Showing results for "New York" in African American

King David was determined to claw his way out of the mean streets of New York City any way he could. It didn't matter if that meant battering and robbing old people, conning the innocent, or even killing a kid's mother. Lacing cocaine with battery acid for revenge was acceptable, too. Ultimately, it meant leaving town. Now King's made it big and made his way back, flush with cash and a Cadillac. But he hasn't been forgotten - or forgiven. And when payback time hits, he's only got one wish - not to die alone.

While most young people are just getting their footing in life, 24-year-old Bryshon "Boogie" Tolliver is already being groomed to be a boss by his father, Barry Tolliver. At first, he's not so sure he wants to take his father's place in the family business. He has dreams of being the most prominent chef in New York. However, things change when Barry is murdered in cold blood and everything he built is left at Boogie's feet. Gone are those chef dreams, replaced with a new resolve to prove himself worthy of upholding his father's legacy.

In the 1970s, Frank Lucas was the king of the Harlem drug trade, bringing in over a million dollars a day. He lived a glamorous life, hobnobbing with athletes, musicians, and politicians, but Lucas was a ruthless gangster. He was notorious for using the coffins of dead GIs to smuggle heroin into the United States, and, before being sentenced to 70 years in prison, he played a major role in the near death of New York City.

Brown Girls dives deep into the lives of a group of young women of colour growing up in Queens, New York. Here, streets echo with many languages, subways rumble above dollar stores and the briny scent of the ocean wafts in from Rockaway Beach. Here, girls like Nadira, Gabby, Naz, Trish, Angelique, and many others, struggle to reconcile their immigrant backgrounds with the American culture they come of age in. Here, they become friends for life. Or so they vow.

After being released from a five-year prison sentence for an armed robbery gone sideways, Tarzan Brixton makes a vow to his dying mother to change his ways. With his mother’s medical bills piling up, the temptation of the criminal life becomes too real once again. His solution is to escape the rough streets of New York for the equally ruthless beaches of Kingston, Jamaica. He soon creates a drug-running empire while falling in love with a beautiful Jamaican woman named Maya.

According to Max Disher, an ambitious young black man in 1930s New York, someone of his race has only three alternatives: "Get out, get white, or get along." Incapable of getting out and unhappy with getting along, Max leaps at the remaining possibility. Thanks to a certain Dr. Junius Crookman and his mysterious process, Max and other eager clients develop bleached skin that permits them to enter previously forbidden territory. What they discover in white society, however, gives them second thoughts.

Amidst the whir of city life, a girl from Harlem is drawn into the glittering underworld of Manhattan, where she’s hired to use her knives to strike fear amongst its most dangerous denizens. But the ghosts from her past are always by her side - and history has appeared on her doorstep to threaten the people she loves most. Can one woman ever sacrifice enough to save an entire community? Trouble the Saints is a dazzling, daring novel - a magical love story, a compelling chronicle of interracial tension, and an altogether brilliant and deeply American saga.

Abandoned as an infant and raised by protective, if secretive, Italian parents, Carlotta has never quite fit in her own life as the only Black person in her neighborhood. Even when she ventures to Harlem, where jazz, community, and a man’s love await her, she doesn’t feel fully at home. But when the dynamics in her adoptive family shift, and her role grows more tenuous, Carlotta has to decide where she belongs—no matter the threats or the price that must be paid.

“First day at a new job and I slept with the CEO, oops!” When Brianna Evers came to New York City to start a new job she planned to keep a low profile. But after meeting a charming man who offered to take her for a drink she found that one thing soon led to another. And before they knew it, the two of them were in bed enjoying a steamy night of passion. A night so good that Brianna never wanted it to end. The perfect naughty way to start a new life in the big apple! However, the next morning Brianna made a startling discovery.

Grimace is a homeless man on a holy mission to free Black Americans from emotional slavery. His empty soda cans told him as much. Then he meets Kim, a transgender runaway who joins Grimace on his heroic quest. Is Grimace receiving aluminum missives from the gods, or is he a madman? Kim will find out soon enough on a strange journey they’ve been destined to share.

C. N. Phillips returns with the next tale in the saga of five crime families that run the streets of New York’s five boroughs. The uneasy alliance they once shared has been compromised, and now no one is truly safe from retribution. Caesar knew the peace he started had an expiration date, but he never thought the end would be so explosive. With the Pact completely dissolved and the Chinese angered beyond measure at the loss of their leader, they want Boogie’s head bloody and served on a stick. Caesar is willing to protect him at all costs.

Through the darkest tunnel comes the light, but for Caesar King, there is nothing but more darkness on the other side. After the failed attempt on his life, he is afraid that the Pact of the Five Families is no more. He can trust nobody. Whoever murdered Barry is now aiming for Caesar's crown, and the only way to flush them out and figure out who's responsible is to go to war...with everybody.

With death nipping at his neck like cold in the winter, Lorenzo “Zo” Alverez is faced with the inevitable fate of stepping into his late father’s shoes. With enemies coming at him from all sides, Zo doesn’t know who he can trust. But when the light at the end of the tunnel comes in the form of family, he discovers secrets about his father that he never knew. These secrets threaten to pull him away from the other powerful families in New York and people that would risk their lives for his.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and Caesar King feels weighted to the ground. The Five Families are in complete disarray, and Caesar realizes too late that stepping down was the wrong thing to do. It’s up to him to make the puzzle whole again. But when another war comes to their doorsteps and a past mistake comes back for blood, death rips through the boroughs like a tornado. In the end, there might not be any pieces left to put back together.

Myleena Ashik has always lived a privileged but sheltered life. Complete with guards and butlers at her beck and call, she’s never had to lift a finger. Some would say she was living the good life, but to her, it was more like a prison. Myleena dreamed of one day being free, but what she didn’t know was the price that came with freedom. One tragic night causes her world to come crashing down and she has to flee if she wants to live.

Billionaire celebrity clients, anything-goes erotic nights, seductive betrayals—Desdemona Dean couldn’t wait to leave the high-end prostitution game behind. Now settled down with the only man she’s ever loved, Desi is getting the chances her shattered childhood denied her—and making her life truly her own. Until a basketball superstar publicly credits Madam X’s unmatched sexual services for his astonishing career. Add an anonymous tip to the police—and suddenly Desi is in the center of a social and tabloid media firestorm.

Sixteen-year-old Nostalgia Richardson has lived all her life in the rural township of Spivey’s Grove, South Carolina, but that has not stopped her from dreaming of running away to Harlem to become a showgirl at the world famous Cotton Club. One night, when she comes home from work, she finds her father in the company of Noah Holdtstaff, the most notorious bootlegger in town. Later, Nostalgia’s 14-year-old sister, Lily, divulges their father’s plans to marry her off to the 49-year-old Noah.

Tamara Hayle hat ihren Job als Polizistin an den Nagel gehängt, ihrem Ehemann DeWayne den Laufpass gegeben und schlägt sich alleine als Privatdetektivin auf dem harten Pflaster von Newark, New Jersey, durch. Doch DeWayne, Vater ihres Teenagersohnes Jamal, meldet sich spätestens, wenn er in Schwierigkeiten ist. Terrence, sein Sohn aus einer anderen Beziehung, ist ums Leben gekommen. Nun fürchtet Tamara um ihr eigenes Kind: "Wenn wir abwarteten, bis die Polizei die Sache in die Hand nahm, würde Jamal sterben."

After almost dying at the hands of her sister, Renee has made the dangerous decision to step down and give Carmen her empire to chase after happiness. The ice queen has finally melted, and the people closest to her are not happy with her transformation. When the road to happiness turns jagged and secrets are uncovered, Renee is forced to make decisions that can alter everyone’s lives.

It's 1969 when 15-year-old Huey Fairchild begins high school at Claremont Prep, one of New York City's most prestigious boys' schools. His mother had uprooted her family from their small hometown of Akersburg, Georgia, a few years earlier, leaving behind Huey's white father and the racial unrest that ran deeper than the Chattahoochee River. But for our sharp-tongued protagonist, forgetting the past is easier said than done. At Claremont, where the only other nonwhite person is the janitor, Huey quickly realizes that racism can lurk beneath even the nicest school uniform. After a momentary slip of his temper, Huey finds himself facing legal charges.