On one hand, she has found happiness with the love of her life, Raheem "Rah-Lo" Henderson. He is unhappily married with children, and Celeste is his well-kept secret. He loves Celeste without question, proving his affection for her by financing her dream- a beauty salon called Dime Piece. But when Rah-Lo is incarcerated for his part in a brutal crime, his right hand man Ishmael Wright is left to hold down the fort. This causes him to come face to face with the feelings he has secretly harbored for Celeste for far too long. While Rah-Lo's away, will Celeste and Ishmael give into their passion for each other, or will their loyalty to Rah-Lo stand in their way? Meanwhile, Dime Piece is the setting for tons of drama between hairstylists Charly, Nina and Robin. The ladies vie for one man's attention and the fireworks begin. Dime Piece is packed with drama, love triangles and passionate encounters. The question is, which of the ladies will ultimately be the one and only Dime Piece?

    Rolling over on your best friend who has been with you through thick and thin, hungry and full, freedom and state bids- that's "the cruelest lie told in silence". In this tale that plucks the innermost chords of emotion, jealousy turns to envy then to backstabbing as we observe two friends that have struggled together, hustled together and endured separate prison terms. While Jevon experiences the fruits of the hustle during his partner's first stint, Bilal humbly does his time like a true soldier after taking a manslaughter charge for his "brother". Will their friendship survive the broken bond of brotherhood, or will dishonor come before death?

    Original. 20,000 first printing.

    Best friends since day one, these Get Money Chicks always had a thing for the hottest gear, luxurious lifestyles, and the ballers who made it all possible. All of this changes for Mina when a tragedy makes her open her eyes to the way she's living. Peer pressure and loyalty to her girls collide with her own morality, sending Mina into a no-win situation.Will street life and fast money keep Mina trapped in the game or will she walk away from it all? Friendships are tested and life comes at you fast in the pages of Get Money Chicks.

    Original. 15,000 first printing.

    s deadliest projects, you ll run into four women with colorful ski coats and designer jeans. And if you don t belong, you ll quickly find out what they have nestled inside the Marc Jacob or Louis Vuitton purses they keep closely to them. These females aren t just pretty faces. They were taken out of their beds and placed on the throne by the hustler s they loved. Their only request was that the Emerald City squad remain true. But when Thick, the self proclaimed leader of the clique decides to bring an outside chick into the picture, to floss using the money their girlfriends earned, the security of the operation is jeopardized, sides are chosen and all hell breaks loose. Immediately they decide to remove the gang-stresses from power to prevent their emotions from interfering with business. But it s easier said than done and their ungratefulness only insights their fury. Once they shared their beds together, now they fought a war against one another for the ownership of a million dollar empire. Four women against their ex men. Who will reign supreme? The men who taught them everything they knew about the game? Or the Pitbulls In A Skirt?

    She never knew she would find one in her 15-year-old son, Kelsi. Surrounded by violence, drugs and lies, Kelsi murders in self-defense. Suddenly Kelsi becomes charged with the new-found feeling he associates with becoming a man, and feels he can take on anything, including his mother's cheating lover. The heat of murder ensues and Janet feels it's time to make a permanent move out of Maryland. Before doing so, she plans one last murder which, if goes as planned, could ultimately be worth millions. To top it all off, Janet has not revealed to her son the biggest secret yet.

    For Unique a.k.a. Nique, Kiara, Kay Kay and Zoe, tomorrow isn't promised, love doesn't exist and men ain't shit. Stealing cars is their hustle and their way of doing it is Simply Unique. But jealousy, greed, love and envy are lurking in the shadows. For only the strong will survive and the weak shall fall. Unique knows this but the game of love has won her over. Once she decides to leave the only hustle she knows for the man she loves, her drama begins. When loyalty amongst family is questioned and their fate is unanswered, who will hold who down?

    When her father gets popped in an armed robbery and her mother turns to drugs, Saucy is left to scratch out a life for herself on the streets of Harlem, and this city-slick vixen refuses to become a victim. Young, hot, and hungry for the spotlight, Saucy has a full package and uses her assets to get whatever she wants. 128th Street has its own rules, and she knows them well. With sex as her weapon of choice, Saucy uses her beauty and her body to hustle her way straight into the heart of the hip-hop underworld, preying upon any man—or woman—who might help her get ahead. But Saucy just can't get enough. Her calculating nature and insatiable appetite for power and prestige tempt her into dangerous waters, and before long she finds herself in too deep. The shot callers of the hip-hop world have a few tricks for Saucy—a gutter plan to force her back onto the very streets that she came from. But Saucy refuses to go down easy. She plots her revenge against some of the most powerful playas in the music industry, never suspecting that her enemies will fight back—and fight back hard.

    But despite an unsavory upbringing, Mercy vows to make something of herself–at all costs.Working as a concierge at a hotel notorious for its shady clientele, Mercy meets and falls hard for a notorious dealer who keeps her living large in Gucci clothes and off-the-hook apartments. Then she lands a real lucrative deal: running drugs up Interstate 95 from Miami to New York.But Mercy doesn’t want to live the gangsta life forever. She’s got bigger dreams. She turns legit and makes her mark, yet despite a new, cleaned-up career, she can’t get the streets completely out of her blood. A sexy hustler named C-Note steals her heart. And as their relationship heats up, Mercy discovers that their pasts are hopelessly–and tragically–entwined.

    But a frantic call for help from a childhood friend whose child has gone missing changes all that.Now Lynch must summon the courage to return to his childhood home, the infamous projects known as The Bridge. As the case unfolds and the search for Kenya, the missing girl, intensifies, the secrets guarded by her family and friends begin to emerge. And the hidden truths are more sinister and malevolent than Lynch could ever imagine, and once again, The Bridge threatens to be his downfall.Solomon Jones’s The Bridge is a gritty, suspenseful novel in which the root causes of crime share the stage with their tragic consequences, allowing an intimate window into ghetto life.

    From the "Essence"-bestselling author of "All That and a Bag of Chips" and "What Goes Around Comes Around" comes a riveting page-turner about an NFL coach who's forced to choose between his love and his freedom.

    As a once successful businesswoman, Desiree "Rae-Rae" Johnson use to avoid driving through that section of the neighborhood--until she fell on hard times. After becoming a crack addict, she starts living with her soul mate Bilal "Bunchy" Wilson, the man who introduced her to cocaine. After witnessing a double murder and struggling to survive the everyday dramas to support their drug habits, they manage to pull off one of the biggest robberies in New Jersey's history. Bilal is sentenced to life for murder and armed robbery and meets his sudden death in prison, leaving Desiree to face the demons of her past alone. After turning her life around, she meets one of the top men in the game, Ishmael Jenkins, and falls for him, not knowing his secret past. Ishmael is comfortable in his position in the hood and falls for Desiree just as hard. All hell breaks loose as Ishmael's loyalty is tested and Desiree struggles to maintain her sobriety. Between love, murder and a possible relapse, will they survive? Or will they be another statistic in this society in which we live? Have you seen this in your hood? Well, this is what happened In My 'Hood.

    For a 17-year-old, Amina has a decent life. But after meeting her father and 23-year-old brother for the first time, things take a turn for the worse. Amina ends up alone, trying to fend for herself and save her boyfriend, Kayne, from 3 years in jail. Amina must prove her loyalty to Kayne, but can you be a Down Chick without being locked down yourself? This is a question that never crosses Amina’s mind, leading her to make the ultimate mistake of her life. Author Mallori McNeal began writing Down Chick at age 14, during the summer before she began her first year in high school. She completed Down Chick and was accepted for publishing at age 16. Mallori currently lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.

    She thought she was better than everybody, or rather you thought it. But remember the day you found out that she lived in the projects/ghetto/hood just like everybody else? You were shocked, and now less envious of her, knowing she came from exactly where you did. Well, Trouble is that chick! Spoiled rotten by her brother, who has a complex occupation, and her boyfriend, the star B-ball player at their high school being sought after by colleges across the map who don't mind lacing him with SUVs and putting money in his pocket to sway him towards attending their university to play ball--Trouble seems to have it all. And what she doesn't have, she manages to get. But unlike some of the chicks in these other street lit tales; she doesn't have to use her body to get things. She uses the ghetto diva attitude that makes people believe she deserves the best and therefore they do back flips trying to provide. This urban novel has a completely different twist than any other written thus far. In Trouble's journey, she loses her brother, who she is closer to than bark on a tree, and feels as though it's the end of the world. But when she finds out that the person who murdered him had once tried to get with her, a huge scheme comes to mind in order for her to seek revenge. She pretends to like her brother's killer in order to get him right where she wants him, but her plan backfires when something happens that she never saw coming. She falls in love with her brother's killer.