Cheaters


Eric Jerome Dickey - 1999
    Cheaters takes on a larger canvas and cast of characters, and fearlessly explores how bad even good people can sometimes behave in the game of love. It has earned Dickey even more loyal readers, and was chosen as Blackboard’s Best Book of the Year.In Cheaters, Stephan loves em and leaves em, just like his daddy. Chanté thinks she’s found her dream man—until his wife and kids come banging on her door. Jake is a player—left with bad dreams he just can’t shake. Darnell is true to his wife...but the temptation’s getting tougher every day. Tammy is caught between the man she loves, and the woman he’s promised to. And while Karen lectures her friends about fooling around, she may not live up to her own high standards...This is the world of Eric Jerome Dickey. It’s heart-wrenching and hilarious, smart and soulful, and as honest and recognizable as your own—and that of everyone who never loved you back.

Snitch


Allison van Diepen - 2007
    We knew who our friends were, and were careful what we said. If people thought we were haters, it would only be a matter of time....Lines are clearly marked at South Bay High School. It's mixed territory for the Crips and the Bloods, which means the drama never stops. Julia DiVino wants none of it. No colors, no C-Walks -- it's just not her thing. But when Eric Valiente jumps into her life, everything changes. Lines are redrawn. And then they're crossed.

Harlem Girl Lost


Treasure E. Blue - 2004
    Blue, street lit’s hottest newcomer, crafts characters that fly off the page and a story that burns with intensity. Set in Harlem, this searing novel is a poignant and gritty portrait of urban survival of the ghetto’s fittest . . . and most fierce.Silver Jones knows just how cruel life can be. Her mother was chewed up and spit out by its dark side–brutally murdered while turning a trick. Rather than live with her abusive grandmother, Silver runs away. Determined to escape the mean streets, Silver longs for an education. But after running into an old friend, a homeless youth named Chance whom she’d taken under her wing once upon a time, Silver puts her dreams of college on hold. Chance is grown now–and he’s a powerful drug overlord. But underneath the cool exterior is the same innocent boy Silver once loved. As they begin an affair, Silver tries to convince Chance to give up the lethal way of life that ruined both their childhoods. But Chance knows that walking away from the game means having to pay a deadly price. Silver won’t take no for an answer–even if it means delving into a seedy underworld and outscheming some of its most vicious drug-dealers and cold-blooded murderers.“Even in Blue’s world of double-crossing, misogyny, drugs and brutality, an against-all-odds fairy tale can come true.”–Publishers Weekly