Too dangerous. Too stalkerish. Too deadly. Living the life at the college of her dreams with her two best friends Ayanna and Melody, Zoey “Zoe” Richardson is single, having no time for a man and remains focused on her classes so she can graduate next year. Zoey and Yanna have ladies’ night at a local club while Mel follows behind her consistent unfaithful boyfriend to a house party. Getting ready to end their night, Zoey and Yanna ends up rescuing Mel from another unbearable lover’s quarrel, putting her in the crosshairs of Keno. A night where chaos erupts simultaneously in her life. Having to rely on Keno’s help, the two exchange numbers and starts getting to know each other better. Being the sweetest and most charming person she has ever met, it doesn’t take long for Zoey to fall head over heel for Keno until the real him surfaces. Unfortunately for Zoey, Keno’s wolf in sheep covered skin is revealed a little too late, costing her to endure a lifetime of regrettable decisions. Attending FAMU Homecoming weekend turns out to be the best thing that happens to Keno Daniels. According to him, he finds his future wife in Zoey. Despite his on and off relationship with his ex and his current legal woes, Keno sets out to woo Zoey, despite her claim of not wanting a relationship. Claiming Zoey has his, Keno is devastated when Zoey learns his truths and sees the real him, ending their brief relationship. Except, Keno is not easily convinced it’s over and refuses to let go. Ending things with Keno sets Zoey on the right path, leading her to meet her true king—Ezekiel “Zeek” Taylor. After forming a year long friendship and unknown crushes, Zoey and Zeek gravitate towards each other and find a real connection with each other. A connection that has them talking about the future, one with marriage and kids. However, moving on is not so easily done, especially with Keno popping up everywhere. Indiscretion, heartbreak, lies, relationships, love, and dire consequences are easily found in this mind-blowing, page turning story. In Author Lakia’s debut African American Urban Fiction standalone “When A Savage Is After Your Heart,” everything is not fair in love and relationships.

    

    

    

    Everyone except for Ladi. She's tried her hand at love and the cards that she'd been dealt never stacked up. After getting her master's degree and moving back to Miami, Ladi's only focus is securing her dream job. Something that Ace Baptiste has never been… is unsure. Everything that he wants he goes for and gets it. So when he first lays eyes on Ladi and felt a connection that was undeniable it only made sense for him to have her. Will Ace's persistence be enough to make Ladi his lady or will she be the one thing that he fails at capturing? Ladi's dream job has the potential to lead to a dream love, but that's only if she opens herself up to experience it. Will she put forth the effort and give Ace a chance, or keep her heart closed off to his untainted love?

    She has a man in her life, mom in rehab & her best friend by her side. Even with all of these positives, Promyse is still hit with a couple of unexpected negatives. Smoke went from feeling himself to being cocky & arrogant all in a blink of an eye. With his new found royal fame the only thing on his mind is getting money and ruling with an iron fist. Too busy being caught up in his own hype, he never sees his competition lurking in the shadows. A new dude by the name of Saigon is looking to reinvent Promyse and have her shining like the true Queen she is. Paulie & Khy thought they had a relationship many would deem as goals. But when issues arise and smart mouths start to fly one of them is pushed into the arms of another. Everyone’s least favorite girl is back & still out for revenge. Lola was labeled positive for the package but that’s not slowing her down. Still on the fast track to getting her man, she finds new ways to try and get her man to realize with her is where he needs to be. All hope isn’t lost for Promyse as she straddles the fence, but with a thug like Smoke & a boss like Saigon fighting for her heart how could she not be a little bad?

    

    She looked at him. The man that had taken her heart and her freedom and she smiled. “My World.” For Emory life was good. He’d been able to leave the drug game behind and make a name for himself. One that would make his parents proud. One phone call changed his life and in an instant he was back to his old ways. Only it was a different game. Neveah lived a good life. She had all of the things that a woman could want but something was missing. After being betrayed by someone near and dear to her heart she finds herself even more lost. When she's taken away from everything she's ever known she finds herself genuinely happy for the first time in her life. But that happiness doesn't come easy and Neveah questions if its even real because she's falling for the same person that abducted her. This is a two part series.

    When her parents found out, they decided to uproot them to another city. After losing contact with Dreon, she experienced her first heartbreak and decided to shift her focus back on her education. Now twenty-three, Niya is in her final year of law school, but over the years she continued to experience the short end of any relationship she was in, including the relationship with her parents. She finally accepts that her heart has never fully healed, but that all changes once she sees Dreon again. She doesn’t know how he will feel about the secret she’s been keeping from him. Dreon Carter was known for the havoc he wreaked growing up. But after being abandoned by his mother on his grandmother’s steps, he was angry and released that anger on other kids. Sometimes, even letting Niya tag along. Barely graduating high school, due to poor attendance, he went into the streets full time and was now known by the street name Menace. He ended up serving some time in prison, but now at twenty-five, he is the king of the dope game in Cleveland, running the streets with his right-hand man, Renzo. He has a two-year-old daughter by a crazy baby mama who’s set on being a pain in his ass and causing friction between him and Niya. Along with running the streets, he’s trying to run his home, but with the streets and his home life trying to cross, he runs into problems. The bond of Menace and Niya is undeniably unbreakable, but is Niya strong enough to be the woman of a thug, going against everything she’s about, and dealing with the drama that comes along? Can Menace avoid the pressures of the street life and be the man Niya wants him to be, while also not giving up his streets, or will it all be too much?

    

    

     PART I When Deputy Carson Wheeler goes to the One Hart Ranch to investigate a report of cattle rustling, he finds himself face to face with Melody Hart. Melody is the last of the Harts left to run the old ranching operation. She’s fierce and hardworking and Carson finds himself fascinated in spite of how prickly she seems with him. But they’re going to have to work together to unravel the case of the animal rights activists looking to shut down what they see as an abomination against cattle and the ranching tradition itself. PART II One of Deputy Lilliana Martinez’s favorite stops every morning is at the food truck parked not far from the sheriff’s office. There are Burrito Trucks everywhere in the valley. But lately, there have been several very strange robberies. When Lilli witnesses a robbery, she takes a personal interest in the case. Lilli thinks that it’s an inside job and she even has her suspect. Oscar Garcia certainly looks the part. But the more Lilli gets to know Oscar, the more she realizes that he only looks like a thug on the outside. On the inside, he’s a prince among men. And in fact, it’s the one who looks like a prince that is really the devil in disguise. PART III Deputy Rico Attencio is not a big fan of art and yoga weekends. Maybe that’s why he’s not all that surprised to get a phone call from the artists’ retreat saying that they have a problem. What Rico could never predict was how attractive he finds the owner. Sara Sellers is nothing like what Rico expected. Sara is absolutely sure that someone is poisoning her guests. But it will take more than a little bit of sleuthing and good old fashioned common sense to find the culprit before someone winds up dead. PART IV Deputy Tom Mason is just as supportive of this resurgence of the homestead movement as anyone else. That is until it starts to spawn a herd of livestock and children who seem determined to wander through the streets of Dos Brazos. First chickens. Then a bull. And then eventually there are goats and children roaming just about everywhere around town and getting in the way of normal things like traffic. When Florence Fiskars from the Department of Social Services asks Deputy Tom for a hand, he is sure that the state is just going to make a mess of things. It does not take long for them to discover they’ve stumbled onto a little more than the average negligence case. Tom always heard about the “orphan train” in history class as a boy. He just never thought he’d discover that someone was attempting to use orphan labor in the here and now. PART V There have been a lot of changes in the valley, but when someone starts putting pressure on Clarissa Maestas to sell her family’s farm, she digs in her heels and says no. Then a string of strange things begins to happen within the Maestas family’s Farm to Table operation. That’s when Clarissa calls in the help of her oldest school friend, now sheriff of the Dos Brazos Valley. What Wyatt and Clarissa dig up has them realizing that someone has huge plans for the valley that leaves no room for any of the locals. It’s up to Clarissa and Wyatt to put aside their childhood quarrels and put a stop to the Hollywood invasion before it’s too late.