Embrace Who You Are as a Male Black Teen

Embrace the color of your skin and celebrate your identity. Finding the courage to live freely and authentically is not easy. This black teen book is designed to help you facilitate your creative drive, promote positive self-awareness, and boost your inner strength.

Affirmations for Black teen boys. This black teen book is full of wisdom from Black male trailblazers who accomplished remarkable things in sports, literature, entertainment, education, STEM, business, military and government services, politics and law, activism, and more.

Explore the many facets of your identity through hundreds of big and small questions. In this guidebook for teens, M.J. Fievre, educator and author of Raising Confident Black Kids and Badass Black Girl, tackles a variety of relevant topics, such as family and friends, school and careers, and stereotypes. While reflecting on these subjects, you confront the issues that could hold you back from living a confident life as a Black teen boy.

Learn from the lives of thriving black men. Alongside space for personal work and reflection, M.J. Fievre provides interviews with successful black men in a variety of fields, including Andrew Bernard of Make It Dairy Free, Justin Black of Redefining Normal, and Roderick “Rod” Morrow of Rodimus Prime.

Walk Boldly helps you to:

• Build and boost your self-esteem with powerful affirmations and stories from Black male role models
• Learn more about yourself through insightful journaling
• Become comfortable and confident in your skin

If you enjoyed Black teen books like Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Boy, 31-Day Affirmations for African American Boys, or Letters to a Young Brother, you’ll love Walk Boldly.

Winner of the John Hope Franklin Prize
A Moyers & Company Best Book of the Year

“[A] brilliant work that tells us how directly the past has formed us.”
―Darryl Pinckney, New York Review of Books

Lynch mobs, chain gangs, and popular views of black southern criminals that defined the Jim Crow South are well known. We know less about the role of the urban North in shaping views of race and crime in American society.

Following the 1890 census, the first to measure the generation of African Americans born after slavery, crime statistics, new migration and immigration trends, and symbolic references to America as the promised land of opportunity were woven into a cautionary tale about the exceptional threat black people posed to modern urban America.

A cozy holiday scene to share your holiday wishes. Gold rings say "Merry" and "Bright". This card is blank inside and ready for your personal message.

Card Details: Dimensions - (A2) 4 1/4"" x 5 1/2""

Printed on thick, white paper made of recycled content, paired with a smooth white envelope.

Card comes in a protective sleeve.

By CheerNotes Inclusive stationery designed to help more people feel seen and celebrated.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

In Ejaculate Responsibly, Gabrielle Blair offers a provocative reframing of the abortion issue in post-Roe America.

In a series of 28 brief arguments, Blair deftly makes the case for moving the abortion debate away from controlling and legislating women’s bodies and instead directs the focus on men’s lack of accountability in preventing unwanted pregnancies.

Highly readable, accessible, funny, and unflinching, Blair builds her argument by walking readers through the basics of fertility (men are 50 times more fertile than women), the unfair burden placed on women when it comes to preventing pregnancy (90% of the birth control market is for women), the wrongheaded stigmas around birth control for men (condoms make sex less pleasurable, vasectomies are scary and emasculating), and the counterintuitive reality that men, who are fertile 100% of the time, take little to no responsibility for preventing pregnancy. 

The result is a compelling and convincing case for placing the responsibility—and burden—of preventing unwanted pregnancies away from women and onto men.

It’s Rodeo season in Millers Pointe and everything isn’t left on the dirt. Stakes are high, the nights are wild, and love is the ultimate ride.

When it comes to Jabari Hicks, competition is non-existent. With a keen focus on securing a championship ring, Jabari’s only compettion is himself. On the court he is deadly, off the court he’s a protector and as a Lord, he’s fierce and loyal.

Kinnidi Trent has a light that illuminates the dark spaces of her mind, but she can’t completely shine until she lands in a place of peace. When she escapes the restraints that stifle her creativity and happiness, Kinnidi finds herself in the right place at the right time.

Tattoos and tortured souls. Loyalty and protection.

The game is like love full of passion teamwork and moments that take your breath away.

From the award-winning anthologists, a beautiful new book of short stories, designed as a perfect gift for readers of the supernatural, and a lifetime of reading pleasure.

A new anthology of Folk Horror stories, covering a wide range of mythologies and dark corners from around the world, revealing tales from the shadows of isolation, creepy forests and horrors rising from the land itself. Award-winning anthologists Paul Kane and Marie O'Regan have commissioned and chosen an outstanding selection of stories with contributions from authors including Neil Gaiman, John Connolly, Adam L.G. Nevill, Alison Littlewood and Jen Williams. Five brand new stories have also been selected from open submissions.

The full list of featured authors in this book is: Linda D. Addison, V. Castro, John Connolly, Neil Gaiman, Helen Grant, Kathryn Healy, H.R. Laurence, Alison Littlewood, Lee Murray, Adam L.G. Nevill, Cavan Scott, Christina Sng, Benjamin Spada, Stephen Volk, Jen Williams, Katie Young and B. Zelkovich.

The Flame Tree Beyond and Within short story collections bring together tales of myth and imagination by modern and contemporary writers, carefully selected by anthologists, and sometimes featuring short stories from a single author. Overall, the series presents a wide range of diverse and inclusive voices with myth, folkloric-inflected short fiction, and an emphasis on the supernatural, science fiction, the mysterious and the speculative. The books themselves are gorgeous, with foiled covers, printed edges and published only in hardcover editions, offering a lifetime of reading pleasure.

Nubia, Queen of Themyscira! But what challenges await our new queen?

Named one of ALA GNCRT's 2022 Best Graphic Novels for Adults!

After the thrilling events of Infinite Frontier, Nubia becomes queen of Themyscira, but the new title also brings challenges. With the unexpected arrival of new Amazons, our hero is forced to reckon with her past and forge a new path forward for her sisters. Little does she know, a great evil grows beneath the island and it’s up to this former guardian of Doom’s Doorway to unite her tribe before paradise is lost forever!

This thrilling collection includes tales from Infinite Frontier #0 and Nubia & the Amazons #1-6!

A USA Today bestseller
Edgar Award Winner for Best Original Paperback
Audie Award Winner for Mystery
Libby Award Winner for Best Mystery

A lonely shopkeeper takes it upon herself to solve a murder in the most peculiar way in this captivating mystery by Jesse Q. Sutanto, bestselling author of Dial A for Aunties.

Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady—ah, lady of a certain age—who lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Despite living alone, Vera is not needy, oh no. She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her Gen-Z son is up to.

Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing—a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn’t know what comes over her, but after calling the cops like any good citizen would, she sort of . . . swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive; all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer.

What Vera does not expect is to form friendships with her customers and start to care for each and every one of them. As a protective mother hen, will she end up having to give one of her newfound chicks to the police?

When Mary-Mathilda, one of the most respected women of the island of Bimshire (also known as Barbados) calls the police to confess to a crime, the result is a shattering all-night vigil that brings together elements of the island's African past and the tragic legacy of colonialism in one epic sweep.

Set in the West Indies in the period following World War II, The Polished Hoe -- an Essence bestseller and a Washington Post Book World Most Worthy Book of 2003 -- unravels over the course of twenty-four hours but spans the collective experience of a society characterized by slavery.

The Conjuring of America tells the epic story of conjure women, who, through a mix of spiritual beliefs, herbal rituals, and therapeutic remedies gave rise to the rich tapestry of American culture we see today. Feminist philosopher, Lindsey Stewart, tells the stories of Negro Mammies of slavery; the Voodoo Queens and Blues Women of Reconstruction; and the Granny Midwives and textile weavers of the Jim Crow era. These women, in secrecy and subterfuge, courageously and devotedly continued their practices and worship for centuries and passed down their traditions. 
 
Emerging first in the American South during slavery, these women were thrust into the heart of national conflicts over generations of African American life. They combined ancestral magic and hyperlocal resources to respond to Black struggles in real time, forging a secret well of health and power hidden to their oppressors. As a result, conjure informs our lives in ways remarkable and ordinary—from traditional medicines that informed the creation of Vicks VapoRub and the rise of Aunt Jemima’s Pancake Mix, to the original magic of Disney’s The Little Mermaid (2023), and the true origins of the all-American classic blue jean.
 
From the moment enslaved Africans first arrived on these shores, conjure was heavily regulated and even outlawed. Now, Stewart uncovers new contours of American history, sourcing letters from the enslaved, dispatches from the lore of Oshun and other African mystics. The Conjuring of America is a love letter to the real magic Black women used, their magic Black women, their herbs, food, textiles, song, and dance, used to sow rebellion, freedom, and hope.

Written by Harriet Ann Jacobs, using the pen name "Linda Brent," Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl  is an in-depth chronological account of Jacobs's life as a slave, and the decisions and choices she made to gain freedom for herself and her children. It addresses the struggles and sexual abuse that young women slaves faced on the plantations, and how these struggles were harsher than what men suffered as slaves.

My ignorance was on my side. I wasn’t afraid. I didn’t know what to be afraid of. I did one thing, I did another. I did what I now call crashing about. One day I started to write.

This collection of Jamaica Kincaid’s nonfiction writing, including early pieces from publications such as The New Yorker, The Village Voice, and Ms., proves what her admirers have always known: from the start, she has been a consummate stylist, and she has always been herself.

From “Jamaica Kincaid’s New York,” which narrates her move to the city from Antigua at the age of sixteen and a half, to the classic “Biography of a Dress,” her cultural criticism, and her original thinking about the meaning of the garden, Kincaid writes about the world as she finds it, imparting her own quizzical, rapier-sharp response to whatever crosses her path.

Putting Myself Together is a brilliant, trenchant, hilarious self-portrait of the artist and a testament to how this inimitable, self-created mind and spirit, endowed with wit, humor, and fearlessness, has become one of our greatest, most original writers.

Retired nurse, avid gardener, and renowned cake maker Miss Hortense has lived in Bigglesweigh, a quiet suburb of Birmingham, England, since she emigrated from Jamaica in 1960. She takes great pride in her home, starching her lace curtains bright white, and she can tell if she’s being shortchanged on turmeric before she’s taken her first bite of a beef patty. A career in nursing has also left her afraid of nobody, whether an interfering priest or a local drug dealer, and she’s an expert in deciphering other people’s secrets with just a glance.

Miss Hortense once used her skills to benefit the Pardner network—a local group of Black investors that she helped found. Until, that is, she was unceremoniously ousted from its ranks, severing her ties to the majority of her friends and community. That was thirty years ago. Now, as a new millennium dawns, an unidentified man has been found dead in the home of one of the Pardner members, a Bible quote written on a note beside his body. Suddenly, Miss Hortense finds her long-buried past rushing back, bringing memories of the worst moment of her life—and secrets behind an unsolved crime that has haunted her for decades.

It is finally time for Miss Hortense to solve a mystery that will see her and the com-munity she loves pushed to their limits. The first novel from a bold, brilliant new voice, A Murder for Miss Hortense introduces a fear-less sleuth whom readers will never forget.

Steve Cannon’s cult classic novel returns to print

Despite decades of notoriety as one of the “filthiest books in the world,” Steve Cannon’s first and only piece of longform fiction, Groove, Bang and Jive Around, has hardly been read since first being published in 1969. In the words of American poet Ishmael Reed, Cannon’s debut work inspired a generation by breaking with staid literary modernism. Its publication “signaled a resurfacing of the irreverent, underground trickster tradition of Black orature.” This erotic farce follows Annette, a teenage runaway, from the outhouse of a New Orleans juke joint to the psychedelic paradise of Oo-bla-dee―an idyllic country possibly founded by Dizzy Gillespie―by way of bacchanalian voodoo ritual. As Ophelia Press, its original publisher, wrote, Groove, Bang and Jive Around is an absolute necessity “for everyone who wants to know where and how the action takes place in Sex and Soul.”
Steve Cannon (1935–2019) moved to New York City in 1962 and joined the Umbra Workshop. He worked with and was a mentor to many artists and writers. In 1990 he founded the magazine and gallery A Gathering of the Tribes in New York City’s East Village.

Tracing five centuries of exploitation in Latin America, a classic in the field, now in its twenty fifth year

Since its U.S. debut a quarter-century ago, this brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America. It is also an outstanding political economy, a social and cultural narrative of the highest quality, and perhaps the finest description of primitive capital accumulation since Marx.

Rather than chronology, geography, or political successions, Eduardo Galeano has organized the various facets of Latin American history according to the patterns of five centuries of exploitation. Thus he is concerned with gold and silver, cacao and cotton, rubber and coffee, fruit, hides and wool, petroleum, iron, nickel, manganese, copper, aluminum ore, nitrates, and tin. These are the veins which he traces through the body of the entire continent, up to the Rio Grande and throughout the Caribbean, and all the way to their open ends where they empty into the coffers of wealth in the United States and Europe.

Weaving fact and imagery into a rich tapestry, Galeano fuses scientific analysis with the passions of a plundered and suffering people. An immense gathering of materials is framed with a vigorous style that never falters in its command of themes. All readers interested in great historical, economic, political, and social writing will find a singular analytical achievement, and an overwhelming narrative that makes history speak, unforgettably.
This classic is now further honored by Isabel Allende’s inspiring introduction. Universally recognized as one of the most important writers of our time, Allende once again contributes her talents to literature, to political principles, and to enlightenment.

The first biography of Ericka Huggins, a queer Black woman who brought spiritual self-care practices to the Black Panther Party.

In this groundbreaking biography, Mary Frances Phillips immerses readers in the life and legacy of Ericka Huggins, a revered Black Panther Party member, as well as a mother, widow, educator, poet, and former political prisoner. In 1969, the police arrested Ericka Huggins along with Bobby Seale and fellow Black Panther Party members, who were accused of murdering Alex Rackley. This marked the beginning of her ordeal, as she became the subject of political persecution and a well-planned FBI COINTELPRO plot.

Drawing on never-before-seen archival sources, including prison records, unpublished letters, photographs, FBI records, and oral histories, Phillips foregrounds the paramount role of self-care and community care in Huggins’s political journey, shedding light on Ericka’s use of spiritual wellness practices she developed during her incarceration. In prison, Huggins was able to survive the repression and terror she faced while navigating motherhood through her unwavering commitment to spiritual practices. In showcasing this history, Phillips reveals the significance of spiritual wellness in the Black Panther Party and Black Power movement.

Transcending the traditional male-centric study of the Black Panther Party, Black Panther Woman offers an innovative analysis of Black political life at the intersections of gender, motherhood, and mass incarceration. This book serves as an invaluable toolkit for contemporary activists, underscoring the power of radical acts of care as well as vital strategies to thrive in the world.

From her more than three hundred appearances for film and television, stage and cabaret, performing comedy or drama, as an unforgettable lead or a scene stealing supporting character, Jenifer Lewis has established herself as one of the most respected, admired, talented, and versatile entertainers working today.

This “Mega Diva” and costar of the hit sitcom black-ish bares her soul in this touching and poignant—and at times side-splittingly hilarious—memoir of a Midwestern girl with a dream, whose journey took her from poverty to the big screen, and along the way earned her many accolades.

With candor and warmth, Jenifer Lewis reveals the heart of a woman who lives life to the fullest. This multitalented “force of nature” landed her first Broadway role within eleven days of her graduation from college and later earned the title “Reigning Queen of High-Camp Cabaret.”

In the audaciously honest voice that her fans adore, Jenifer describes her transition to Hollywood, with guest roles on hits like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Friends. Her movie Jackie’s Back! became a cult favorite, and as the “Mama” to characters portrayed by Whitney Houston, Tupac Shakur, Taraji P. Henson, and many more, Jenifer cemented her status as the “Mother of Black Hollywood.”         

When an undiagnosed mental illness stymies Jenifer’s career, culminating in a breakdown while filming The Temptations, her quest for wholeness becomes a harrowing and inspiring tale, including revelations of bipolar disorder and sex addiction.

Written with no-holds-barred honesty and illustrated with more than forty color photographs, this gripping memoir is filled with insights gained through a unique life that offers a universal message: “Love yourself so that love will not be a stranger when it comes.”

In this powerful debut reminiscent of Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight, two men in Atlanta reconcile their human dignity against the price of their professional ambitions working for a real estate development company displacing Black residents in preparation for the 1996 Olympics.

Daily interactions between Jacob and Daniel are a powder keg of sexual tension and uncertainty. A recent Morehouse graduate and Brooklyn transplant, Jacob fears that accepting the truth of his sexuality will disappoint the hopes his parents have for him to lead a respectable life. Grieving the death of his mother while searching for answers about a father he has never known, Daniel, an Atlanta native, has resigned himself to the reality that men who love men don’t have happy endings.

When Jacob meets Sherman, a social worker fighting for one of the families being displaced by the project, he must decide if rejecting security is worth the risk of embracing the unknown. In the midst of navigating his grief, and volatile relationship with Jacob, Daniel learns of his father’s identity. Though meeting his father could provide Daniel with the closure he has always sought, the distance between what Daniel wants and what he’s willing to do for it remains a question only he can answer.

She fights for justice; he bends the rules. Together, they break all of them in this scandalously sexy legal drama.

Soon after passing the bar exam, Talia Tate is tasked to assist her father, the head of Tate & Associates, with the controversial State v. Duncan trial. Talia is determined to prove to her father, the firm, and herself that she is a brilliant lawyer worthy of respect. Her stress hits a fever pitch when she realizes she’ll have an unexpected face-off on her first case.

Detective Maddox Reed doesn’t mind cutting corners when closing a case. Since his days in patrol, the locals knew to steer clear of “Speedy Reed-y.” When Donovan Duncan was brought into his squad room, he was ready to send him to prison without an interrogation. He thought the case was cut-and-dried . . . until Talia comes to his office with fingers pointed, ready to get Donovan the justice he deserves.

Representing opposite sides of the law, Talia and Maddox find themselves fighting two battles: justice and lust. How could they fall in love under circumstances so polarizing that the whole world can feel the tension? While both of them are in a race to come out on top, surprising feelings make it difficult to separate business from pleasure. Will these two souls find solace with each other? Or will the burden of love be too hard to bear?

Sixteen-year-old Jaelyn Coleman lives for Saturdays at WestSide Roll, the iconic neighborhood roller rink. On these magical nights, Jae can lose herself in the music of DJ Sunny, the smell of nachos from the concession, and the crowd of some of her favorite people—old heads, dance crews, and other regulars like herself. Here, Jae and other Black teens can fully be themselves.

One Saturday, as Jae skates away her worries, she crashes into the cutest boy she’s ever seen. Trey’s dimples, rich brown skin, and warm smile make it impossible for her to be mad at him though. Best of all, he can’t stop finding excuses to be around her. A nice change for once, in contrast with her best friend’s cold distance of late or her estranged father creeping back into her life.

Just as Jae thinks her summer might change for the better, devastating news hits: Westside Roll is shutting down. The gentrification rapidly taking over her predominantly Black Indianapolis neighborhood, filling it with luxury apartments and fancy boutiques, has come for her safe-haven. And this is just one trouble Jae can’t skate away from.

While Africans and their descendants have lived in Mexico for centuries, many Afro-Mexicans do not consider themselves to be either black or African. For almost a century, Mexico has promoted an ideal of its citizens as having a combination of indigenous and European ancestry. This obscures the presence of African, Asian, and other populations that have contributed to the growth of the nation. However, performance studies—of dance, music, and theatrical events—reveal the influence of African people and their cultural productions on Mexican society.

In this work, Anita González articulates African ethnicity and artistry within the broader panorama of Mexican culture by featuring dance events that are performed either by Afro-Mexicans or by other ethnic Mexican groups about Afro-Mexicans. She illustrates how dance reflects upon social histories and relationships and documents how residents of some sectors of Mexico construct their histories through performance. Festival dances and, sometimes, professional staged dances point to a continuing negotiation among Native American, Spanish, African, and other ethnic identities within the evolving nation of Mexico. These performances embody the mobile histories of ethnic encounters because each dance includes a spectrum of characters based upon local situations and historical memories.

Since life first arose on Earth, nearly all dinosaurs, mammals, insects, and birds that have ever existed have gone extinct. In this voicy, full-color illustrated encyclopedia, hear from the animals themselves what happened to them!

If your species happens to be alive right now, you should feel very lucky.

You probably know about the downfall of the dinosaurs and how the dodo bird met its doom. But you might not have heard about the other weird and wonderful creatures throughout the eons that just didn’t make it.

But that doesn’t mean all these stories are sad; extinction is just a part of the long, long history of life on Earth. And some of the ways these species died out are actually pretty silly . . .

In this fully illustrated encyclopedia, you’ll hear from the creatures who have faced extinction throughout the years—and learn what survival of the fittest means for those on evolution’s bad side.

Nearly a million copies sold in Japan!

A fast-paced, completely delightful new mystery about what happens when parents get a little too involved in their kids' schools, from NAACP Image Award nominee Elise Bryant.

Mavis Miller is not a PTA mom. She has enough on her plate with her feisty seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, an exhausting job at a nonprofit, and the complexities of a multigenerational household. So no one is more surprised than Mavis when she caves to Trisha Holbrook, the long-reigning, slightly terrifying PTA president, and finds herself in charge of the school’s brand-new DEI committee.

As one of the few Black parents at this California elementary school, Mavis tries to convince herself this is an opportunity for real change. But things go off the rails at the very first meeting, when the new principal's plans leave Trisha absolutely furious. Later that night, when Mavis spies Trisha in yellow rubber gloves and booties, lugging cleaning supplies and giant black trash bags to her waiting minivan, it’s only natural that her mind jumps to somewhere it surely wouldn’t in the light of day.

Except Principal Smith fails to show up for work the next morning, and has been MIA since the meeting. Determined to get to the bottom of things, Mavis, along with the school psychologist with the great forearms (look, it’s worth noting), launches an investigation that will challenge her views on parenting, friendship, and elementary school politics.

Brilliantly written, It's Elementary is a quick-witted, escapist romp that perfectly captures just how far parents will go to give their kids the very best, all wrapped in a mystery that will leave you guessing to the very end.

In the latest from Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of THE DEVIL TAKES YOU HOME, a group of five teenage boys in Puerto Rico seek vengeance after one of their mothers is murdered; a Latinx STAND BY ME with a haunted, obsidianly dark heart. 

For childhood friends Gabe, Xavier, Tavo, Paul, and Bimbo, death has always been close. Hurricanes. Car accidents. Gang violence. Suicide. Estamos rodeados de fantasmas was Gabe’s grandmother’s refrain. We are surrounded by ghosts. But this time is different. Bimbo's mom has been shot dead. We’re gonna kill the guys who killed her Bimbo swears. And they all agree.

Feral with grief, Bimbo has become unrecognizable, taking no prisoners in his search for names. Soon, they learn Maria was gunned down by guys working for the drug kingpin of Puerto Rico. No one has ever gone up against him and survived. As the boys strategize, a storm gathers far from the coast. Hurricanes are known to carry evil spirits in their currents and bring them ashore, spirits which impose their own order.

Blurring the boundaries between myth, mysticism, and the grim realities of our world, House of Bone and Rain is a harrowing coming of age story; a doomed tale of devotion, the afterlife of violence, and what rolls in on the tide.

Award-winning author Wanda Morris returns with a powerful, haunting thriller following a lawyer who after the mysterious disappearance of a local landowner and the death of his sister just months before, uncovers a conspiracy that dates back to Reconstruction and persists in half the United States today.

Deena Wood’s life has fallen apart in the aftermath of losing her beloved mother, her marriage, and her prestigious job at an Atlanta law firm. She needs what the Geechee people of coastal Georgia call a “dayclean,” a fresh start.

She returns to her childhood home in Brunswick, Georgia, to heal. But her return is anything but the respite she thought it might be. To make peace with all her loss, she often drives through the city. One day, she unwittingly finds herself on the oceanfront property of a loner widower who is fighting to keep land that has been in his family since the end of the Civil War. He threatens her and warns her to never return. But shortly after, he disappears, and his very expensive property is quickly put up for sale. Curious about what has happened to the man, Deena digs into his disappearance and finds a family legacy at risk. What starts out as a bit of curious snooping, turns into a deadly game of illegal land grabs and property redevelopment in poor and rural communities with dark and powerful forces at work.

Without realizing it, Deena finds herself caught up in a nightmarish scheme that threatens her community and her family. She’ll need help and finds it in a close but unlikely source because she knows she must do whatever it takes to stop the sinister forces at play before she becomes their next target.

USA Today bestselling author Kennedy Ryan delivers a scorching romance where one man must earn the trust of a woman with diamond-hard defenses in order to win her heart.

The world knows her face . . .

Mean girl. Goddess. Bitch. Supermodel Sofie Baston has earned those labels . . . yet they don't scratch the surface of who she really is. Before she can follow her own dreams, Sophie must do her daughterly duty and reel in a "fish" for her father's business-a tall, brown-eyed entrepreneur who immediately hooks her. He's a big guy with an even bigger heart . . . but will that heart be open to Sofie once her darkest secret is revealed?

. . . but only one man knows her heart

To Trevor Bishop, Sofie is a beautiful mystery he would gladly spend his life solving. He figures her tough demeanor is armor against a world that's hurt her too many times. Then Sofie's deepest wounds are reopened by the powerful, ruthless man who made them. When she musters the courage to take him down, her world shatters. Now Trevor is determined to help Sofie pick up the pieces so they can build a future together. The challenge will be convincing his ice princess that it's safe to melt in his arms . . .