Urban Fiction

Begonia is caught between the hard knocks of the streets and the nightmare of her home life. Forced to become the head of her household, she has to trade her paintbrush in for a switchblade and her love of art into a love affair with the hood. Lying, stealing, and turning tricks, Begonia will do any and everything she can to protect her sisters from the ugliness of the world. However, it just isn’t enough… Her younger sister Violet, desperate to escape the hell her life has become, is seduced by an up-and-coming corner boy. Meanwhile, their baby sister, Daisy, is saddled with a disease that could be fatal if not well managed. That’s not easy when your drug-addicted mother can barely care for herself. Come along for Begonia’s journey as she picks up the pieces of a life in shambles.

Grimm’s childhood wasn’t unlike any of the other kids in his dirt-poor neighborhood: hard times and hard lives. However, while his best friends, Spoon and Goldie, were out getting into mischief, Grimm was in the house, studying or reading. After a fast-tracked graduation, Grimm enlisted in the Marines. He endured seven years trapped in a South American prison camp, subject to torture, starvation, and, most notably, a deadly underground fighting circuit. By the time he was rescued, he emerged as a 210-pound weapon of mass destruction. Upon Grimm’s return, he finds that his neighborhood has changed. His mother is a broken shell of her former self. His best friend Spoon is now an up-and-coming hustler and pimp, and Goldie has become a prostitute. It’s up to Grimm to fix his family and his community.

Morgan Atkins’ life is comfortable but boring. So when a former flame comes back to town, she can’t help but get caught up in a passionate affair. She wants the bad boy and the good life, but it’s hard to keep so many dangerous secrets.

After a Black drug dealer goes to jail in Brooklyn, his ruthless 17-year-old daughter takes over his empire. A look at the mores and manners of the Black underclass, this one with money. First novel by a hip-hop artist, author of No Disrespect.

Teddy and Terry were a golden couple. Then drugs found them and destroyed their lives. A classic of the genre.

Kayla Hopkins is young, beautiful, and can’t win for losing. That’s why everyone calls her the Drama Queen. She doesn’t go looking for drama; it just happens to find her. Take, for instance, her love life. Kayla’s not satisfied with just one man. She has two-one she’s in love with and another she’s pregnant by. It’s a ready-made formula for disaster, but will Kayla see it before everything blows up in her face? Her track record says no, but her friends and family can only hope.

The Duncans seem like a respectable clan from the outside, but their car dealership is just a front for their real job: maintaining control of the flow of drugs on the East Coast. eFormats available

A coming-of-age novel that follows the original Flyy Girl, Tracy Ellison, from childhood through her teenage years as she navigates friendship, love, and self-discovery in 1980s Philadelphia

Felicio King was kicked out of her house and learned to survive on the street with the help of her chosen family. When she meets ambitious and cruel April, she is drawn to her chaos and it ruins her life. She slowly tries to rebuild herself, but April won’t stop trying to destroy her. Felicio knows it’s time to fight back for her freedom.

As the daughter of a gangster, Charly Brinks knows she has a reputation to keep up to get respect in the streets. Then she falls in love with Cross Payne, the son of her father’s enemy. Now she must choose between love or loyalty.

In the 1990s, Yoshi Lomax starts her first high-powered white-show job in a Manhattan law firm. She has a way with wealthy clients and a brilliant brain, but she learns too many secrets and her morals are tested. Can she get out alive?

Precious Jones, 16 years old and pregnant by her father with her second child, meets a determined and highly radical teacher who takes her on a journey of transformation and redemption.

Trying to survive the ‘hood, friends Angel, Jaz, and Kyra find themselves unable to leave the lying, cheating, vicious, drug-dealing men that they love, becoming trapped in a world of jealousy, turf wars, revenge, sex, and violence.

Derrick may be only 13 years old, but his tough life in Pittsburgh has made him tough in turn. He has to be the provider for his family – his mom and two younger sisters – because his mother is caught up in her addiction. One day at school, he’s called into the principal’s office, and his life is never the same.

Amber Halloway is what some would call ‘forbidden fruit’ because she is so stunning. When her father is murdered by the local kingpin’s mob, she uses her beauty to her advantage. Step 1: Infiltrate. With the help of her older brother, Dawg, she gets a job at the biggest strip club in the city to gain the attention of the man responsible for killing her father. Step 2: Make him fall in love. Amber just never anticipated that he would be so charming.

Gena, a street-smart Philadelphian, finds her life turned upside down by a whirlwind romance with Quadir, a wealthy man who can give her whatever she wants but whose connections with a powerful drug cartel could threaten both their lives.