American Contemporary

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.

Listeners of this book will gain a clear understanding of what makes the Japanese, and their society, tick.

A sweet friends-to-lovers romance filled with laughter and romance… Rose Dolson was there for her younger sister’s wedding. She didn’t expect to end up hanging out with an adorable ginger cowboy with the power to change the course of her future. Rose has been chasing stardom without much luck and is at a crossroad in her life. If she gives up her dream, what will she do? Elijah Clemmons believed he had seen Rose before but couldn’t recall where. Making friends with her seemed the perfect way to jog his memory until he got caught up in the fun of hanging out with her. She isn’t ...

What do you do when the love of your life forgets? Not the good times. Not the love. Not the passion. But the pain and heartbreak and betrayal. He doesn't remember that he broke my heart. But I do. He doesn't remember the darkest parts of our marriage. He doesn't remember that six months ago, I said goodbye. What do you do when the love of your life remembers your marriage but not your divorce?

Touré Wallace and Niomi Spencer were close friends at Finley College, the prestigious HBCU they attended. The attraction that simmered between them every semester was a question they never got to ask or answer before soaring ambitions launched them to opposite corners of the world. Both chased their dreams of grit and glamor as high-profile journalists. They got it all...except a shot at being more than friends. Years later, Touré is an award-winning investigative journalist and Niomi is America's most popular morning-show host, but they both feel like something’s missing.

Chyelle Reed was bred with a backbone of steel. Never thinking that she needed help from anyone, she chose to handle her own issues and suffer in poverty rather than have her hand out for a donation of any kind. She was used to making something out of nothing by the sweat of her brow. A twist in fate brings her face to face with Cloverland's savage, King Kyro. Being one of few people who aren't familiar with Houston's finest, she had no idea the adventure their encounter would take them on. At first, falling for him seemed like a slim-to-none chance. Then, being introduced to the drama from...

He's successful, kind, and sensitive - the type of man every woman wants. And truck driver Calvin Ramsey just loves women - especially the lonely, unappreciated ones he meets online, like Lola Poole. His deceitful ex-wife taught him that women really appreciate someone who cares about their deepest feelings and problems.

A domineering force in Miami’s volatile criminal underworld, Brad Black is respected. Feared. His deadly accurate trigger finger and indestructible persona has earned him his intimidating reputation and, up until six months ago, hookers, drugs, and protecting the Black empire was the sum of his life’s purpose. Until he saved her. Wild, brave, and beautiful, Pearl Kennedy is Brad’s kryptonite.

After finding out that my boyfriend cheated on me, I packed my bags and moved to Sunshine Falls. My uncle's ready to retire, and he has always dreamed of me taking over his partnership at the animal clinic in town. My surprise came when he introduced me to my new partner—and it's the cute guy I was talking to at the coffee shop. It's okay, though. I'm not looking for a relationship. My priorities are my career and starting over. Ivan and I clash at every turn, and our transition is anything but smooth. Throw in the exotic animals that keep showing up, and I think we're doomed.

Thirty-something, Shawntriece, is a well-paid executive at a Fortune 500 corporation. Her life is practically perfect — at least to her it is. She has a beautiful home, an expensive car, a family who loves her, and two adorable twin daughters to cherish and spoil. However, despite everything that she has in the material world, she's sorely lacking in the spiritual realm. When life throws her a curve ball, will it end up being the chance she needs to find her way back to Christ? Will the relationship she develops with a saved, good-looking, single father grow into much more? Somehow, some ...

Saphire married Clay Matthews, a handsome, down to earth and loyal man who worships the ground her designer shoes walk on. But no matter how hard she tries to love him, her heart yearns for another. ​ Gade, Saphire's younger sister, married the man of her dreams. Lamonte Singletary is everything a red-blooded woman could ever want in a man. After the birth of their son, life has been picture perfect. That is, until Joe Burrels, a bittersweet memory from the past, returns with a haunting secret he is determined to reveal. ​ Now the bond of sisterhood could be destroyed forever.

Desire raises the stakes - and the danger. This collection includes Desperate Housewife, Sinful, and L.A. Confidential.

From a sultry voice in African American erotic fiction, comes a story of love, faith, happiness, and juicy bedroom antics. Jada has two men on her plate and the appetite for both - how can she be true to her marriage and herself at the same time? Continuing from her previous novel Soul Mates Dissipate, Essence and Blackboard best-selling author Morrison crafts a highly enjoyable, feel-good tale that is deliciously graphic.

Lydia Troutman, successful private chef, is a woman with a heart for the Lord. She’s smart, resourceful, kind, and beautiful. Given that she’s all that, she should have a loving significant other in her life, right? Unfortunately, every single man Lydia has ever dated has turned out to be a dud. When she happens to meet a handsome widower at a counseling session, perhaps Lydia will discover that when it comes to love, God can order a sista’s footsteps, helping her stride into Heaven, right here on Earth.

Monica, a CEO with celebrity clients, loves her life. But when her man loses his high-powered corporate job and pressures her to start a family, Monica finds herself involved with a client who wants to mix business with pleasure - or else…Successful author Keesha is blowing through her money - and cheating on her fiancé. When her new friend, Jeremiah, discovers her deception, Keesha stands to lose everything....

For more than 15 years, best-selling author and historian Hampton Sides has traveled widely across the continent exploring the America that lurks just behind the scrim of our mainstream culture. In these two dozen pieces, collected here for the first time, Sides gives us a fresh, alluring, and at times startling America brimming with fascinating subcultures and bizarre characters who could live nowhere else. Following Sides, we crash the redwood retreat of a cabal of powerful military-industrialists, and more.

JARED - If I had a dollar for every time Banner Morales made my heart skip a beat...The heart everyone assumes is frozen over. Her anger is...arousing. Every glare from those fire-spitting eyes, every time she grits her teeth, gets me...well, you know. If I had a dollar for every time she's put me in my place, I'd be an even richer man. I'm a successful sports agent because I assume "no" means you'll think about it. I'm sure what you meant to say is, "Coming right up." They say even rich men don't always get what they want, but those men don't know how to play the game.

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.

Can the Broken Ever Truly be Redeemed? As a child, Lana Harrington loved the Lord. But then life happened, and Lana didn’t want anything to do with religion or Christ. As the owner of a successful cookie shop, one would think that things are perfect for the beautiful Lana. But outside appearances are often deceptive — just a mask for the turmoil that is really going on inside a person’s heart, soul, and mind. When Lana decides to take a hard look at her sense of spirituality, she starts to feel as if something is wrong, something is missing. Sometimes, when a sista seems broken beyond...

In this striking and bleak, yet luminous debut collection, Nathan Ballingrud, winner of the inaugural Shirley Jackson Award, uses the trappings of the Gothic and the uncanny to investigate a distinctly American landscape: The loneliest and darkest corners of contemporary life. Ballingrud’s stories are love stories. They’re also monster stories. Sometimes the monsters collected here are vampires or werewolves.