Showing results by publisher "Recorded Books" in Urban

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.

Fed up with her married Miami boyfriend, savvy Dulce has no problem stealing his drug-dealer stash and fleeing to the Caribbean. Between her special skills - and an eye for very rich and/or very smokin' men - Dulce stays a hustle ahead of trouble and makes her new life one endless party in Puerto Rico. Until she's caught in Hurricane Maria - and witnesses both the heartbreaking disaster of climate change, and the international vultures who plunder the tragedy for a financial killing, making shady use of relief funds to devastate the island even more....

Fourteen-year-old Rainey Royal—fierce, gifted, and dangerously magnetic—lives in a once-elegant, now-crumbling townhouse with her cultish jazz-pianist father and the women who orbit him. Her mother is gone. Her father's best friend hovers too close. And Rainey, left largely to her own devices, must learn to navigate desire, betrayal, and vulnerability in a city that shimmers with promise and threat. As she gathers friends and misfits into her orbit, Rainey tests the limits of who she can become—sometimes a rebel, sometimes a criminal, always a girl determined to recreate herself.

Mark Helprin, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Oceans and the Stars, Winter's Tale, and A Soldier of the Great War, returns with an unforgettable tale of love, loss, and remembrance set in Brooklyn. High in a subsidized studio apartment, the unnamed 82-year-old narrator of Elegy...

The hip-hop culture on the south side of Chicago links these short stories that are otherwise very different from each other in subject and approach. Stark scenes of gang violence, drug use, and prison life are contrasted with light and humorous stories, and the grittiness of urban life is softened by the preoccupations of adolescence, the chance for romance, or the ordinary moments of family life.

Reinventing herself as Honey Thomas, the founder of a counseling company that helps victimized women and the lover of wealthy Atlanta up-and-comer Grant Hill, Lace St. Thomas finally takes control of her life—until her criminal past catches up to her with a vengeance.

Operated by the same family for more than a century, Midnight Blues may be fun for the locals and the tourists, but as of late, the club hasn’t been fun for its owner, Big Shirley Duncan, or her son Tyrese, descendants of the original proprietors. The pair finds themselves in the middle of a turf war between local politicians, developers, and a ruthless underworld boss, Jean LeBlanc, who is looking to make a name for himself. Afraid for the first time in her life that her family may lose control of The Blues, Big Shirley sends Tyrese to New York to see her brother-in-law, LC Duncan.

This is the end.

Brooklyn is a fierce, no-nonsense woman who is about stacking paper and building a good life. Meeting the handsome Jihad was pure coincidence, but she quickly catches feelings for this smooth-talking brother. A whirlwind romance develops between them, and before you know it, Brooklyn is thrown in a love triangle she was not aware of. Common sense and her Ivy League education couldn’t prepare her for what is to come in her once quiet life.

Cal “Freeway” Moore, a well-known hitta and kingpin, knows all too well that running his New Orleans-based empire comes at a price. “Shoot first and ask questions later” is his motto as he fights to hold down his kingdom and maintain a healthy relationship with the love of his life, Belladonna. They say you keep your friends close but your enemies closer, but what if both are the same—and coming for his spot?

Best friends Sophie, Diamond, and Angel find themselves with their backs against the wall and owing an extremely dangerous man. Short on funds, limited options, and a severe debt hanging over their heads forces the trio to take "getting to the bag" to a new level. While dripping mad sex appeal laced with money schemes, these ruthless vixens hatch a bulletproof plan, and before long—Jack Girlz is born.

Paula Smith Harris has learned that the man she thought was her true love isn't exactly who he vowed to be. After enduring countless affairs, among other things, Paula decides that it is time to move on. However, getting away from her crazy, obsessed husband isn't going to be as easy as she hoped it would be. Meanwhile, Michael is fighting for his right to stay married. With the secrets that have been revealed and the pain that was caused, is there any chance for a reconciliation?

Raphael Waters grew up accustomed to being in a constant state of survival. When he becomes the muscle for known street figure, Rah, he believes his life has taken a turn for the better. That is until a string of unfortunate circumstances leave Rah missing and Raphael grasping for answers in the streets of the concrete jungle—once again. A chance encounter with the intriguing Alex Gatts promises to be the life-changing turnaround he needs.

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.

Cam Girl by Brandie Davis: Lots of women weighing 300 pounds would have a problem with their size and wish for a smaller frame, but not Draya Phillips. She’s content with her weight and has no issues with her outside appearance. It’s the inside she’s at war with. Her mind is her biggest enemy and emotions her personal bully. Draya’s only place of refuge, where her depression is silenced, lies in the world of camming, where virtual viewers cheer on and instruct her sexual activities.

Hidden away near the end of Long Island, New York, is a community where affluent African Americans, their friends, and the wannabes have secretly vacationed for more than 75 years. Unlike the bluffs of Martha’s Vineyard, black folks here own five miles of prime beachfront. With a mix of legacy families, new money, hangers-on, and thirsty developers, drama can never be far behind in a place called...the BLACK HAMPTONS.

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.

Aleksandar and Isobel are siblings and former classical music prodigies, once destined for greatness. As the only Eastern European family growing up on their block on the far southside of Chicago, the pair were inseparable until each was forced to confront the absurdity of tragedy at an early age and abandon their musical ambitions. Now in their twenties, they find themselves encountering ridiculous jobs, unfulfilling romantic relationships, and the outrageousness of ordinary life.

One night at the club changes everything when Truth and I.E. meet the breathtakingly beautiful Tina, and her equally as beautiful godsister, Ka’mirah. It’s in that meeting that everything in their world begins to change in the blink of an eye.

Mike Black and his wife, Shy, are trying, again, to put that life behind them, raise their children, and spend the rest of their lives loving one another in peace. That peace is shattered when Elias Colton, a prominent member of the Black Business Association and close associate of New York City gangster Mike Black, is murdered. The detectives assigned to the case believe that they have a suspect, and the motive is sex, money, or both.