Showing results by narrator "Patricia R Floyd" in All Categories

When 16-year-old Tariq Johnson dies from two gunshot wounds, his community is thrown into an uproar. Tariq was black. The shooter, Jack Franklin, is white. In the aftermath of Tariq's death, everyone has something to say, but no two accounts of the events line up. Day by day, new twists further obscure the truth. Tariq's friends, family, and community struggle to make sense of the tragedy, and to cope with the hole left behind when a life is cut short.

Marisol Rivera barely survived being abused with nowhere to turn. So there's nothing she won't do to keep her Lower East Side women's health clinic open and give disadvantaged women new lives. Running an exclusive escort service for New York City's rich and powerful 1 percent is the perfect way to bankroll her business - not to mention the perfect cover for robbing corrupt CEOs.

Jasmine once tried - and failed - to break up her best friend's marriage. Then she turned to God to improve herself, but couldn't escape her shady past. Is Jasmine finally ready to put her lying and scheming ways behind her for good?

Valerie Wilson Wesley's crime-fighting heroine Tamara Hayle is loved by fans for her sleuthing abilities and her sardonic wit. Juggling several crises at once, Tamara really has her hands full after her young son witnesses a brutal murder.

Essence® best-selling author Gwynne Forster crafts this moving look at a woman’s troubled relationship with her mother. Kendra’s mom Ginny has let her down her whole life. Yet even now, at 33 years old, Kendra can’t say no when her mother asks for help. So, determined to finally distance herself from Ginny’s lies, Kendra starts seeing psychologist Sam Hughes. Through Sam, Kendra finds stability, independence, and even a chance at love. But when her mother returns more desperate than ever, Kendra’s newfound strength is put to the ultimate test.

She' s moved forward, but has she really moved ahead?Social worker Sienna St. James is no stranger to setbacks. As far as she is concerned, her estranged husband set her back and off course over a decade ago. Now, she has reclaimed her sense of hope and purpose, set up a new therapy practice, bought a new home, and has finally moved on. Maybe. When a wealthy, secretive new couple she' s counseling pulls her into their very real life-and-death drama, and her long-lost husband' s whereabouts can no longer be ignored, Sienna realizes the truth about what has kept her emotionally frozen and fragile - it' s fear.

With a drug addict mother and a drug lord father, Aphtan learns how to fend for herself at an early age. Being the princess of an empire has its perks - until her father gets arrested. From stealing clothes and food to committing fraud, Aphtan does what she has to do to take care of her mother and herself. But when her schemes prove problematic, she turns to a new hustle: dancing at Pearl Tongue, the most notorious strip club in Texas.

A finalist for the National Book Award, Lost in the City features 15 poignant short stories, each set in Washington, D.C. Far removed from marble monuments and the offices of rich politicians, the nation's capital that Jones captures is inhabited by self-willed African-Americans struggling to live their lives as best they can.

Best-selling author Benilde Little is acclaimed for her funny and compassionate novels. Her Good Hair was selected as one of the 10 best books of 1996 by the Los Angeles Times. In Who Does She Think She Is? she weaves a rich tale of three generations of women. Twenty-six-year-old Aisha is about to wed a wealthy white man. But when she has second thoughts, she, her mother, and her grandmother confront the universal truths that tie lovers and families together.

Following a steamy European encounter, Tiffany Matthews is now working as a sous chef at wealthy businessman Dominick Rollins’ prestigious L.A. restaurant. Tiffany tries to keep her new boss at arm’s length, but soon she surrenders to his not-so-innocent flirtations. Now things are heating up in the kitchen—and in the bedroom.

Follow the lives of four couples facing infidelity, tragedy, and trauma, leaving us to wonder: What would you withstand for love?

Since they were five years old, Jasmine Cox Larson Bush and Kyla Blake had a bond that could not be broken. They shared secrets, marked milestones, and held each other up through life's adversities. It was a friendship they both thought would last forever. But when Jasmine's jealousy led her to seduce Kyla's husband, Dr. Jefferson Blake, that bond was severed, and their friendship was damaged forever.... Now, 20 years later, a major tragedy brings the two together when Jefferson, in New York for a medical convention, is shot in an attempted robbery.

Tabitha Knicely is overwhelmed with sorrow and exhaustion caring for her beloved great-aunt, whose dementia is getting worse. When her neighbor Marcus Whittington accuses Tabitha of elder neglect, he doesn't realize how his threats to have Aunt Tweet taken away add to Tabitha's pain. Then Marcus gets to know the exuberant elderly lady and sees up close how hard Tabitha is fighting to keep everything together. Tabitha finds herself leaning on Marcus more and more. And he's becoming more than happy to share her burdens.

You just can't plan for this kind of thing. Diane Tate certainly hasn't. She never expected to slowly lose her talented husband to the debilitating effects of early-onset Alzheimer's disease. As a respected family court judge, she's spent her life making tough calls, but when her 68-year-old husband's health worsens and Diane is forced to move him into an assisted living facility, it seems her world is spinning out of control. As Gregory's memory wavers and fades, Diane and her children must reexamine their connection to the man he once was - and learn to love the man he has become.

Janiece is finally settled with her husband, Isaiah, after a whirlwind of drama with her ex-lover, K.P., and his wife. She is ready to live happily ever after, but Isaiah is called back to duty and has to serve eighteen months in Iraq. Janiece is left behind just when K.P. moves back to Chicago. Still not over Janiece, K.P. wants her back. He is shocked to find out that she is now married and expecting her first child, and there is no chance for them to start over. Unable to move on, K.P. decides to try to be a friend, causing drama and turbulence with Janiece's in-laws.

In her most chilling challenge yet, Sienna St. James believes she has come face to face with the terrorist responsible for the carnage in her hometown. Taking him on as a client in her therapy practice may be the only way to prove to herself and authorities that her time-tested instincts are right. Complicating matters are her damaged dreams and broken heart and the need to finally confront the one person whose absence from her life changed everything.

Attorney Tamia has a successful career and a promising relationship with her millionaire boyfriend - but when she meets another man, she questions everything about her life. Meanwhile, shocking secrets turn Troy’s life as a pastor’s wife upside down. And Tasha soon loses control as she discovers the drawbacks of her undeniable desirability.

Johnny Frias has California in his blood. A descendant of the state’s Indigenous people and Spanish settlers, he has Southern California’s forgotten towns and canyons in his soul. He spends his days working for the California Highway Patrol pulling over speeders, ignoring their racist insults, and pushing past the trauma of his rookie year, when he killed a man who was in the midst of assaulting a young woman named Bunny, who proceeded to run away.

Having earned starred reviews and a fervent following for her urban Christian fiction, Leslie J. Sherrod delivers the first in a riveting new series. In Losing Hope, Sienna St. James thinks she’s finally close to getting over her long-lost, globetrotting husband. Or so she thinks. One Tuesday, everything begins to come apart when a succession of strange events - including the mystery surrounding a girl named Hope - brings her past, present, and future into question.

Five years after his beloved wife's death, wealthy Quentin Chambers still hasn't returned to the church or his music ministry. Even his home is now devoid of music, and without his attention, Quentin's five children are getting out of control - until his mother stepsin and hires him a live-in nanny. Montana is pretty, compassionate, church-going, and even has a beautiful singing voice. The children take to her right away, and soon enough Quentin finds his heart opening to faith - and love - once more. But not everyone loves Montana....