dies and his mother disappears, Cornelius sets about reinventing himself as Professor John Woman and spreading Herman's teachings. But some are attempting to influence the narrative of John Woman, and they might know something about the facts of his hidden past.

Seth Garrett's family taught him that anything less than the best simply isn't an option. Now he's out to prove he can be the most successful Garrett - and Rachel McNeal fits the bill. She's pretty, hard-working, good in bed - and willing to finance his dreams. He thinks she's perfect wife material - until he meets her relatives and discovers they're far from perfect. No problem, Seth's got a replacement lined up to give him the good life he's entitled to...

Whether weaving family life and history into dark fiction or writing speculative Afrofuturism, American Book Award winner and Essence best-selling author Tananarive Due’s work is both riveting and enlightening. In her debut collection of short fiction, Due takes us to Gracetown, a small Florida town that has both literal and figurative ghost; into future scenarios that seem all too real; and provides empathetic portraits of those whose lives are touched by otherness. Featuring an award-winning novella and 15 stories, Ghost Summer: Stories is sure to haunt and delight.

Blanche White is a plump, feisty, middle-aged African-American housekeeper working for the genteel rich in North Carolina. But when an employer stiffs her, and her checks bounce, she goes on the lam, hiding out as a maid for a wealthy family at their summer home. That plan goes awry when there's a murder and Blanche becomes the prime suspect. So she's forced to use her savvy, her sharp wit, and her old-girl network of domestic workers to discover the truth and save her own skin.

There's no place like home for the holidays ... especially for Lesley Carver. Life in the big city just wasn't her jam and now she's back in Hickory Falls, working at the family diner and helping her mom after she took a tumble. Lesley longs to build a life here, working at the cafe, selling her handmade ornaments and ... er, apparently reviving her high school crush on her best friend’s older brother. Only one problem, her mom wants her to leave Hickory Falls far behind.

When scandal erupts, playboy and heir Darius discovers that his current girlfriend Fancy is a true friend until she reveals a secret that renews his distrust of women, plunging him back into a world of fast money and fast women until he discovers what he truly wants in life - Fancy.

When Miriam's fireman husband, Chauncey, dies while rescuing students from a school fire, Miriam feels like her life is over. How is she going to raise her three children all by herself? How will she survive without the love of her life? Luckily, Miriam's sister-friend Emily and Emily's husband, Jamal, are there to comfort her. But all the time that Miriam and Jamal spend together - grieving, sharing, and reminiscing - brings the two closer in ways they never planned...

African American Romance Collection that includes 10 books. The Snow Series: What happens when everything seems perfect and peaceful, but all of a sudden you, your family, or your surroundings is threatened by something or someone that will rob you of what you've always know? This happens to many people, from all walks of life, each and every day. No one is exempt from the trouble that can cause one to have his or her own personal meltdown. Some are able to overcome their meltdown? Others, however, are not so fortunate. They find themselves stuck, trying hard to deal with the meltdown of ...

In A Deep Dark Secret, a seemingly perfect 12-year-old girl harbors a terrible secret - one that threatens to tear her world apart. But the girl also houses a surprising inner strength, and the power to hope may just be what saves her.

In the previous installment, Owen was faced with her haunting past, and with nowhere to run. Having let her guard down due to being with the handsome and protective Conquer, will she be able to get away unlike the last time? Or will the perpetrator strike again, ruining the progress Owen has made personally and romantically? If so, Owen will quickly realize that Conquer loves very hard and is extremely zealous when it comes to his La Bella. Now that Conquer has decided to go against the grain and make Owen his official girl, he is forced to deal with the many people that don't agree.

Gigi Costner needs four million dollars she doesn't have and time she hasn't got. Her ex-con ex-lover swears to make her pay for the multimillion-dollar stash of diamonds she stole as she ditched him for a new life as a suburban wife. With time running out, will Gigi's new plan get her in front of the drama or drag her back into hood madness...?

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

Award-winning authors Victoria Christopher Murray and ReShonda Tate Billingsley are both beloved for their strong female leads and juicy plotting. In Sinners & Saints, Murray and Billingsley join forces to tell a tale packed with drama, scandal, and redemption. Jasmine Bush and Rachel Adams both want their husbands to be elected president of the National Baptist Association, and they’re willing to use plenty of low-down tricks to win. But when another woman joins the fray, she proves more devious than either of them could imagine.

Blake Crystal has the best of almost everything. She's at the top of her game at work, she has four wonderful daughters, and at 50 she's more financially secure than she's ever been. In and out of the bedroom, her new younger lover takes her in breathtaking directions that force her to make decisions she never imagined.... On the surface,Alexis Crystal is an ideal daughter. As confident as she is beautiful, she can have any man or woman she wants, so she has both in her collection of bed partners.

This is a novel in the guise of the tape-recorded recollections of a black woman who has lived 110 years, who has been both a slave and a witness to the black militancy of the 1960s. Miss Jane Pittman has "endured," has seen almost everything and foretold the rest.

This ain't a lick; this is a lifestyle! The 5 Star Conglomerate opens new spots. A bad power move leads to another funeral. The most anticipated reunion turns into disunity and mistrust. The All-Star Dream Team of boss chicks focuses on pushing past the difficulties in their personal and working relationships.

Racquel and Marcella are sisters with very little in common, except that each wants what the other has. Racquel has a beautiful house, a fulfilling career and a loving husband. But driven by her desperate longing for a child, she is alienating her husband and family. Marcella is a single mom, trying to support her two children with a low paying job, food stamps, and occasional child support from a deadbeat ex-husband. She won't allow anyone to interfere with her dream for a better lifestyle, not even her own children.

The day Lisara Compton caught her husband in a rather compromising position changed her life in a way neither she nor her sons ever saw coming. Realizing too late that divorcing him would cause a domino effect of turmoil, she is now forced into an uncomfortable life that she can't seem to stay afloat in. With her eldest son acting out and a nonexistent ex-husband, Lisara feels things can't get any worse. That's until her ex betrays her and their son in a way that leaves her in need like never before. It seems she just can't catch a break, until she meets him.