Raised in complete poverty, 14-year-old Banks Wales' world is rocked when his mother is murdered. If not for his best friend Mason, the son of a kingpin, Banks would be alone. One rich, the other poor, the two do their best to stay alive and navigate the murderous streets of Baltimore. There's one problem. Banks' father sees the young king's affluent lifestyle as a reminder that he is lacking as a father and a man. So he makes a vicious move. One that puts his and Banks' life in extreme danger.

On the opening night of his restaurant, bad boy Tye Gates discovers a diary moments after being unfaithful to his fiancée. Trying to identify its owner, he delves into the words of a woman who considers herself unattractive. Before long, he neglects his own life, which is already showing signs of weakness. Soon, reading the diary becomes the perfect excuse to escape his responsibilities. Besides, the ugly girl’s life appears way more explosive than his own.

After Promise’s mother dies in a tragic car accident, it leaves a void in Promise’s life that she is yearning to fill. This titular novel finds Promise spiraling into a life of crime and drug affiliation by the company she chooses to keep. Also coping with abandonment and a lifelong broken commitment from her biological father, Promise ultimately has two goals: to graduate from high school and to be loved.

After the arrest of Chancellor King and the murder of his eldest son and heir, Ghost, the King family and the streets of New York City are thrown into chaos. Chancellor’s older brother, Chapman, takes the opportunity to usurp the crown, breaking the line of succession and stepping over his nephew Shadow. Chapman’s first act as the new king is to banish what remains of his broken family, branding them enemies of the crown. Stripped of all wealth and power, Maureen King places a seemingly impossible task on the shoulders of Shadow.

A tragic beginning to life led Jah and Shauka Disciple to homelessness and poverty at such a young age that they grew into men before their time. Yet, they turned their hunger, abandonment, and suffering into diamonds, mansions, and power. The natural hustler instinct they’d inherited from their father was their driving force. Yet, this story starts when Messiah turns 18 and is finally freed from his adoptive parents. Reluctantly, he leaves his twin sister behind as he, Jah, and Shauka run the streets and break yearning hearts along the way.

The day Lisara Compton caught her husband in a rather compromising position changed her life in a way neither she nor her sons ever saw coming. Realizing too late that divorcing him would cause a domino effect of turmoil, she is now forced into an uncomfortable life that she can't seem to stay afloat in. With her eldest son acting out and a nonexistent ex-husband, Lisara feels things can't get any worse. That's until her ex betrays her and their son in a way that leaves her in need like never before. It seems she just can't catch a break, until she meets him.

Legacy, a former hustler turned successful security entrepreneur, has fought his demons specifically to reclaim his life, family, and Bless. No matter the time that has passed, his love for and obsession with Bless never wavered. But old wounds keep him longing for her from afar. Bless, a resilient and devoted mother, has battled her own fears and doubts. She stood by Legacy’s side through his darkest moments. But that loyalty weighed so heavily on her that she had to walk away from the man she will forever crave.

Myomi Ford has been unlucky in love since she experienced her first crush. Although in a new relationship, she has an unsettling feeling that her current man Xion is just like the others. But without proof, she is left wondering, suspecting, and predicting, which has naturally caused a rift in her relationship. All the beauty has ever wished for was for someone to be about her and love her as deeply as she loved them. At the moment, however, that seems impossible to find.

The Pretty Kings became the most notorious drug lords in the United States. This is how their reign begins. Bambi and her sisters in law have it all. They are married to brothers of the highly respected Kennedy family, rich and hopelessly in love. As promised, the Kennedy Kings decide to get out of the drug game, after, a one hundred million dollar meeting with The Russians, whom they never met personally. First, the Kings have to return home from LA. But, while in a casino, something so devastating occurs, which their wives witness via video calling that changes the wives lives forever.

He's every woman's dream. Thanks to his humble beginnings, he's edgy, outspoken, and determined to win. Holt is also the highest-paid wide receiver in the league and well worth the money he's paid. Not only is he worth millions, but he's also physical perfection. That alone has every woman willing to do any and everything he asks. Well… every woman except one, Sutton Kelly.

Juleena always knew she wanted to go away to college; she just didn't know it would be in New York. That was until she met and fell in love with her boyfriend, Mooski, a few summers ago. Juleena knew she wanted to be close to him, so she applied to every college possible in the tri-state area just so she could be close to him. Ju's plan was to always attend NYU, so when she got accepted into Fordham University, she felt herself straying from her life's path. Juleena thought moving to New York would make her and Mooski closer. Instead, the two of them couldn't be further apart.

Parish “Pain” Wells is a man freshly reintroduced to society, after serving time in state prison. Prior to his fall, Pain had been a heist man who showed the promise of someone who could go on to be a legend. His trajectory changed on the night he had made the mistake of accepting a ride from a friend, and found himself behind bars for the one crime he hadn’t committed. Several years later, Pain returns home to a world that wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire. The only one who still remains in his corner is his ailing grandmother.

Law grew up in the trenches. Hustling since the age of 12, his focus was making life better for his mother and brother. Finding intimate love was never a priority because he didn’t have many examples of that around him. Instead, he was taught to focus on getting money, not finding the one. Yet upon seeing her, Zuri pulled something out of Law that was foreign to him. Though he had been with his girlfriend, Whitney, for a long, exhausting decade, he had never experienced a woman taking his heart so mercilessly.

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.

Travel back to a small Southern town where, before there was Duncan Motors, there were the Duncan brothers: Louis, aka Sweet Lou, a lover of ladies and life and a man you did not want to cross; Lawrence, aka Larry, a screw-up as attracted to trouble as it was to him; and Lavernius, better known as LC, the soft-spoken college boy who simply wanted to sell cars.

Two little girls stand with their heads bowed in my living room. I’m told they’re my granddaughters. Daisy is nine, and Alice seven. Daisy is the spitting image of her mother. This is the first time I’ve met them since my daughter and I fell out after she married that waste of space, Vince. They’ve come to live with me because their mother — my daughter — was murdered. In her own home while they slept close by. I think Vince killed her. But the police can’t prove it. I’ve always known he was no good. He treated my daughter like dirt. I said he’d cheat on her — but she wouldn’t listen.

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of best-selling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read.

Who is Audrey Hoedemaker? It's a question her sister Maureen has heard more times than she can count, and she doesn't know what the short answer would be. Little sister, troubled teen, backpacker, musical theatre coach, con artist, childcare worker. Murderer. A tragic, traumatic childhood casts a long shadow on the Hoedemaker sisters. Maureen has worked hard to move beyond the violence of the past and build a good, honest life for herself. Audrey, however, just can't seem to do the same, careening from one state of chaos to another.

After the killing of a prominent mob lawyer, NYPD homicide detectives Jacob Jackson and Caitlin Grimes start receive chilling, written “rules” for how to commit the perfect murder. "Rule number one for the perfect murder: Evidence is your enemy. Leave none behind." Jackson (Reid Scott) and Grimes (Cobie Smulders) race to find the killer, setting them on a collision course with the city’s crime underbelly, and a perpetrator who seems happy to toy with them. “Rule number two. No crimes of passion. The perfect murder is always business, never pleasure.”

Kidnappers grabbed Jenna in broad daylight, right in front of her children and their horrified classmates. Her family was issued an insane ransom demand: $25 million in cash and jewels, payable by the end of the school day, otherwise they’ll never see her again. As Jenna’s mother scrambles to gather the money, detectives Mo Butler and George Ortega follow the trail of the kidnappers, which will lead them through a sordid landscape of jealous lovers, broken dreamers, and twisted schemers. But every second counts, and there’s one thing Jenna Wade doesn’t have: very much time.