A New York City Detective. Cocaine flooding the streets. Colombian Cartels in control. The Mob has been cut out. Someone must be killed. Everybody has a motive. Nobody can be trusted.Born and raised in New York City, Michael served as a police officer with the Fairfax County VA police department on patrol, in plain clothes and as hostage negotiator on the SWAT Team, before joining the FBI. Michael, a 24 year FBI veteran, investigated crimes ranging from white collar to bank robberies, organized crime, drug trafficking and money laundering. He rose through the ranks reaching the level of Special Agent in Charge. His professional travels took him to Israel, Russia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. He has been interviewed and quoted on national and local media on matters ranging from workplace violence to fraud and street crimes. Michael is the author of two books, Walking the Corporate Beat: Police School for Business People and crime novel, Midnight Sin. He has a Crime and Security Blog and can be followed on Twitter.

    Her poem, Pre-Destiny was featured in the April 2008 issue of Essence Magazine and she was a Featured Poet in A Place Of Our Own (APOOO) national tribute in April 2008 and RAWSISTAZ Author Showcase, April 2007. She is a contributing poet in Step Up to the Mic: A Poetry Explosion, by Poetic Press (Xpress Yourself Publishing). A winner of the No Candles Infinity Contest, hosted by Osbey Books, Kai is credited for writing emotionally raw and thought provoking works. Her short story featured in If It Ain't One Thing..., by Diva Books, Inc., received praise for its originality and realism. Similarly, her tribute to mothers, entitled Soften My Soul, featured in APOOO's Mother's Day Tribute, has resulted in an outpouring of praise and personal testimonies. Additionally, Kai's poem My Baby Girl, was featured in the Fall 2008 issue of The Write Vibe, and her poem The Other Women is featured at Tribute to Black Women. Kai also serves as a Guest Reviewer for RAWSISTAWZ Reviewers. An alumni of Hampton University, SUNY Brockport and Georgetown University Law Center, she is a licensed attorney and proud parent.

    Whether or not she killed him is not the question, because she was found soaked in his blood. What her high profile defense team must prove is that she acted in self defense. But as the case unravels and her raunchy, violent and greedy lifestyle is exposed, Jewels doubts if she'll ever see the light of day again. To make matters worse, she desperately tries to prevent her dirtiest marriage secrets from being exposed. First Comes Love, Then Comes Murder has all the raw, explicit and jaw dropping gore that fans have come to expect from Reign. Read at your own risk.

    With nothing to lose and the world to gain, she embarks on a quest to rule the gritty streets of our nation's capital, by taking over the rough and rugged DC drug trade.Guile, cunning, and ruthlessness are her tools, while death, destruction, and deception are her trade. Her quest to conquer the shady underworld is brought to a cataclysmic halt by a horrendous act against the one person who brought her any semblance of sanity, her baby sister.With revenge on her mind, Angel sets out on a bloodthirsty quest to avenge the one person in life whom she truly loved. The clock is ticking, the police are on her trail, and a shocking betrayal threatens to send her to prison for life. Will Angel avenge her sister's shocking torture and manage to escape the clutches of the determined detective Sean Jones? Will she find out who her betrayers are, before it's too late? Will she get her life together and move on? Or will she suffer the same fate that she has dealt to so many others?The stakes are high, the players are ruthless, and the result of failure is death.

    In a perfect life, these promises are easy to keep. When faced with spousal betrayal, idealistic oaths take a back seat. Justine Charles made the ultimate sacrifice for her dying husband. Will she rally after his death or be forced to give up a final chance at happiness?

    The first story is called The Perfect Life. This tale is about Rene Carter and two of her closest friends. Rene is a well respected Baltimore City police officer who is very good at her job. She is married and her husband is a well known attorney who loves her dearly and worships the ground she walks on. Rene is living the perfect life, but she has a dark side. The only people who know her secret are Tonya Lewis and Rhonda Harris who are also police officers. Rhonda resents everything about her and would love to see her fall flat on her face. The second story is called Imitation. Stacie Sims is an up and coming emergency room physician. She has a loving fiancé named Billy Addams. Billy is the son of a wealthy business man. He is the perfect man for Stacie, but he is hiding a dark secret from her. So sit back and enjoy the worlds of Rene and Stacie who both quickly learn that life can get tangled like a spider’s web.

    Will she learn that love is all she needs or will the love she has be too much for her to stand? Only knowing the life of gold diggin', hustling men and rejecting love, Vera has suddenly found herself in a world where her game has "flipped... and slipped through her fingertips." While trying to retrace her footsteps in search of where her game could be, Vera discovers that the love she has for Dr. Taj Bennett won't let her go, the hatred that she has for her drug addicted mother is not easy to live with, and ghosts from her past won't seem to die. Get ready, get set, and run with Vera as Tu-Shonda Whitaker spins a plot explosive, passionate and humorous tale that is destined to be an urban classic!

    The price they have to pay for the decisions they made as kids is steep. But the pair are ready to face whatever the streets bring them..as long as they have each other.

    . . 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.

    She thinks that chapter of her life hasended, and starts afresh in Mumbai. But strangely, it seems her past is trying to catch up. Dhruv suddenlycomes back into her life. Even as they try to figure out their relationship, horrible things start happening to people they know. Together, Anuradha and Dhruv need to find out who it is that cannot bear to see them together. Who is carrying out these shocking crimes? Are they really soulmates cursed to stay apart, or is there some karmic debt they have to repay? Taut and thrilling, Only the Good Die Young is unputdownable.

    Born and raised as Princess of The Black Mafia, an organization founded by her father, she wants for nothing except the love of her cruel, cold-hearted mother. When the police arrest Queen's father for her mother's murder, Queen's perfect life is shattered. Holding a dark secret, Queen must decide if she can reveal the true identity of the killer in order to spare her father's life. With her father gone, she searches for security in the arms of a series of lovers, who all have their own agendas. Just as her life seems to be spinning out of control, she learns to face her own demons and take control of her destiny. But when Queen finally realizes that she is so much more than the criminals and thugs who surround her, it may already be too late.

    . . not even in His house.Liz’s best friend rode off on the back of a motorcycle when she was 16 years old. Her body parts washed up on the shores of a Virginia beach community days later, prompting Liz’s parents to sequester her away to Richmond, far away from the vicious murder. Now on her own, Liz returns to take back that part of her life and make peace with the events of her 16th summer.John Williams’ heart broke when, after being questioned in the grisly murder, Liz’s parents spirited her away for good, leaving him grieving for his forsaken love. With the guidance of his father, the community preacher, John moves on with a clear understanding of his life’s mission.When another body turns up, savagely hacked-up on the side of the road, safety becomes elusive, even in the small community church where the answers are hidden. Liz and John have to face the truth that the killer is still out there. Watching. Waiting for them.

    Two time divorcee, Nelson Kennard, has finally found the love of his life - so he thinks, but his fiancée, Parris Stalls, has found another lover.Parris, a drop dead gorgeous schoolteacher with a body to die for, has been patiently waiting for Nelson's ship to come in. But after four years of waiting, she began to listen to her friends who told her numerous times to leave Nelson and find a man with some money.In comes the very wealthy Shenandoah Armstrong who has a twenty year old score to settle with Nelson. The fireworks begin when Parris finds out that Nelson became the man she always hoped he'd become. She never loved Shenandoah and never stopped loving Nelson. He still loves Parris, but will he take her back after catching her in bed with Shenandoah? Or has he found another and moved on with his newly found riches?

    It was lust at first sight, and Rhapsody isn't going to let young Malcolm leave her presence without a promise to fulfill her fantasy.Malcolm had no idea when he accepted Rhapsody's invitation to her bedroom that he was selling his soul to the devil. Malcolm thinks he can bed Rhapsody and simply walk away, but she is not one to settle for a one night stand. Rhapsody goes to desperate measures to keep her cub extremely close to her. Gifting Malcolm a very expensive SUV, filling his belly with home cooked meals and funding a trip to Cancun are just a few of the tactics that Rhapsody uses to ensure that Malcolm spends his nights in her bed and no one else's. However, when Rhapsody finds a mysterious package on her doorstep containing proof of Malcolm's betrayal and deception, she seeks revenge and seals her own fate.

    But if Ericka can help it, her stepmother won't have control for very long.