Wearing her shades, a black Stetson, and snakeskin cowboy boots, security agent Maxine ""Max"" Blake is the baddest thing walking. Ex-marine, ex-cop, and a whole lotta 'tude, Max doesn't have time for anything but her job. Her latest assignment: to protect Dr. Adam Gary. Her problem: he doesn't want her there.Adam wants to focus on his work, not to be distracted by this tall, sexy woman. A foiled kidnapping attempt may have forced him to take an undercover...

With smoking hot hits like Lies Lovers Tell and What Love Tastes Like to her credit, Zuri Day has built a considerable fanbase for her scorching contemporary romances. When 40-year-old teacher Gwen Smith travels home to care for her sick mother, she meets a potential new mate who makes her head spin. A "black Fabio," 26-year-old Ransom Blake knows his way around the bedroom-and he's about to take Gwen back to school for some lust lessons. ". you'll be rooting for their happily ever after ....

A stunning debut novel from Jesmyn Ward, Where the Line Bleeds is a rich tale of twins raised by their grandmother in a stiflingly poor rural community on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Upon graduating from high school, growing tensions between brothers Joshua and Christophe test their loyalties-and a violent altercation forever changes their lives.

Blackboard bestselling author Beverly Jenkins launches her first contemporary romantic suspense with this exciting sizzler. Sparks fly when Mykal Chandler, the head of a covert government agency, fights to protect the woman he has fallen in love with.Sarita Grayson is desperate. That’s the only explanation for her late night rendezvous with a bag of stolen diamonds. But then a handsome stranger stands between her and a clean getaway. In the struggle for freedom, sh...

The recipient of a Coretta Scott King Book Award Author Honor, Andrea Davis Pinkney is the popular author of numerous picture books and young adult novels. Sit-In recounts the historic events of 1960, when four black college students attempted to integrate a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. ". powerful, elemental, and historic story of those who stood up to oppressive authority and changed the world."-Booklist, starred review

In 1957, Melba Beals was one of the nine African American students chosen to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. But her story of overcoming didn’t start—or end—there.While her white schoolmates were planning their senior prom, Melba was facing the business end of a double-barreled shotgun, being threatened with lynching by rope-carrying tormentors, and learning how to outrun white supremacists who were ready to kill her rather than sit beside her in a classroom...

Brought to you by Penguin.Young and confident, with a swagger in her step, Sugar arrives in the small southern town of Bigelow with the hope of starting over. Soon Bigelow is alight with gossip and suspicion, and Sugar fears she can't hide from her past. Until, that is, she meets Pearl, her next-door neighbour. Over sweet-potato pie, an unlikely friendship begins, transforming both women's lives - and the life of an entire town.Vividly bringing 1950s Deep S...

Taut free verse tells the little-known story of the first contraband camp of the Civil War--seen by some historians as the "beginning of the end of slavery in America." One night in 1861, three escaped slaves made their way from the Confederate line to a Union-held fort. The runaways were declared "contraband of war" and granted protection. As word spread, thousands of runaway slaves poured into the fort, seeking their freedom. These "contrabands" made a home for themselves, building the f...

Shante is an internationally known conference speaker and bestselling author who just received the shock of her life. Deandrea is an aggressive psychologist with two doctoral degrees who is struggling to keep her family together with her husband' s busy schedule. Misha is a soft-spoken teacher who is in a battle to keep her child from being taken from her. All of them are facing challenges in their marriages and ministries. After a chance meeting at a First Ladies' conference, secrets of t...

"McKinney-Whetstone uses her gift for language to weave a love story that spans more than twenty years and three lives. … Blues Dancing **is a novel well worth curling up with a long winter’s night."—**EssenceFrom acclaimed writer Diane McKinney-Whetstone, a richly spun tale of love and passion, betrayal, redemption, and faith, set in contemporary Philadelphia.My aunt says if you smell...

Carl Weber is an Essence best-selling author and recipient of the African-American Bookseller of the Year Award. His stories are intoxicating dramas with smart, sexy characters. The Preacher's Son captivates with all the intensity expected of a Weber novel. Bishop T.K. Wilson is a pillar of the community, pastor of the largest African- American church in Queens, NY, and has always tended to the needy. Running for borough president, he faces one shocking revelation after another that could ...

With heart-stopping stories by Zane, Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, Joy M. Copeland, Robert Fleming, Terence Taylor, Francine Lewis, Brandon Massey, and 12 other established and up-and-coming writers, Dark Dreams is a must-have contemporary anthology of supernatural tales for any collection. ". a volume whose universal human themes will resonate with many readers."-Publishers Weekly