American Contemporary

Locked behind bars for three years, Shadow did his time, quietly waiting for the day when he could return to Eagle Point, Indiana. A man no longer scared of what tomorrow might bring, all he wanted was to be with Laura, the wife he deeply loved, and start a new life. But just days before his release, Laura and Shadow's best friend are killed in an accident. With his life in pieces and nothing to keep him tethered, Shadow accepts a job from a beguiling stranger he meets on the way home, an enigmatic man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday.

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.

Jordan Davis is an image consultant for Pro Athletes. He does damage control, branding, marketing and most of all he fixes problems when they arise. His worst client is All Pro Wide Receiver Terrell Cummings, a player with the potential to be a Hall of Famer on the field, but who keeps having character issues off the field. Whitney Cummings, Terrell’s wife has always been aware of her husband’s indiscretions, but she had learned to turn a blind eye despite the fact that she was with him when he had nothing and helped to mold him into the man he is today. She has been a dutiful wife, ...

When an unexpected blizzard grounds all flights, Nia and Andrew’s holiday plans are put on ice, and they’re stuck spending Christmas Eve at the airport. Soon the pair of travelers decide to make the best of it and team up to spread holiday cheer to the other stranded passengers. After all, just because their flight is cancelled doesn’t mean Christmas is. Now they’re about to discover that with the right person, home for the holidays can be anywhere—and life’s crossroads are the perfect place to begin a new story.

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.

Amari is forced to confront her own struggles and the threat of her mind consuming her. Trapped in the crossfire, she must find the strength to reclaim her life and her love before it's too late. With the stakes higher than ever, Domonick will stop at nothing to eliminate all threats to his family. But as he fights to protect what's his, he uncovers earth-shattering revelations that challenge everything he thought he knew.

Imagine this… You've planned everything perfectly for your sixth anniversary, hoping to make it a special day. But then your beloved stands you up, leaving you heartbroken and alone at home. Later, your best friend calls with some shocking news—she saw your boyfriend with another woman in his car while she was stopped at a traffic light. In a fit of anger, you grab your trusty bat and arrive at the scene to take out your anger on his car—only to realize later that it wasn't your boyfriend's vehicle after all. The owner happens to be a gorgeous gangsta, and he is pissed.

During football season, when NFL coaches gear up for war on the gridiron, their wives are left to fend for themselves. NFL wife B.J. Almond has had enough. When she walks in to find her head-coach husband in bed with one of his assistant coaches' wives, she is livid. But what really sets her off is when she discovers the other wives knew about the affair all along. Now she's furious and hungry for revenge. And what better way to exact that revenge than to air everyone's dirty laundry in a juicy tell-all book!

I knew he had the power to make me feel, but he also had the power to break me. To pull my heart outside of my chest and stomp on it. I knew falling for a man like Capone came with more than I was ready for. He wasn't feared for no reason. Timmy never meant Jaiden any good, and I knew it from the first time I met him. I've never wanted someone dead as much as I wanted him dead. Timmy needed to go, and I didn't care how he went as long as he wasn't breathing. Capone put it on his life that he would always protect me and mine.

Sportswriter Nina Richardson had the perfect life away from her family's famous shadow. But a social media blowup and rejection by her boyfriend brought her back to their peaceful Charleston, South Carolina B&B to figure out what went wrong. So there's no way she's going to trust the crazy-hot sparks flying between her and handsome new employee Clinton Jefferson. It's just reckless, rip-his-clothes-off, one-night-and-forget-it lust - right?

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...

It is the story of 11-year-old Pecola Breedlove--a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others--who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning and the tragedy of its fulfillment.

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.

Broken Children often Become Broken Adults… Thirty-something Penny Carson is the textbook example of a broken woman who’s running away from childhood neglect and trauma. Yes, Penny has gotten a bad start to life, but that doesn’t mean that she has to let brokenness define her forever. With just a smidgen of faith and a dash of courage, Penny begins the long road to healing, one shaky step at a time. When a God-fearing brotha with a heart of gold enters the picture, Penny is sure he isn’t going to be interested in someone with a past as checkered as hers. But God is in the blessing ...

Concrete Roses – A Powerful Story of Love, Redemption, and Second Chances 💎 He’s fighting for a new life. She’s sworn off love. But some battles are worth the risk. 💎 After spending years behind bars, Tyrell Johnson is determined to turn his life around. He’s staying clean, keeping his head down, and trying to rebuild the relationships he lost—including the one with his children. But the streets of Dallas aren’t quick to forget, and neither are the people from his past. Enter Evelyn Serrano, a sharp-minded, no-nonsense retired detective who’s seen too many men like Ty ...

Isolated from family and friends because of the one man she thought would be her happily ever after, Scotland is depressed, broke, and a shell of the woman she used to be. But when her man does the unthinkable, it is the last straw, causing Scotland to make a huge gamble in the name of revenge. But when that retaliation follows her home, adding yet another problem to her already hefty plate, Scotland must figure a way out of the hell she now calls life.

Brains, beauty, and faith. Forty-four-year-old Angelique Avery has all three. She also has two siblings — two younger sisters — who’ve been married for years, leaving Angelique the last woman standing. Angelique wants a soulmate, too, but her Mr. Right has been quite elusive. With menopause feeling like it’s right around the corner, Angelique has all but given up on ever having a husband and children of her own. When a handsome, charming, and very saved technology executive offers her an exciting job opportunity — all on a silver platter — Angelique ends up doing what she always...

Nobody’s perfect, everybody has a flaw or two, right? Yep, Olivia Johnson knows this all too well, but at the same time, she knows that some people carry flaws that are more burdensome than the ones that others are carrying. Seeing that Olivia has ADHD and is nowhere near as quick-thinking as her smart-as-she-wanna-be sister, Lyric, Olivia understands this fact more so than most. However, being a woman of faith, Olivia also wholeheartedly believes that God never puts more on a person than they can bear. So, with the help and love of her closest friends and family members—well, most of ...

Small-business owner and financial advisor Samiyah Manhattan is mourning the death of her six-year marriage when she vows never to trust men again. Alone at a local bar, Samiyah attempts to put her situation in perspective when she is drawn inexorably to the presence of a nearby patron. Celebrity ex-boxer and heavyweight champion turned business mogul Jonas Alexander Rose never takes women too seriously. They only attach themselves to him because of his star-studded status. However, when he meets the beautiful Samiyah Manhattan, Jonas is overwhelmed by the heated attraction.

As the twenty-two year old single mother of three kids all under the age of seven, Veronica Wright is trying to carve a better life for herself. Allowing the Lord into her world has cleared away almost all the shackles that came from her having a crack-addicted prostitute for a mother. When she meets Kevin Brown, she's attracted to the man almost instantly. Despite having her life on track for a brighter future, deep down inside she doesn't quite believe that she's good enough for a saved, sexy, single brotha like Kevin. Her friends and family try real hard to convince her that good men ...