Showing results by narrator "Carmen Jones" in All Categories

Patrice McClendon wants to create a signature scent for her family's aromatherapy and day spa this Valentine's Day. The holiday is crucial for the family business, even if Patrice has never been a hearts and flowers kind of girl. But creating the fragrance isn't easy, and Patrice needs help. She gets that and more when she meets successful perfumer Jacques Germain.

Birdie Boucher is a woman who lives her life in the shadows of her infamous mother. A powerful voodoo priestess of the south who uses magic to wreak havoc on the lives of anyone who gets in her way. And any woman she believes is the lover of her philandering husband.

Dismissed not only explains what so many people feel so profoundly—that the system is working against them. It also reveals what health-care practitioners, patients, and society in general can do to make it right.

Until now, you've only heard one side of the story: how slavery began, and how America split itself in two to end it. Here's the true story of America from the African American perspective. From the moment Africans were first brought to the shores of the United States, they had a hand in shaping...

Langston Keith has been my brother's best friend for years, and he's always seen me as the competition. We're both race horse owners, and there's no way I'm letting Langston get that trophy. When my parents threaten to set me up in an arranged marriage with a guy in India, I beg Langston to fake date me to get them off my back. He agrees, and all goes well until the romance starts to feel real.

The dragon Queen has awakened from her slumber and she has her eyes set on one thing. During the century of her absence, her people failed to find the egg that was stolen from her. The Queen will do whatever it takes to get her egg back and she'll cut down anyone who tries to stand in her way. Including her own kind. Now, our Novian crew, those working to keep their world in balance, must come together in hopes of finding a way to appease the dragon Queen. But what they don't know is that there is more at play.

A thrilling gothic horror novel about biracial twin sisters separated at birth, perfect for fans of Lovecraft Country and The Vanishing Half As infants, twin sisters Charlie Yates and Magnolia Heathwood were secretly separated after the brutal lynching of their parents, who died for loving...

Celebrities are photographed nursing in public, yet breastfeeding mothers are asked to cover up in malls and on airplanes. Breastfeeding is a private act, yet everyone has an opinion about it. How did feeding our babies get so complicated? Journalist and infant health advocate Kimberly Seals Allers breaks breastfeeding out of the realm of "personal choice" and shows our broader connection to an industrialized food system that begins at birth, the fallout of feminist ideals, and the federal policies that are far from family friendly.

The linked stories in Mama Said are set in Louisville, Kentucky, a city with a rich history steeped in tobacco, bourbon, and gambling, indulgences that can quickly become gripping and destructive vices. Set amid the tail end of the crack epidemic and the rise of the opioid crisis, Mama Said evokes Black family life in all its complexity, following JayLynn, along with her cousins Zaria and Angel, as they come of age struggling against their mothers' drug addictions.

“Filled with deep emotion and intense spark, Marcella Bell brings grit, spark and brilliance to western romance! Marcella Bell is one to watch!”—Maisey Yates, New York Times bestselling author The world watches on as reality TV meets rodeo in this competition like no other. In front of the...

Serafina has a secret dream. She wants to go to school and become a doctor with her best friend, Julie Marie. But in their rural village outside Port-au-Prince, Haiti, many obstacles stand in Serafina's way - little money, never-ending chores, and Manman's worries. More powerful even than all of these are the heavy rains and the shaking earth that test Serafina's resolve in ways she never dreamed. At once heartbreaking and hopeful, this exquisitely crafted story will leave a lasting impression on your heart.

From a vivid portrait of her childhood in 1960s Detroit to her leadership of one of the world’s largest philanthropic institutions, La June shares her full-circle, American story—a coming-of-age journey where she gains a firsthand understanding of how systemic racism prevents our children and communities from thriving and learns about the transformative role healing can play in helping all of us transcend the legacy of racial inequity.

The neighborhood of Oleander Court is the poster child for suburban bliss. The residents compare lawns beautified by hired help. They monitor home values. They toss perfect furniture because they wanted tapioca, not beige. But when a string of murders rips through the neighborhood, suspicions abound as new secrets come to light. And as more and more bodies are taken away, it becomes clear that the killer is strategically selecting each and every victim, picking off the shallowest, most wasteful of the lot in spectacular fashion and leaving everyone in the neighborhood to wonder Who’s next?

I see ghosts. They’re everywhere. They are the victims of violent crimes whose cases haven’t been solved. Once they realize I can see them, they beg me to find justice for them so they can rest. Except one. My sister, Debra. She was ten and I was six when we were kidnapped. The monster held us for a week and did horrible things to her before we tried to make our escape. He caught us and killed my sister brutally. I barely survived. That was when the ghosts came. Our case was never solved so Deb became my constant companion. My secret solace and best friend.

Beginning with a jaw-dropping rumination on a centuries-old painting featuring a white man with a Black man's leg surgically attached (with the expired Black leg-donor in the foreground), contracts law scholar and celebrated journalist Patricia J. Williams uses the lens of the law to take on core questions of identity, ethics, and race.

Preslaysa Williams, author of the “emotionally stirring debut” A Lowcountry Bride (Oprah Daily), returns to the Lowcountry with a heartwarming story about a second chance romance. It was supposed to be the happiest day of Jaslene Simmons’ life, the day she’d say “I do” to Marcus...

"I absolutely adore this book...love story begins slow—like a delicious lowcountry boil—but heats up to the perfect ending." --Kathleen Y’Barbo, bestselling author of The Black Midnight A heartwarming Avon debut of love, forgiveness, and new beginnings set in the beautiful South Carolina...

When a young woman, Sarah Connelly, is found murdered in her home in New York’s elite Sleepy Point suburb, it triggers questions about the neighbor who discovered the body, Audrey Hughes. This kind of attention is the last thing Audrey wants. Moving to Sleepy Point was supposed to provide her with a new quiet start after a trauma left her with incurable blindness. But the other reason she settled next door to Sarah was to spy on her.

A plumber cuts into a wall at an old house searching for the source of a leak. Instead, he uncovers a gruesome sight—a woman’s mummified body tied onto a chair. How long has she been there? Months? Years? Decades? Who is she? Will Texas Ranger Sarah Armstrong be able to interpret the strange symbols surrounding the body to find the woman’s killer? Is this baffling case tied to one out of Sarah’s past, unfinished business that still haunts her nightmares?

What are the politics of nature? Who owns it, where is it, what role does it play in our lives? Does it need to be tamed? Are we ourselves natural? In A Darker Wilderness, a constellation of luminary writers reflect on the significance of nature in their lived experience and on the role of nature in the lives of Black folks in the United States. Each of these essays engages with a single archival object, whether directly or obliquely, exploring stories spanning hundreds of years and thousands of miles, traveling from roots to space and finding rich Blackness everywhere.