Download or read book D Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding written by Chencia C. Higgins and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORK TIMES BEST ROMANCE OF 2022 A TODAY SHOW BEST ROMANCE PICK FROM NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR JASMINE GUILLORY D’Vaughn and Kris have six weeks to plan their dream wedding. Their whole relationship is fake. Instant I Do could be Kris Zavala’s big break. She’s right on the cusp of really making it as an influencer, so a stint on reality TV is the perfect chance to elevate her brand. And $100,000 wouldn’t hurt, either. D’Vaughn Miller is just trying to break out of her shell. She’s sort of neglected to come out to her mom for years, so a big splashy fake wedding is just the excuse she needs. All they have to do is convince their friends and family they’re getting married in six weeks. If anyone guesses they’re not for real, they’re out. Selling their chemistry on camera is surprisingly easy, and it’s still there when no one else is watching, which is an unexpected bonus. Winning this competition is going to be a piece of wedding cake. But each week of the competition brings new challenges, and soon the prize money’s not the only thing at stake. A reality show isn’t the best place to create a solid foundation, and their fake wedding might just derail their relationship before it even starts. Carina Adores is home to romantic love stories where LGBTQ+ characters find their happily-ever-afters.

Download or read book Janine His True Alpha written by Chencia C. Higgins and published by Chencia C. Higgins. This book was released on 2018-12-07 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Janine was raised to be a passive and obedient wolf shifter and to always put the will of The Elders before her own—a will that she never questioned until the one day she was instructed to become the mate of a man she didn’t love and who didn’t love her. Fed up with rules and obligations, she left everything she knew behind and headed out west. She arrived in West Texas with the expectation of getting a fresh start as a new woman with no one to answer to but herself. What she didn’t expect was to discover secrets big enough to tilt her world, and people she would be willing to kill for because of them. Langston always knew he would be the next True Alpha of his pack, but when his father died, Langston’s premature promotion had him unsure about his path. With the weight of the pack on his shoulders and a thriving urban ranching community in West Texas to oversee, the last thing on Langston’s mind is finding a mate. Of course, trouble always finds you when you’re not looking for it and in blows a woman who shakes up his pack and knocks him off his feet. Her zeal amazes him and soon the pull between them is undeniable. Will succumbing to the desires of his wolf prove to be the right move or turn out to be fruitless?

Download or read book Speak No Evil written by Uzodinma Iweala and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-03-06 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Gold Nautilus Award for Fiction | A Lambda Literary Award Finalist | A Barbara Gittings Literature Award Finalist |One of Bustle’s and Paste’s Most Anticipated Fiction Books of the Year “Speak No Evil is the rarest of novels: the one you start out just to read, then end up sinking so deeply into it, seeing yourself so clearly in it, that the novel starts reading you.” — Marlon James, Booker Award-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings In the tradition of Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, Speak No Evil explores what it means to be different in a fundamentally conformist society and how that difference plays out in our inner and outer struggles. It is a novel about the power of words and self-identification, about who gets to speak and who has the power to speak for other people. As heart-wrenching and timely as his breakout debut, Beasts of No Nation, Uzodinma Iweala’s second novel cuts to the core of our humanity and leaves us reeling in its wake. On the surface, Niru leads a charmed life. Raised by two attentive parents in Washington, D.C., he’s a top student and a track star at his prestigious private high school. Bound for Harvard in the fall, his prospects are bright. But Niru has a painful secret: he is queer—an abominable sin to his conservative Nigerian parents. No one knows except Meredith, his best friend, the daughter of prominent Washington insiders—and the one person who seems not to judge him. When his father accidentally discovers Niru is gay, the fallout is brutal and swift. Coping with troubles of her own, however, Meredith finds that she has little left emotionally to offer him. As the two friends struggle to reconcile their desires against the expectations and institutions that seek to define them, they find themselves speeding toward a future more violent and senseless than they can imagine. Neither will escape unscathed.

Download or read book Love in Color written by Bolu Babalola and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Perfection in short story form, I am in love with every single word Bolu Babalola has written. So rarely is love expressed this richly, this vividly, or this artfully.” —Candice Carty-Williams, international bestselling author of Queenie A vibrant collection of love stories from a debut author, retelling myths, folktales, and histories from around the world. A high-born Nigerian goddess, who has been beaten down and unappreciated by her gregarious lover, longs to be truly seen. A young businesswoman attempts a great leap in her company, and an even greater one in her love life. A powerful Ghanaian spokeswoman is forced to decide whether she should uphold her family’s politics or be true to her heart. In her debut collection, internationally acclaimed writer Bolu Babalola retells the most beautiful love stories from history and mythology with incredible new detail and vivacity. Focusing on the magical folktales of West Africa, Babalola also reimagines Greek myths, ancient legends from the Middle East, and stories from long-erased places. With an eye towards decolonizing tropes inherent in our favorite tales of love, Babalola has created captivating stories that traverse across perspectives, continents, and genres. Love in Color is a celebration of romance in all its many splendid forms. “Babalola’s writing shines”—New York Times Book Review

Download or read book Black Fatigue written by Mary-Frances Winters and published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to define and explore Black fatigue, the intergenerational impact of systemic racism on the physical and psychological health of Black people—and explain why and how society needs to collectively do more to combat its pernicious effects. Black people, young and old, are fatigued, says award-winning diversity and inclusion leader Mary-Frances Winters. It is physically, mentally, and emotionally draining to continue to experience inequities and even atrocities, day after day, when justice is a God-given and legislated right. And it is exhausting to have to constantly explain this to white people, even—and especially—well-meaning white people, who fall prey to white fragility and too often are unwittingly complicit in upholding the very systems they say they want dismantled. This book, designed to illuminate the myriad dire consequences of “living while Black,” came at the urging of Winters's Black friends and colleagues. Winters describes how in every aspect of life—from economics to education, work, criminal justice, and, very importantly, health outcomes—for the most part, the trajectory for Black people is not improving. It is paradoxical that, with all the attention focused over the last fifty years on social justice and diversity and inclusion, little progress has been made in actualizing the vision of an equitable society. Black people are quite literally sickand tired of being sick and tired. Winters writes that “my hope for this book is that it will provide a comprehensive summary of the consequences of Black fatigue, and awaken activism in those who care about equity and justice—those who care that intergenerational fatigue is tearing at the very core of a whole race of people who are simply asking for what they deserve.”

Download or read book Delilah Green Doesn t Care written by Ashley Herring Blake and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-02-22 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A clever and steamy queer romantic comedy about taking chances and accepting love—with all its complications—from the author of Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail. Delilah Green swore she would never go back to Bright Falls—nothing is there for her but memories of a lonely childhood where she was little more than a burden to her cold and distant stepfamily. Her life is in New York, with her photography career finally gaining steam and her bed never empty. Sure, it’s a different woman every night, but that’s just fine with her. When Delilah’s estranged stepsister, Astrid, pressures her into photographing her wedding with a guilt trip and a five-figure check, Delilah finds herself back in the godforsaken town that she used to call home. She plans to breeze in and out, but then she sees Claire Sutherland, one of Astrid’s stuck-up besties, and decides that maybe there’s some fun (and a little retribution) to be had in Bright Falls, after all. Having raised her eleven-year-old daughter mostly on her own while dealing with her unreliable ex and running a bookstore, Claire Sutherland depends upon a life without surprises. And Delilah Green is an unwelcome surprise…at first. Though they’ve known each other for years, they don’t really know each other—so Claire is unsettled when Delilah figures out exactly what buttons to push. When they’re forced together during a gauntlet of wedding preparations—including a plot to save Astrid from her horrible fiancé—Claire isn’t sure she has the strength to resist Delilah’s charms. Even worse, she’s starting to think she doesn’t want to...

Download or read book To Buy a Vow written by Chencia C. Higgins and published by Chencia C. Higgins. This book was released on 2018-03-10 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if we could buy a vow to right our wrongs? For Nedra Phillips, the strain of portraying a strong Black woman to outsiders is finally taking its toll on her. Her marriage to her college sweetheart has begun to fizzle out, with conversations dwindling down to nothing and intimacy becoming sporadic at best. Unwilling to endure the stigma of being a 30-something divorcee, she does everything in her power to hold onto her marriage, but Chris isn't just on a different page, he's in a whole other book entirely. Despite their disconnect, her vows meant something to her and marriage is supposed to be forever. When all seems lost, she makes a last-ditch effort in hopes of generating results, but what exactly does a Hail Mary look like between friends and lovers? Jermaine Hawkins is nearing the end of a prominent career playing professional basketball and is ready to put his retirement plan into action. That plan includes many things but most important on the list is putting an end to his status as a hermit and starting a family. A chance encounter with a firecracker of a woman makes him think he's found his capital F. But whether that F is for "future" or "frustrating" is to be determined. Can Jermaine convince Nedra that everything happens for a reason while also getting her to give him a chance at something real?

Download or read book The Stars and the Blackness Between Them written by Junauda Petrus and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-06-23 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Coretta Scott King Honor Book Told in two distinct and irresistible voices, Junauda Petrus's bold and lyrical debut is the story of two black girls from very different backgrounds finding love and happiness in a world that seems determined to deny them both. Port of Spain, Trinidad. Sixteen-year-old Audre is despondent, having just found out she's going to be sent to live in America with her father because her strictly religious mother caught her with her secret girlfriend, the pastor's daughter. Audre's grandmother Queenie (a former dancer who drives a white convertible Cadillac and who has a few secrets of her own) tries to reassure her granddaughter that she won't lose her roots, not even in some place called Minneapolis. "America have dey spirits too, believe me," she tells Audre. Minneapolis, USA. Sixteen-year-old Mabel is lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to figure out why she feels the way she feels--about her ex Terrell, about her girl Jada and that moment they had in the woods, and about the vague feeling of illness that's plagued her all summer. Mabel's reverie is cut short when her father announces that his best friend and his just-arrived-from-Trinidad daughter are coming for dinner. Mabel quickly falls hard for Audre and is determined to take care of her as she tries to navigate an American high school. But their romance takes a turn when test results reveal exactly why Mabel has been feeling low-key sick all summer and suddenly it's Audre who is caring for Mabel as she faces a deeply uncertain future. Junauda Petrus's debut brilliantly captures the distinctly lush and lyrical voices of Mabel and Audre as they conjure a love that is stronger than hatred, prison, and death and as vast as the blackness between the stars.

Download or read book Honey Girl written by Morgan Rogers and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2021-02-23 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named Most Anticipated of 2021 by Oprah Magazine * Marie Claire * Ms. Magazine * E! * Parade Magazine * Buzzfeed * Cosmo * The Rumpus * GoodReads * Autostraddle * Brit & Co * Refinery29 * Betches * BookRiot and others! A LibraryReads Pick “HONEY GIRL is an emotional, heartfelt, charming debut, and I loved every moment of it.” — Jasmine Guillory, New York Times bestselling author of The Proposal When becoming an adult means learning to love yourself first. With her newly completed PhD in astronomy in hand, twenty-eight-year-old Grace Porter goes on a girls’ trip to Vegas to celebrate. She’s a straight A, work-through-the-summer certified high achiever. She is not the kind of person who goes to Vegas and gets drunkenly married to a woman whose name she doesn’t know…until she does exactly that. This one moment of departure from her stern ex-military father’s plans for her life has Grace wondering why she doesn’t feel more fulfilled from completing her degree. Staggering under the weight of her parent’s expectations, a struggling job market and feelings of burnout, Grace flees her home in Portland for a summer in New York with the wife she barely knows. In New York, she’s able to ignore all the constant questions about her future plans and falls hard for her creative and beautiful wife, Yuki Yamamoto. But when reality comes crashing in, Grace must face what she’s been running from all along—the fears that make us human, the family scars that need to heal and the longing for connection, especially when navigating the messiness of adulthood.

Download or read book Can t Resist Her written by Kianna Alexander and published by Montlake Romance. This book was released on 2022-07-19 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two very determined women--in love, at odds, and risking a lot on a second chance. After years away from home, Summer Graves is back in Austin, Texas, to accept a new teaching position. Of all the changes to the old neighborhood, the most dispiriting one is the slated demolition of the high school her grandmother founded. There's no way she can let developers destroy her memories and her family legacy. But the challenge stirs memories of another kind. On the architectural team revitalizing the neighborhood, hometown girl Aiko Holt is all about progress. Then she sees Summer again. Some things never change. Neither can forget the kiss they shared at their senior-year dance. Neither can back down from her unwavering beliefs about what's right for the neighborhood. For now, the only thing Summer and Aiko are willing to give in to is a heat that still burns. But can two women with so much passion--for what once was and what could be--agree to disagree long enough to fall in love?

Download or read book Slave Play written by Jeremy O Harris and published by Samuel French, Incorporated. This book was released on 2023-09-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Old South lives on at the MacGregor Plantation - in the breeze, in the cotton fields...and in the crack of the whip. Nothing is as it seems, and yet everything is as it seems. Slave Play rips apart history to shed new light on the nexus of race, gender, and sexuality in 21st-century America. "Slave Play is the single most daring thing I've seen in a theater in a long time." - Wesley Morris, The New York Times "Uncomfortably funny and gruesomely sexy. Should you laugh or keep quiet? You can't know until the ordeal is done - and even then, the uncertainty may linger for days." - Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker "Wisdom and timeliness ripple through Slave Play. This play is lit." - Soraya Nadia McDonald, The Undefeated

Download or read book Dominic a Dark Mafia Romance written by Natasha Knight and published by Natasha Knight. This book was released on with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gia I’m the daughter of a foot soldier. The sister of a snitch. Monsters have been part of my life for as long as I can remember, but the morning I woke in that cold, abandoned cabin with Dominic Benedetti looming over me, I knew I’d met the darkest of them all. He took me to break me. But I’m not so easy to break. And when he saw the mark on me, everything changed. But I’ve never believed in fairy tale endings and happily-ever-after doesn’t belong to people like us. Some love thrives in the light. Dominic and I, we belong in the dark. Dominic I’m the last-born son of the Mafia King. The one with nothing to lose. I walked away from my family. Turned my back on everything that should have been mine and became what I was meant to be. A monster. Until the day I stood over Gia cowering in the corner of that decrepit cabin in the woods. Until I saw the mark they’d put on her. It was then I understood something my father used to say. Keep your friends close, your enemies closer. My enemies had overplayed their hand. It was past time I returned to the family. Past time I collected the debts owed me. And long past time I punished those who betrayed me.

Download or read book If You Love Something written by Jayce Ellis and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2021-12-28 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A lovingly drawn depiction of Black family dynamics." —Publishers Weekly on Learned Reactions A marriage lost is found again in this cheeky new romantic comedy from acclaimed author Jayce Ellis. As executive chef at one of the hottest restaurants in DC, DeShawn Franklin has almost everything he’s ever wanted. He’s well-known, his restaurant is Michelin starred and he can write his own ticket anywhere he wants. Until his grandmother calls him home and drops two bombshells: 1) She has cancer and she’s not seeking treatment. 2) She’s willing half her estate to DeShawn’s ex-husband, Malik. Make that three bombshells. 3) That whole divorce thing? It didn’t quite go through. DeShawn and Malik are still married. And when DeShawn’s shady uncle contests Grandma’s will, there’s only one path back to justice: play it like he and Malik have reconciled. They need to act like a married couple just long enough to dispense with the lawsuit. Once DeShawn is back in Malik’s orbit, it’s not hard to remember why they parted. All the reasons he walked away remain—but so do all the reasons he fell in love in the first place. Carina Adores is home to romantic love stories where LGBTQ+ characters find their happily-ever-afters. Also from Jayce Ellis: Higher Education Book 1: Learned Behaviors Book 2: Learned Reactions High Rise: Book 1: Jeremiah Book 2: André

Download or read book Meet Me in Madrid written by Verity Lowell and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2021-10-26 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A mature, honest, and erotic romance that will have readers admiring what these two smart and determined women accomplish.” —Library Journal In this sexy, sophisticated romantic comedy, two women juggle romance and career across continents. Charlotte Hilaire has a love-hate relationship with her work as a museum courier. On the one hand, it takes her around the world. On the other, her plan to become a professor is veering dangerously off track. Yet once in a while, maybe every third trip or so, the job goes delightfully sideways… When a blizzard strands Charlotte in Spain for a few extra days and she’s left with glorious free time on her hands, the only question is: Dare she invite her grad school crush for an after-dinner drink on a snowy night? Accomplished, take-no-prisoners art historian Adrianna Coates has built an enviable career since Charlotte saw her last. She’s brilliant. Sophisticated. Impressive as hell and strikingly beautiful. Hospitable, too, as she absolutely insists Charlotte spend the night on her pullout sofa as the storm rages on. One night becomes three and three nights become a hot and adventurous long-distance relationship when Charlotte returns to the States. But when Adrianna plots her next career move just as Charlotte finally opens a door in academia, distance may not be the only thing that keeps them apart. Carina Adores is home to romantic love stories where LGBTQ+ characters find their happily-ever-afters.

Download or read book Xeni A Marriage of Inconvenience written by Rebekah Weatherspoon and published by Loose Ends. This book was released on 2019-10-04 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: She just wanted to claim her inheritance. What she got was a husband... Xeni Everly-Wilkins has ten days to clean out her recently departed aunt's massive colonial in Upstate New York. With the feud between her mom and her sisters still raging even in death, she knows this will be no easy task, but when the will is read Xeni quickly discovers the decades old drama between the former R&B singers is just the tip of the iceberg. The Secrets, lies, and a crap ton of cash spilled on her lawyer's conference room table all come with terms and conditions. Xeni must marry before she can claim the estate that will set her up for life and her aunt has just the groom in mind. The ruggedly handsome and deliciously thicc Scotsman who showed up at her aunt's memorial, bagpipes at the ready. When his dear friend and mentor Sable Everly passed away, Mason McInroy knew she would leave a sizable hole in his heart. He never imagined she'd leave him more than enough money to settle the debt that's keeping him from returning home to Scotland. He also never imagined that Sable would use her dying breaths to play match-maker, trapping Mason and her beautiful niece in a marriage scheme that comes with more complications than either of them need. With no choice but to say I do, the unlikely pair try to make the best of a messy situation. They had no plans to actually fall in love.

Download or read book Circling Back to You written by Julie Tieu and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2022-07-12 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Julie Tieu, an exciting new and diverse voice in contemporary romance, returns with a hilarious and sexy new novel about colleagues who decide to take their relationship outside the office. Cadence Lim has transformed from behind-the-scenes number cruncher to an integral part of the sales team at Prism Realty. But despite moving up the corporate ladder, her complicated relationship with her estranged elderly father weighs heavily and she can’t seem to shake the desire for a new beginning. At least Cadence can always lean on her favorite co-worker and co-conspirator, Matt Escanilla. A top broker with an unsuccessful love life, the forever single Matt is constantly being nagged by his loving Filipino family to settle down. Their relationship takes a turn when a business trip lands them both in their hometown and Matt enlists Cadence as a pretend girlfriend for a family gathering. The new after-hours setting forces the two friends to see each other in a new light, and their previously buried feelings rise quickly to the surface. When competing promotions threaten to separate Cadence and Matt, these office besties must work together to round up their ambitions and families to pursue their overdue romance.

Download or read book Zero Chill written by Carolyn Elizabeth and published by Bella Books. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Corey Curtis and Thayer Reynolds are more than happy to put the days of their turbulent courtship behind them. With the holidays upon them, they’re looking forward to celebrating with friends and family, intimate moments alone, and festive surprises. And in Corey’s world, nothing says Christmas quite like a frozen body. One that Corey must defrost in order to close out her next case. The discovery of the deceased’s possible connection to Thayer inflames the still healing wounds of their recent trauma and sends them both reeling back into a world of uncertainty and turmoil. With her best friend in tow and the police not far behind, Corey ends up in the unlikeliest of places—a church. Along the way hate and violence erupt while corruption abounds. But from the ashes new relationships are kindled, and even the darkest moments are no match for Corey and Thayer’s love. Zero Chill is the highly anticipated sequel to Dirt Nap and Gallows Humor.