Book picks similar to
The First & Fifteenth by K'wan
k-wan
ouo
urb-st-grit
write-2-eat-concepts
The Conglomerate
Danielle Santiago - 2014
Best friends since childhood they have experience highs, lows, and everything in between together. Evan is one of the country's most sought after wedding and event planners. Cee is an a-list celebrity hair stylist. Joey is the East Coast's most popular female club promoter. Combining their talents they form The Luxe Group Conglomerate. At the height of The Conglomerate's success a series of mysterious fatal events. It is soon discovered that the secret past of one of the girls has come back to haunt them. In this tale of luxury, betrayal and lies, the girls friendship is put to the ultimate test. Lives are forever changed as the future of their lucrative conglomerate hangs in the balance.
Everybody Lies
B.M. Hardin - 2019
Twenty. Twenty-one. Twenty-two. What really happened? No one has a clue. Twenty-two people are questioned, but nothing is found. So one by one, Pepper narrows the suspects down. It becomes clear that everybody has something to hide. The closer Pepper gets to truth, the more everyone lies. Somebody saw something. Someone knows the truth. Someone is a murderer. The question is…who?
Treat Me Like Somebody
Nikki Simms - 2015
In Jazmyn's case the bad outweighed the good .This isn't your ordinary love story. Jazmyn was in love with her boyfriend Prince of four years, but after the constant cheating and being his human punching bag, she is finally fed up. The only problem is she is too scared to leave. Prince is your average pretty boy type. The kind that thinks he can have any woman he wants just with the lick of his lips. He is deadly in love with Jazmyn and won't let nothing or no one get in his way or try to take his girl. That is until Justice Carter comes into the picture. Fresh out the pin and back home to claim what is rightfully his, Justice is a force to be reckoned with. While serving a four year bid, he left to his best friend Diesel who tried to take him for everything he made a name for. But with the help of his brother Harlem they make Diesel wish he never crossed him. Harlem is handling his business and locking down his brothers territory. He has another side to him that nobody wants to meet. After years in therapy, he learns how to control his anger. He is in love with a chick he thinks is too scared to love. But after realizing she's not the woman he thought she was, things get deadly. Samya and Jazmyn are best friends. With a mother as a crack head and a dead beat for a father, Jaz's mother Tuesday takes her in and raises her as her own. She is hard working and don't take no shit but is far from perfect herself. She has secrets and skeletons in her closet so big that she is to scared to tell anyone including Jaz. She is in love with Harlem but even he don't know about her past. Treat me like somebody is filled with drama and suspense. Secrets will be revealed and love will be tested. Will friendship get in the way or will love conquer all?
Roadrunner
Trisha R. Thomas - 2002
He’s married to his college sweetheart, Leah, and they have two children and a dream home in Los Angeles. But an injury has sidelined his hot career, and prescription medication and depression are pulling him into a downward spiral, leaving Leah feeling emotionally distanced and lonely. Their fighting escalates, and one night Dell commits an act of violence that changes the course of their lives forever. But Angel Lopez, the cop who arrests Dell, decides to take the law into his own hands. Determined to teach the famous athlete a lesson, he drives Dell to the worst part of town and tries to kick him out of the car. The men struggle and the car crashes. When Angel comes to, Dell is gone and no one knows if he’s dead or alive.Leah is grateful when a guilt-stricken Angel offers to chase the media away from her home and help out around the house, “just until Dell comes home.” She and her family grow to trust him, and Angel falls in love with the Roadrunner’s lovely, grieving wife. Will Dell find his way home? Will Angel replace him? And what really happened that dark night the Roadrunner disappeared?
Diamond Life
Aliya S. King - 2012
. . Set in the highest ranks of the music industry’s fame machine, Diamond Life is an intoxicating story of love, sex, ambition, money, betrayal, and the surprising realities of making it big. Alex Maxwell’s career as a journalist and celebrity ghost writer is taking off, despite the slightly embarrassing authorship of hip-hop super-groupie Cleo Wright’s memoir. And while Alex’s star is on the rise, it pales in comparison to her husband Birdie’s multiplatinum debut and world tour. Slowly but surely, everything they swore would never happen begins to come true, like leaving Brooklyn for a mansion in suburban Jersey and letting a reality TV crew into their home. Birdie is confronted time and again by the sexy groupies who pursue famous rappers like heat-seeking missiles and he’s forced to make some life-changing choices. Meanwhile, aging rapper Z, in recovery from drug addiction, is too busy trying to repair his marriage to leave much time for his son Zander, newly signed to Z’s label and struggling to maintain his appeal in the wake of a domestic violence scandal with his diva girlfriend Bunny. Record label president Jake is trying to deal with the death of his wife, multiplatinum R&B artist Kipenzi Hill, by drowning his sorrows in alcohol and women. When he meets Lily, a beautiful, quiet waitress, he can’t get her out of his head. But Lily has her own problems to handle and she wants nothing to do with the fame, drama, and baggage that Jake carries with him. This juicy follow-up to Aliya S. King’s Platinum is a scintillating roman à clef that takes readers behind the curtain once again for the real scoop on the biggest players in the hip-hop game—and the first ladies who hold them together.
In Her Neighbor's Bed
Angie Daniels - 2011
Then to her dismay, her parents call and insist she bring her fiancé home to Virginia for the holidays. With Christmas only three weeks away, Zanaa better find a fiancé quick, fast and in a hurry, otherwise, her family’s going to have every eligible bachelor in town lined up at the door. In a state of panic, Zanaa ask Scott Simmons to marry her. Only it isn’t a real proposal—it’s just to get her family off her back. Except the man she just propositioned, her sexy next-door neighbor, is all too irresistibly real. And now that Zanaa has made the first move, the videogame entrepreneur has every intention of taking the relationship all the way.
Backpage
Jade Jones - 2013
Sweater Robinson moved to Atlanta with nothing but $300, a dream, and a dark past she wanted nothing more than to forget about. Just when things are starting to look up, someone from her past returns, forcing her to choose between love and loyalty.Royalty Jackson is often hot and cold due to his abrasive personality, but one thing that’s certain is his love for making convenient cash. Getting money by any means necessary is the motto he stands firmly by, and he’ll do whatever to get it even if it means turning on his friends and loved ones.Lady Carter has a lackadaisical attitude when it comes to most things until a life changing event forces her to make a difficult decision. Will her outcome be the happy ending she always envisioned?Capricorn “Cap” Daniels is usually a man of very few words. However, he has no choice but to finally speak up for what he wants. After all, closed mouths don’t get fed…but falling in love brings consequences and conflict.Deception and betrayal are at an all-time high, and ‘loyalty’ is simply a word. Will these four friends be consumed by jealousy, distrust, and greed or will they make it out unscathed?
Rise of an American Gangstress
Kim K. - 2012
But when havocenters the picture and the Feds seize her family's ill-gotten gains,Fancy's lavish Caribbean trips are traded in for cold winter nightsin the heart of the hood.When the gravity of Fancy's situation causes her to crumble, it'sher roots that put her back together. Unwilling to stay down, Fancyrealizes that she was born to hustle, and this American Gangstressis reborn. What emerges is a fierce contender the streets aren'tready for.
Bruised - PT 1
Azárel - 2005
She is a nice girl with an attraction to the wrong types of men. No one seems to understand why she would get involved with a notorious criminal. After settling into a dangerous relationship with Devon, her life takes a drastic change for the worse. Caught between his material gifts and controlling behavior she searches for a way out. The battle to save Carlie from Devon's grip puts the lives of many people in jeopardy. By the time she realizes that force is needed when going up against Devon, it is too late. Carlie's fight to stay alive will keep you on edge. Will she give in? Or die trying?
This Is Life
Shakara Cannon - 2012
Sequel to This Can't Be Life
The Flip Side of Sin
Rosalyn McMillan - 2000
"The Flip Side of Sin" takes readers on a journey through the lives of a group of unforgettable characters who must overcome life's toughest challenges to find true happiness. It is a book in which worlds collide and people are forever transformed by the tumultuous changes that occur in one man's life. The story begins with Isaac Coleman, a man whose tragic mistakes cost him years away from everyone and everything that mattered to him -- especially his wife and son. Alone, confused, and bitter, Isaac can only become whole by learning to love again. But when he re-enters the world he left and attempts to get reacquainted with his now teenage son, Peyton, he finds heartbreaking rejection.As Isaac struggles to understand and change his plight, his only form of self-expression is found in the keys of his saxophone. When he later meets up with Miracall Lake, a woman with whom he shares a painful past, she surprisingly helps him to face his fears and reach for his dreams. In this case, love indeed conquers all -- or so it tries to in this tale of good versus evil and love versus hate. "The Flip Side of Sin" is a poignant and memorable work from a writer of immense talent.
Keyshia and Cashmere: A Jersey Hood Love Story
Karma Monae - 2015
And with beauty, education, and a hustler’s ambition, she proved just about everyone who doubted her wrong. Making it to the top wasn’t easy, but with her brother Ru, and his crew behind her, she was destined to make it happen. But she soon learns what goes up must come down and that having a few secrets of her own may just come back and bite her in the ass along with tearing her relationship with her brother apart at the same time.Ru had been raising Keyshia since she was a little girl, ever since their crack head mother ran off and left them for dead. After he steps up and does what he knows best, which is getting money, it’s only fair he takes his right hand man Cashmere with him. But what happens when they both end up facing 20 years in the feds? With his wifey Tandy by his side, Ru is prepared for anything as long as she is riding. But will she ride when she finds out Ru’s been hiding secrets of his own? Cashmere was the hoods hot commodity for as long as he could remember. Fast cars, pretty bitches, and racks of money were nothing new to him. Neither was going to jail. But after getting done dirty by his baby momma, he realizes the only person he ever loved was Keyshia, but being with Keyshia meant betraying his right hand man something he wasn’t sure he wanted to do. What happens when Keyshia’s big secret is revealed, will Cash still want her or will he write her off like all the other bitches who done him dirty?It’s a thin line between loyalty and love, and with secrets on the horizon not everyone is strong enough to make it. Take a ride with the crew in the first installment of “Keyshia and Cashmere: A Jersey Hood love Story”
A Hood Chick's Story
Lashonda Devaughn - 2007
When it felt like the world had finally changed the hand that she d been dealt, reality continued to creep up on her. With a mom on the verge of becoming an alcoholic and an alcoholic crack-addicted father who use to beat her mom in front of her, who could blame Tiara for finding a family on the streets. Tiara s loyalty to her friends was undeniable. The crew consisted of, Tiara, Tamika, Shavon, Renee, Ke Ke and Karen. They jumped, robbed and fought other girls who stood in their way. When trouble surfaced, the crew had no problems with getting their hands dirty. Tiara was faithful to her crew handling any drama that presented itself. But when jealousy get s the best of friends, things continued to get ugly. With an older brother Tre James wrapped deeply into the streets becoming a drug dealer at 13, their younger brother Sharod had no choice but to admire both Tre and Tiara s lifestyle. Tragedy continued to hit home and Tiara s life continued to go down hill. She lost people who she loved and trusted the most to death, jail or betrayal. From welfare, section 8, jail, drugs, abusive relationships and lies, Tiara s future seems uncertain. Will she finally rise above the drama that meets her at every corner, or remain trapped in the jaws of the hood? Brace yourself as Tiara James takes you on a rollercoaster ride in her footsteps, in her hood, telling her story.
The Joneses
Shelia M. Goss - 2014
In this intriguing novel full of drama and plot twists, one family tries to hold on to their “perfect” life before their secrets, lies, and scandals are exposed.On the outside, the Joneses seem like the ideal family: Royce Jones, a funeral home mogul, and his wife, Lexi, are parents to Charity, Hope, and Lovie—and everybody wants to be them. But it’s true that money can’t buy happiness, and the Joneses are harboring secrets that can’t stay hidden forever… The funeral home business has been slow lately, and Royce is in serious trouble. When Lexi learns of their financial strain, she vows to hold on to her status by any means necessary—even if it means going behind her husband’s back. Lovie, seeing his beloved mother so stressed, will do whatever it takes to put a smile back on her face. And sibling rivalries tense up when Charity and Hope both fall for the same guy. On top of this, they all have secrets they’re hiding not only from people outside their family—but from each other. It’s only a matter of time before the Joneses’ perfect life goes spinning out of control and they’re revealed for who they truly are.