The Safe House


Kiki Swinson - 2019
    Now she breaks all the rules as a young woman with two targets on her back tries to keep those she loves—and herself—alive . . .   Run for cover It was supposed to be easy money. A few exchanges for cash, one big payoff, and then life would be better than ever with bills all paid and money in her pocket. But the plan fell apart and now she’s made an enemy. He’s a drug cartel leader out to destroy any competition—and get payback by any means necessary . . .  Play for time Under federal protection, she’s only steps ahead as the cartel leader starts killing off her family and friends. When he kidnaps a relative and demands her in exchange, she and a desperate DEA agent work a bold switch to nail him. But the fallout is disastrous—and deadly . . .   Do anything to survive Now the local police are closing in on her as the prime suspect in her abusive boyfriend’s disappearance. She’s got no choice but to ditch the feds and take down her merciless pursuer on her own. But with no options, no help, and the clock running down, this not-so-innocent victim’s only shot may be the one risk that takes her out for good . . .

Boss


Tracy Brown - 2017
    At the height of her career at a wildly popular magazine and on the rise in an enviable social circle, she’s beginning to think that maybe she can have it all. But her entire life, body, and soul is threatened when Troy Mitchell, the man who stole her heart and shattered her world a decade ago, returns. Crystal has never felt the insatiable passion she felt for Troy since…and she’s never forgotten the harsh sting at betrayal when he left her and her family devastated in his wake.Troy has never gotten over his love for Crystal, and he will stop at nothing for a second chance to possess her heart. Crystal can’t help but fall for the handsome, powerful, enigmatic man she used to love all over again. But the families of both lovers will not stand for their love, and a raging inferno of bitterness and revenge threatens to consume them both as tensions ignite. With deadly twists and turns, Crystal and Troy must choose each other and give in to love, or they will not escape the ties that bind them…

I'm Doin' Me


Anna Black - 2013
    All was well and things were perfect for Tiffany until the day she got the news that her show was going to be cancelled, before going home to catch her man in bed with the hired help. Determined to find a new home for her show and to get over her two-timing ex boyfriend Jeff, she seeks out every network on the roaster, but get's nowhere until she gets interest from TiMax, a cable network ran by Langley Green, father of Tressa Green who happens to be the fiance of Tiffany's old high school crush Kory Banks. The queen of L.A. Tressa, Kory's soon to be bride, not only wants to keep Tiffany and Kory apart, before they jump the broom, she also wants to make sure Tiffany's show never airs on her father's network. Although Kory and Tiffany realize that there is still an attraction for each other, Kory decides to move on with Tressa and Tiffany decides to focus on her career, but love is love and Tressa's schemes and manipulative devices to destroy Tiffany, causes her to lose more than Kory in the end.

Amos


J.D. Mason - 2012
    It is only through her cake-decorating business and encouragement from her best friend that she begins to reconstruct her life, eventually realizing she has enough room in her heart to forgive him. Love-starved Toya doesn’t want to emulate others’ failed relationships. As she begins to strengthen her morals and stops seducing married men—she is surprised to discover that she shares some similarities with Amos. Tomiko is a beautiful but lonely woman. Despite having a successful career in writing, she attempts to keep aspects of herself and her past buried as a coping mechanism. However, new love reawakens her faith in both herself and men.As Cass, Toya, and Tomiko reconcile their feelings of abandonment, Amos reflects on his life and the decisions he made. And by revisiting their painful pasts, they all find ways to reconnect with each other and live with compassion.

Diamonds and Pearl


K'wan - 2016
    A child born of privilege to a drug baron and reputed killer known in the streets as Big Stone. Although the flashy, fast-paced nature of the streets calls to Pearl, she’s been brought up to look but not touch. But when a young hustler named Diamonds crawls up from the swamps of Louisiana and sets up shop in New York City, everything Pearl was taught flies out the window.Raised in the wild and schooled on the mean streets of New Orleans, Diamonds is no stranger to hard times and is willing to do whatever it takes to stay above the poverty line, including kill. When a robbery turned mass murder goes wrong, Diamonds is forced to flee New Orleans and lands in New York where he meets Pearl, and for the first time finds something he craves more than wealth and power…love. As the stakes get higher, Diamonds has to push away his past if he’s to grab hold of his future—but by doing so, will he show Pearl that all that glitters isn’t gold?

Married on Mondays


HoneyB - 2010
    But at night, they become Vanilla Cream, Cherry Cream, and Sugar Cream, and run an upscale swingers club called Creamé. Their clientele include everyone from judges, lawyers, politicians, and police officers, to soccer moms and housewives. Business is booming at the hottest club in town. Until the police chief extends an indecent proposal to Foxy: sleep with him, or go to jail. With the whole town standing behind Creamé (and not just because they all happen to be clients), the women must decide whether to stand together and fight, or risk losing their business.

Forever an Ex


Victoria Christopher Murray - 2014
    Now eight years later, their exes are back, wreaking havoc on the lives they’ve worked so hard to rebuild. Sheridan has found love again after her ex-husband left her for a man, but her old wounds are reopened when her daughter tells her she’s gay and Sheridan blames her ex. Kendall is forced to reunite with her former husband, who left her for her own sister, when her father wass diagnosed with cancer. And Asia must reevaluate her life when her L.A. Laker ex-boyfriend reminds her that her lavish lifestyle will end when their son turns eighteen next year. With her trademark writing that “has the kind of momentum that prompts you to elbow disbelief aside and flip the pages in horrified enjoyment” (The Washington Post), Forever an Ex is Murray’s best novel yet.

What's Done In the Dark


ReShonda Tate Billingsley - 2014
    But after one perfect storm of a night, it happened…and she can hardly believe it herself. To top it off, when she woke up in the morning, she found that the man to whom she guiltily made passionate love died of a heart attack overnight. Felise, who is a nurse and a good citizen at that, leaves the hotel room without reporting his death. When her best friend, Paula, finds out about her husband’s sudden death a day later, Felise is overcome with guilt and grief. She must be there for her friend and her family, but when her husband repeatedly tries to apologize for his absentminded behavior and Paula starts investigating who Stephen was with the night he died, Felise finds it hard to hold herself together. Should she come clean and tell everyone what she did? Or should she just let it go and move past the mistake on her own?

The Banks Sisters 3


Nikki Turner - 2017
    At the end of the day, the Banks sisters are no different than any other family in the city of Richmond--other than the fact that they are rotten to the core. Sure, the girls are bonded by D.N.A, but they're also tied together because of their past of robbing banks, extortion, drug dealing, and even cold-blooded murder. However, that bond means absolutely nothing to them. When it comes down to it, it is every sister for herself, even if it means throwing her siblings underneath the bus to avoid the consequences of their many crimes. Sisterly love be damned; this is survival!

Who Ya Wit': The Finale


Brenda Hampton - 2013
    

The Education of Nevada Duncan: A Family Business Novel


Carl Weber - 2021
    N. Phillips for this fresh, enthralling spin-off to the Family Business series as the heir to a crime family finds himself targeted by an enemy and he'll need more than his family by blood to save him...Nevada Duncan is the heir to the Duncan and Zuniga crime family fortunes, but before he can take the mantle of power, he has to be educated about the family business. So, with the encouragement of his father and grandfather, he enrolls in his father's alma mater, Chi's Finishing School. Chi's is the world's most elite school for the children of underworld figures.On Nevada's first day of school, he hooks up with a group of misfit freshmen from around the world who quickly become his new best friends. However, Nevada is unaware of the deadly adventure that awaits him with a sinister new enemy lurking in the shadows. Montez wants what Nevada has, and he will do anything to get it.Accustomed to relying on his family and his superior intelligence, Nevada Duncan will soon learn the importance of friendship when the threats are aimed directly at him and he's the only Duncan around.

Full Figured 6


Electa Rome Parks - 2013
    Big, bold, and beautiful are three adjectives that describe Erika to a tee. Named after her mother's favorite soap opera vixen, Erika Kane is self-assured, headstrong, and opinionated. But Erika is also unlucky in love. Whenever she thinks she's found everlasting love, it always ends up being short-lived--literally. She has three dead husbands to prove that point, and it has earned her the title of The Black Widow. Just when Erika is about to give up on true love, she learns that, like it does in the soaps, love sometimes shows up when you least expect it--though sometimes it can be deceiving. Once again, life has gone wrong for Artemis Clay. It seems like she's always been unlucky in love, and this time is even worse than she could imagine. Her own family looks down upon her, and everything looks hopeless. Artemis decides to leave everything behind for a last-minute getaway. While she's enjoying her newfound freedom, she comes across not one, but two reminders that maybe not all hope is lost. Is she ready to take a chance on love again?

Please Proceed to the Nearest Exit


Jessica Raya - 2017
    "We're all just one bad decision away from disaster." At fourteen, Robin Fisher is doing her best to ignore her insurance salesman father’s credo, cataloging his tales of calamity under Bad Things that Happen to Other People. But life in 1970s Golden, California, doesn’t prove so golden after her father deserts the family, setting in motion a series of events that results in Robin accidentally setting fire to an abandoned party house. As Robin struggles to keep an eye on her fixation with Bic lighters and her newly independent mother’s own growing pains, she is drawn into the orbit of Carol “Jesus Freak” Closter, a vulnerable yet charismatic classmate whose friendship will challenge Robin in ways she could never have imagined. When Carol finally crosses a line, it’s Robin who must make a dangerous decision of her own. Sharply comic and deeply moving, Please Proceed to the Nearest Exit illuminates those unforgettable moments in life when everything changes, whether we want it to or not.

A Sister's Secret


Cydney Rax - 2018
    But secrets they never saw coming will challenge them and everything they counted on . . .   Savvy and decisive, Burgundy Reeves feels blessed with a good husband and a successful career. She is the sister everyone envies. Since her beloved mother's death, she's given troubled youngest sister, Elyse, a stable home when she needs it most. And she's taken it on herself to keep her contentious siblings together. Under her guidance, they all meet bi-monthly on “Sister Day,” a time when they get together to bond, to receive a challenging “assignment”, and to cope with a range of things—including their many differences . . .    Among the sisters’ most challenging assignments: tell the truth. But truthfulness leads to an unveiling of secrets that may destroy lives. Burgundy is struggling to show Coco the real deal about her unreliable baby daddy. If she and level-headed Drucilla can also convince hard-headed eldest sister Alita to give Coco more love than tough talk, that might heal a longtime rift. But it’s teenage Elyse’s truth that will shatter Burgundy’s perfect world beyond repair. And putting the pieces back together could make the sisters stronger together than ever—or pull them apart for good.   Praise for If Your Wife Only Knew   “A dramatic tale of betrayal.” —Booklist   “Secrets, scandal, betrayal and revenge—there are no clean hands in the first book of this saga.” —RT Book Reviews

The Harris Men


R.M. Johnson - 1999
    Harris, I'm sorry, but you have cancer.” Although devastated to learn he has just one year to live, fifty-five-year-old Julius Harris has always known that the day would come when he would pay for walking out on his wife and three children twenty years earlier. Now, with a sudden and passionate determination to make his family whole again, Julius begins trying to find a way back to his sons. Caleb, the youngest, struggling to support a son and make his way in a relentless world, couldn't care less about his own absentee father. Middle son Marcus can't abide even his father's memory, which gets in the way of his committing to the one woman who has turned his life around. And Austin, Julius' eldest child, so adores what he remembers of his father that he's following in his footsteps, abandoning his wife and children just as Julius had done. Inspired by RM Johnson's own fragile family history, The Harris Men is his poignant exploration of the increasing problem of absentee fathers—and of the compromises made by the families they leave behind. As the Harris men grapple with their fears and their choices, Johnson gets to the very heart of what it means to be a man.