Twelve year-old Biddy has survived an intolerable life of indenture by remembering two things: adults can’t be trusted, and it’s best to be invisible. Due to an early trauma, she’s mute with no memory of her past. The man who holds her contract for indenture has evil plans for her, and he will stop at nothing to ensure his schemes come to fruition. Things look hopeless for Biddy until she meets two school teachers, Brenna and Emily. From that moment on, these three lives become intricately entwined. Biddy’s new champions take desperate measures to ensure her safety. Life and death choices are made and these accelerate into an unanticipated conclusion. As is often the case in life, what was wished for is granted in a most unexpected way. Victoria Murata has again embraced history to tell an enduring story of love and loss in our country’s not too distant past.

    This story deals with overcoming the obstacles that are thrown your way and persevering. What would you do if you knew the one person meant to protect you was the one bringing you the most harm? For Kahina Martel this question is very much her reality. The day of her mother’s murder changes everything for Kahina, a 17-year-old high school senior. She goes from being one of the top high school athletes in the state of Florida, to having her world turned upside down at the hands of her own father, Clarence Martel. The entire world looks on as Clarence gets away with murder and is granted custody of his only daughter. As Kahina adjusts to her new life she gains new friendships and relationships. Will these relationships help her, or will they turn her heart cold? Dive into part one of this enticing, drama filled African American Urban Fiction Hood Love Story.

    Keonshay Collins knows that feeling all too well. Being the second born child of eight, she knows that she doesn’t have to experience failure to learn a lesson. Her mother continuously shovels her responsibilities of child rearing onto Keonshay, despite the fact that she’s only a twenty year old college student. Learning to navigate through those difficulties, Keonshay has taken the responsibility to raise her younger siblings, teaching them how to be respectable and responsible. Just when things begin to really fall apart, Keonshay is approached by her crush, who leaves her reeling with emotion. As Kace tries to come on strong, she continues to pull away, embarrassed about her current struggles. Some people seem to have it all. That is the perception people got when they looked at Kace Moses. He’s good-looking, smart, wealthy, and can shimmy like no other at the Kappa step shows. Following his parents’ guidance has been engrained in him. He knows what he wants out of life but hasn’t quite found who he wanted to be the love of it, until he sees Keonshay. Observing her for months, he decides to approach her. That same day he realizes that he has taken on a lot, but his heart refuses to let him move on without her. Through life’s challenges, Keon and Kace struggle to conquer every obstacle thrown their way. While in their hearts they feel they would do any and everything for love, will there ever come a time when enough is enough? Will they have the strength to hold on to their destinies or will the love and preservation of others in their lives pull them apart?

    Death by fire - Death by ice.These were the twin threats confronting the seamen on the North Atlantic convoys: fire from the Luftwaffe's bombs, and from the torpedoes of the lurking U-Boats: ice in the deadly cold waters that could kill in three minutes, five minutes at most.Between these two hells lived another threat: the slow paralyzing hand of fear.

    Born and raised in Somalia, she yearns to be loved and free in a world far away and nothing like her own. But living under the roof of her overprotective strict parents, she knows that what she wants is nothing more than a dream, and it could never be her reality. That is until her forbidden love interest, Shadi, an older man who she's grown to love and trust, promises to give her everything she’s hoped for and more. After an incident with her father goes too far, Shadi vows to protect Fallon and give her her heart’s desire if she agrees to run off to America with him. Thinking that the perfect life awaits her, she agrees with little hesitation, but what happens the second her feet land on the pavement in NYC is something she never expected. Being abandoned by the man she loves, Fallon is thrown in to the harsh world of drugs and sex trafficking. Her instincts jolt her into survival mode, and she has every intention of beating the odds and escaping with her life. Wali is the savage king of the concrete jungle who commands respect with his presence alone. To the world, he’s a ruthless thug with no heart, but raising his younger sister Yaya by himself, he develops a soft side that only a select few get to see. When fate brings him to Fallon, something about her piques his interest and he wants nothing more than to get to know the girl behind the sad eyes. When something tragic happens to someone he loves, Fallon becomes a distant memory, and Wali is on a mission to destroy and conquer. Join Fallon and Wali as they try to survive the mean streets of New York and the hand that they’ve been dealt. Find out if Wali can be Fallon’s knight in shining armor or will she end up having to be his?

    Some came to him in sleep while others seemed to appear at random through his musings. He had time traveled, in a way, to a place where the darkness of his abusive childhood occurred and alongside, also came the dark and sometimes painful reflections.They are real and raw; emotionally explicit and even occasionally, healing. Walk with him through his poetic journey as he takes you to those tiny cracks that most of us will never see.Note: Please take special care that the writings in this book may be explicit in nature. If you have been abused in any way they may be triggering for you. Be considerate to yourself while you read.

    She doesn’t care what everyone else says. She knows he loves her because she is certain he has remained faithful to her. Geoffrey is very handsome and arrogant enough to know other women would want him but in the three years of their marriage there hasn’t been the slightest hint of an affair. Mary happily puts up with the humiliation, the sexual demands and the beating, safe in the knowledge Geoffrey truly loves her. And he is always so sorry each time she makes one of her little trips to the hospital. She knows it is her fault really. If only she could learn to be a better wife, things would be easier for her. But Geoffrey has more than one secret and when they begin to unravel Mary is forced to reassess everything she thought to be true. She learns even she has power, the power to say, No!

     A star athlete with a winning smile, Pernell Jefferson had no trouble attracting women. But beneath his immaculate exterior lurked a beast that left nothing but battered women and broken dreams in his path. Addicted to steroids and nearly destitute after walking away from a football career with the Cleveland Browns, Pernell set his sights obsessively on Jeannie Butkowski. Calling her at every hour of the day, showing up to her home unannounced, and battering her when she turned her attention toward other men, Pernell made Jeannie a prisoner of her own home and her own mind. After Jeannie’s sudden disappearance, the Butkowski family and Jeannie’s friends could name the man responsible. But police, despite subsequently discovering Jeannie’s charred remains in a small Virginia town, refused to question the man most likely linked to the brutal crime. Deadly Goals explores the devastating details of Pernell Jefferson’s past, the disturbing nature of his crimes, and the impassioned cries for justice from Jeannie’s family at a pace so compelling that True Crime fans won’t be able to set down this must-read from seasoned author Wilt Browning.

    School is her get away, and her safe haven, because at home, she suffers through an abusive relationship with her boyfriend William.Due to the stress of life and school, Amelia loses her job, but quickly bounces back and finds a better opportunity, and with a new job on the horizon, she falls into the arms of the owner of the business, Ceedric.Ceedric is a savage street king who goes legit and leaves his past behind, opening a construction company.The chemistry between these two is real and raw, but what will she do about William? With the fear of leaving William, and falling into something new with Ceedric, hearts and lives are on the line and in the way.Can Ceedric use his tru savage ways to hold on to his woman, or will she slip through his fingers, and stick to what she knows, abandoning her chance at happiness?

    Twelve years later, she petitions the family court for visitation with her daughters, Alexis and Christa.Her attorney tells Jennie that, ordinarily, she could not imagine that some type of visitation would not be granted. But, she warns, the situation is hardly ordinary.True, Jennie suffered from a bipolar disorder when she began to drink heavily, abandoned her family, and moved in with another man. True, she has turned her life around: leaving her boyfriend, returning to school, entering therapy, taking medication, finding a job, and joining a church. But she pressed no claim for her children when her husband divorced her, and she has made no attempt to contact them in any way since then. Her daughters, now sixteen and fourteen, live four hundred miles away. They have busy lives that do not include her, lives that will be totally disrupted by the visitation that she requests. Their father is engaged to be married to a woman who has taken the role of their mother for a decade. Alexis remembers nothing good about Jennie. Christa recalls nothing at all. Conflict ensues as soon as Jennie’s petition is served: her former husband does not want to share his children with the woman who deserted him; her children have no interest in knowing the mother who abandoned them, and her father insists that she is being timid and ought to demand full custody, not simply visitation. As court convenes, Jennie’s past is dredged up− the desertion, the men, her drinking, her mental health − and paraded before the judge. Her claim to be a different person, now, is attacked. The judge hesitates to grant Jennie’s request, but reluctantly agrees to order three trial visits.If persuading the judge to let her see her children was difficult, convincing them to allow her to be a part of their lives seems to be almost impossible. She struggles through two visits and is almost. What happens next tests her confidence in herself, her love for her children, and, ultimately, threatens her life, itself.

    And when this baby’s father finally made it to the hospital from the bar room to see his new baby daughter. Did he pick her up and while looking into her innocent newborn eyes say, "I'm not going to feed you, because I don't care if you starve,” or did he say, "someday, when you need emergency medical treatment, I'm going to beat you for getting sick, throw you on the couch and leave you there alone for days- without food, water, or medicine," or did he say... Susan and her two sisters grew up in a time when racism was the norm, child abuse wasn’t recognized and poverty was a way of life. Throughout her life she was often beaten, forced to be a servant and was tossed away like garbage. Susan knew she wanted better out of life...an education, a chance to succeed, to have a mind of her own and most of all...to be free-free from abuse, neglect, prejudice and hatred. This is an inspiring story about a little girl’s struggle to overcome many obstacles- to understand why she was hurt, both physically and mentally, by the very people that were supposed to love and nurture her. And through it all she never lost faith or hope that one day she would succeed-against all odds.“Never look down on anyone, unless you’re helping them up”Jesse Jackson

    

    When officers discovered Maddie chained to a table and competing with dogs for food, they asked the young girl her name....You could never guess her reply!

    Louis. Five years later, when a domestic abuse client disappears, Theia tries to find her, even though doing so triggers bad memories and nightmares. Theia has difficulty knowing whom to trust, when it becomes apparent the client’s disappearance is linked to Theia’s violent past, and that someone close to Theia has betrayed her.NOT DEAD YET is a fast-paced legal thriller. The author is a divorce lawyer and special prosecutor in domestic violence court.

    She knows too much…Grace Caldwell has had an unimaginably tragic life. Molested by her stepfather, shunned by her family, trying to make peace with her drug-addicted brother, Grace still strives for a better life. But the worst is yet to come, as Grace ends up kidnapped and held as a sex slave of the sleazy mobster Piero Ferraro. New mob boss Gianni Azzara is Piero’s mortal enemy and the deliverer of his fate. Piero killed Gianni’s father, so Gianni killed Piero. Grace knows the truth…  When Gianni goes to Piero’s house to clean up the botched crime scene, he finds Grace near death. He’s her savior….Gianni realizes that Grace has valuable information about Piero. This makes her valuable. Grace knows that Gianni was trying to kill Piero. This makes her dangerous. He’s her captor….Gianni knows what he needs to do. Yet Grace’s vulnerability and quiet beauty call to him as nothing ever has before. Grace is his captive. He cannot set her free. Ever. She must remain his prisoner indefinitely, or die.Which will be the greatest tragedy of his life.