I always knew marriage for me would never be to a man of my choosing. As a young girl, I was all too aware of the power I wielded in a world where men were supposed to be the superior gender. To the underworld, I was just a mafia princess. To my family, I was an equal. To my soon-to-be husband? Well, that was yet to be determined. But I prayed Enzo Bianchi was ready for me because I was damn sure prepared for him.

Alicia Powell Torres is sick of her joyless career in a town full of painful memories. She wants to seize life again, and she won't get that by staying still. It's time for a big change, and Brooklyn seems like the right place for a fresh start. But before she can pack everything up, her childhood friend and neighbor Gabo returns to town with sexy smiles, his dinner invites, his collection of steamy romance books, and his big...goals. He also brings memories best left in the past. She struggles to keep him at a distance, but he lights her up like no one else ever could.

Putting herself first is what Jordana Evans knows how to do best. She’s at the top of her game in her career and no longer haunted by memories of her past threatening to steal her joy. In her mind, being in love is a want, not a need, and she’s convinced that she’ll be just fine without it. Having intimate relations with the opposite sex is something she’s willing to do for one night only. But then came along…him.

You met them in the Valentine and Rose series. In this prelude, I will formally introduce you to Malik Anthony Clark, Tristian Neil Clark, and Langston Jamal Clark.

The job offer she expected after taking an unpaid internship at a major shoe company didn’t come through. The friend who’d offered her a place to stay suddenly gave her 48 hours to vacate after a misunderstanding. And when she’s forced to move back to her hometown to live with her father and his mistress-turned-wife, it almost seems impossible for things to get any worse...until she runs into her former best friend, who’s only gotten fine with time.

For Maleek Jones, hockey is his wife. Everything and everyone else is his mistress, an aside. When unexpected responsibilities land in his lap, the balance of his world is disrupted, changing the way he sees everything.

Sloane: Dominic Alexander is my late husband's best friend and the last man that I should want. For the last ten years, he's taken a sick pleasure in making me feel paper thin, like my existence is of no consequence to him at all. But now, things are different. After a drunken night, and a surprisingly sexy act of heroism, he's started to be . . . nice. Treating me like something other than the embodiment of his annoyance, which would be nice if it didn't make me feel things I swore to never feel for another man after my husband died.

Sometimes, you just need someone to help you see things in a different light. A shift in the angle.

This contract is entered into by and between Allegra Malone and Damon Dawson. The term of this agreement shall begin immediately and continue through its termination date of never. The terms are as follows: Find the bright side when your best friend (the woman you’ve secretly been in love with for 10+ years) finds an engagement ring in her live-in boyfriend’s gym bag.

When souls are tied, it's never goodbye. A boy I was that summer evening I met you, pulling your belongings out of the truck and into your new home. I knew it was love then. A whole man I was the day that you met me at the altar and agreed to love me until death do us part. A shell of a man I've become since it did, unable to move on, move forward, or progress in any way until I discovered that not even death was permanent enough to keep us apart. A better man I'm destined to be, knowing that, at some capacity, you're still with me. Our love is one that never dies.

Ashira, a belle from the suburbs, is the wealthy acting CEO of her father’s booming building firm. That's when she’s not the dancer on the Gram and TikTok, dating the latest Black Hollywood shooting star. To her, Jas, a construction laborer, is a walking conundrum. He’s fruitlessly ambitious yet steadfast in his spiritual convictions. He’s enigmatic, well-read, regimented, and poor. Oh, and a felon. An incredibly disarming parolee who wants no connection to her. Until he does.

All Jerzey wanted was a family of her own. After things don't work out with her ex-husband, she takes matters into her own hands. Being a foster mom isn't easy, but having her best friend by her side to help makes it a little easier. That is, until the two blur lines and suddenly a friendship isn't enough.

Best friends? With a celebrity? Impossible. That's how Sesali feels after a chance encounter with super producer Dash Dean. His offer of friendship has to be a smoke screen for an ulterior motive. Besides, she already has best friends, and one of them has staked a claim on Dash.

From the moment his eyes met hers, there was something. Time stood still, the world around them vanished, and electricity... instant electricity. Immediately, she owned him in an inexplicable way he couldn’t quite understand. He couldn't escape her. Not in his dreams. And soon, not even in his reality. He was the man that made her soar. There was nothing in the world she wanted more than him. Absolutely nothing. His touch made her levitate. When she was with him, she was limitless. He felt like home.

Jaxon Daniels was supposed to be my forever. I've loved him since I was thirteen years old, and like a foolish little girl, I believed that our love would carry us through everything. Every challenge. Every obstacle. Every heartbreak. But that was before I knew anything about pain and the challenge of overcoming crushing disappointment. Before I knew that loving someone doesn't always mean you get to have them, sometimes it means you have to let them go. Now, thanks to my sister marrying his brother at a romantic resort in Mexico, he's back in my orbit.

Alicia Powell Torres is sick of her joyless career in a town full of painful memories. She wants to seize life again, and she won't get that by staying still. It's time for a big change, and Brooklyn seems like the right place for a fresh start. But before she can pack everything up, her childhood friend and neighbor Gabo returns to town with sexy smiles, his dinner invites, his collection of steamy romance books, and his big...goals. He also brings memories best left in the past. She struggles to keep him at a distance, but he lights her up like no one else ever could.

He's an Oxonian, licensed therapist, and man of faith, preparing to take over the largest Pentecostal church in New York. She's an around-the-way girl from Harlem, struggling with three jobs and school to make ends meet for so many.

Jardel has a structured life, a successful career, and a fine woman beside him. Solange Rivera is everything he wished for, but he's no Prince Charming. Betting it all on her seems to be the answer to all his troubles, but Solange has other plans. When Solange refuses Jardel’s vision for the future, there is nothing left but to prove to her that they are meant to be together. By any means necessary. Even if it takes a little help from his friends.

What happens when gang loyalty is tried by a generation of children who are loyal to a fault? Savion Saint and Gianna Lewis fall into a situation and quickly realize that everything they’ve been taught can be defied with one act of love. With Savion Saint naturally filling into the shoes of his late father and Gianna Lewis being the gateway to all the answers he has, they learn that everything isn’t black and white. Can the love that Savion and Gianna found blossom while being on opposite sides of the tracks? Take the ride with them and find out.

For the last sixteen years, Trinidad Velasquez has done everything right. Raised her twin sons on her own, worked her butt off and created a stable life. But Trinidad is done waiting for a happy ending to show up at her door, and when her current boyfriend proposes, she can’t help but wonder if, at her age, love should be practical, not butterflies and heart-racing chemistry. But then her teenage sons trick her into a Caribbean Carnival vacation. And she finds herself staying with the one guy who’s always revved her engine…even if he’s a decade south of her dating range.

Genevieve Raymond was born an overachiever. After opening a hot new hotel chain location in Panama, she’s on track for a major promotion. But first, she desperately needs a break, even if her overbearing mother doesn’t approve. For two glorious weeks, Gen’s giving herself permission to explore the beautiful beaches of Colón—and the stimulating attraction she shares with her sexy-as-hell driver, Adrián Nicolas.

Alistair Duston is for the streets of Leakston, Mississippi. That means nothing when he and his family owned them, literally. As heir to the Duston Dynasty, he never had to worry about anything but his horses, cattle, and dogs. How things can change in the bling of a signed contract. When he is forced into an impossible position, will he remain faithful to the streets or commit to one that might be able to give him the world?

I wasn't supposed to take on any new clients. All my current couples were already a handful. A marriage therapist with a failing marriage. If only they knew. That is until Kami Lynn walked into my office without her husband. I only treated couples. I was supposed to help save her marriage, instead I was the main reason for its destruction. I did everything the way I was supposed to. I graduated college. Went straight into my career. Got married and had a few crotch goblins and even accepted an outside baby for that man.

Rule #1: No fraternizing. That was the main rule you had to follow if you wanted to stay employed at Danger Inc. For four years, Dymon Danger never worried about breaking that rule until the day his new assistant, Quinci Everly, walked in his office. Withstanding Dymon’s tactics to make her quit, he realizes that neither Quinci nor his intrusive thoughts were going anywhere anytime soon.

When souls are tied, it's never goodbye. A boy I was that summer evening I met you, pulling your belongings out of the truck and into your new home. I knew it was love then. A whole man I was the day that you met me at the altar and agreed to love me until death do us part. A shell of a man I've become since it did, unable to move on, move forward, or progress in any way until I discovered that not even death was permanent enough to keep us apart. A better man I'm destined to be, knowing that, at some capacity, you're still with me. Our love is one that never dies.

Megatron Loric Manfield is the definition of perfect imperfection. He is not scared to love—he just knows that when it comes along, he wants it to be God-sent. When the right woman comes along, he will fall in line to receive his favor. Ruth Lindsay Gordon is saved, sheltered, and suffocated. Being a preacher’s kid is never easy and even harder when the preacher sometimes references himself more than the God he claims to serve. Desperately, she wants to be released from the hold that is her father, so she prays for God to send her Boaz. They say to be careful what you pray for.

Nia Simone Bijou is a woman who has it all - and is driven by the desire for more. Born in Trinidad, reared in Los Angeles, living in Atlanta, Nia is a writer, a thinker, and a woman in conflict. She's dealing with two sides of her Gemini self, feeling as if there are two women living inside her, both struggling for domination.

Keyara Henderson's life takes an unexpected turn when more than half of her vision deteriorates due to diabetes. In an effort to regain her independence, Keyara opts to attend Georgia Southern University, a prestigious university with a drive long enough to prevent her from having anyone to fall back on. Although he has reservations, Keyara's father relents under two conditions: one being that she must stay in an assisted-living facility and the other requiring her to employ a chauffeur.

Putting herself first is what Jordana Evans knows how to do best. She’s at the top of her game in her career and no longer haunted by memories of her past threatening to steal her joy. In her mind, being in love is a want, not a need, and she’s convinced that she’ll be just fine without it. Having intimate relations with the opposite sex is something she’s willing to do for one night only. But then came along…him.

Protection. Monroe Iris has lived her entire life seeking it. She longs to have a safe space to fall in love—to be vulnerable. She's surrounded by things and people that were put in place to fill her with security but has none. Her entire life has been molded around being the perfect wife for an imperfect man. She's stuck following a family tradition that doesn't mean her well, without anyone in her corner to save her.