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Tabitha Walker is a black woman with a plan to “have it all.” At 33 years old, the checklist for the life of her dreams is well underway. Education? Check. Good job? Check. Down payment for a nice house? Check. Dating marriage material? Check, check, and check. With a coveted position as a local news reporter, a "paper-perfect" boyfriend, and even a standing Saturday morning appointment with a reliable hairstylist, everything seems to be falling into place.

Then Tabby receives an unexpected diagnosis that brings her picture-perfect life crashing down, jeopardizing the keystone she took for granted: having children. With her dreams at risk of falling through the cracks of her checklist, suddenly she is faced with an impossible choice between her career, her dream home, and a family of her own.

Bridget Jones’s Diary meets Survival of the Thickest in Danielle Allen’s CURVY GIRL SUMMER, a smoking-hot, hilarious novel about the perils of online dating.

“There’s got to be an easier way than dating. I want the shortcut. I just want to find my person and start our lives together.”
After a one-night stand with her clingy ex, Aaliyah James has an epiphany: this ain’t it. She knows what she wants, and she’s ready to move past casual hookups, flings, and situationships.

But for her family, the clock is ticking―after all, she’s almost thirty. And when they imply that her personality (and her body) might be too big to land a man, she lets them know they’ve gone too far―and her (nonexistent) man loves her curves, thank you very much. Now, she has seven weeks to find the perfect boyfriend to rub in their faces at the big, fancy birthday celebration she’s been planning.

After her first blind date goes wrong, charming local bartender Ahmad Williamson consoles her with a drink and some playful banter. Aaliyah takes him up on his suggestion to use a dating app―but the more she sees of his warm, funny, and easygoing nature, the less she wants to check her DMs. Will her next swipe bring her closer to true love―or is her real match closer than she thinks?

A deeply wrought and joyful debut poetry collection from an exciting new voice.  Looping exultantly through the overlapping experiences of girlhood, Blackness, sex, and personhood in America, award-winning essayist and poet Kendra Allen braids together personal narrative and cultural commentary, wrestling with the beauty and brutality to be found between mothers and daughters, young women and the world, Black bodies and white space, virginity and intrusion, prison and freedom, birth and death. Most of all, The Collection Plate explores both how we collect and erase the voices, lives, and innocence of underrepresented bodies—and behold their pleasure, pain, and possibility.

Julie Murphy's If the Shoe Fits meets Talia Hibbert's Take a Hint, Dani Brown―USA Today bestselling author Danielle Allen brings another steamy, witty novel about finding the perfect partner―and how sometimes what you're looking for is right in front of you.

“I only spend time with people I enjoy. I only do things I want to do. I only have sex with people who get me off. So, my time is never wasted and my energy stays high.”

Nina Ford doesn’t like to put all her eggs in one basket. She works multiple jobs, she enjoys multiple hobbies, she dates multiple men.

In her thirty years of life, Nina has never come across a man who has all the things she’s looking for.

She loves fun and excitement―and she has a man for that.

She loves confidence and humor―and she has a man for that.

She loves intelligence and ambition―and she has a man for that.

She loves passion and romance―and she has a man for that.

She’s always been content rotating a few men in and out of her life to get her needs met. But when an opportunity presents itself, Nina finds herself in a bit of a predicament. Because if everything she’s ever wanted in a partner collides with everything she’s ever wanted in a career, her eggs are bound to get cracked.

Like her back.

From Wall Street Journal bestselling author Dylan Allen writing as Lucy Wilson-Tagoe comes the first story in her new Blurred Lines Duet series…

Who gets to tell this story?
The sinner who lived it?
Or the saint who stole it?

Sin Sackey is driven by the same hardwired need as every eldest first-generation daughter—to make her family proud. And she built her career and chose her partners with that single goal as her north star.

Everyone said she had it all. And for more than twenty years, Sin let herself believe they were right.

Until a near-death experience makes the truth impossible to deny.

Her relationship is on life support. Her journalism career is in freefall. And the city she thought she’d conquer has chewed her up and spit her out.

With everything to prove—and everything to lose—Sin moves back home to Washington, DC, determined to start over. No more chasing shadowy criminals. And no more men who look too good to be true.

But on the eve of the first day of the rest of her new life, the saying about old habits proves painfully accurate.

A new lead falls into her lap, and Sin dives back into the story that nearly cost her everything.
Then, when a man who is all the things she’s sworn to avoid invites her to dinner, she says yes.

After everything she’s been through, it’s reckless.

But this story could resurrect her career—and take down an entire black-market empire. She’s closer than ever to catching its elusive leader, and she can’t let go now.

And this man—who makes her blush, makes her laugh, and understands things she usually has to explain—could be the one. So, she lowers her walls just enough for him to climb over.

But just when it seems her gamble might pay off, her lead starts to feel more like a trap. And the man she’s let herself love appears to be the one who set it.

To Catch a Sinneris a steamy, suspenseful friends-to-lovers romance between a relentless journalist and a mysterious lawyer with a complicated shared past. Set against a fictionalized Washington, DC, this fast-paced, high-stakes story explores reclaiming identity, challenging power, and the pursuit of a new American dream.

An unforgettable, heartwarming, hilarious coming-of-age story about faith, family, all kinds of love, and a Black Muslim teen pursuing an ordinary goal in an extraordinary time.

Barely one week into senior year of high school, Boston native Zakiyyah is making her 2012-2013 Get Free Plan.

Step one: quit high school. (PSA: There are other ways to get to college!)

Step two: live like it’s Ramadan year-round.

As she gets deeper into her Plan, she starts to wonder if there’s someone out there who would be a good companion. To everyone’s surprise, Zakiyyah decides she wants to get married. But there are some complications.

Problem one: she’s never met a guy she liked. Zakiyyah’s family (reluctantly) and friends (eagerly) agree to support the search.

Problem two: what’s the secret to choosing a good life partner?

Enter Musa, by way of mutual friends. With marriage in mind, Zakiyyah and Musa get to know each other, progressing from email to instant messaging to phone calls. Things are going well… thrillingly well… until tragedy strikes Boston. In a moment of heightened emotion and stress, Zakiyyah and Musa have their first major disagreement.

Zakiyyah can call the whole thing off. But with or without Musa, what does it mean to live on her own terms?

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Debut author Charlene Allen delivers a captivating YA contemporary mystery about a teen boy trying to keep his best friend’s legacy alive through a video game while getting swept up in a murder investigation that points to his other best friend as the prime suspect.

In the game of life, sometimes other people hold all the controls. Or so it seems to VZ. Four months have passed and he still can’t believe his best friend Ed was killed by a white man in a Brooklyn parking lot. VZ and his other best friend Jack grieve in their own ways: Jack leads protests about Ed’s murder, but VZ can’t bring himself to do the same . . . and the two of them don’t talk much anymore.

Then Singer, the man who killed Ed, is found dead in the same spot where Ed was murdered. And all signs point to Jack as the prime suspect. But there’s no way Jack could have done it, right? For VZ, it’s time to show up for his friends. He’s going to complete the video game Ed never finished and enter it into a big gaming contest. And he’s going to figure out who actually killed Singer.

With help from Diamond, the girl he’s crushing on at work, VZ falls into Ed’s quirky gameiverse. As the police close in on Jack, the game starts to uncover details that could lead to the truth about the murder. Can VZ honor Ed and help Jack before it’s too late?  

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Sassy worries that her too-large feet, too-long legs, and even her big mouth will keep her from her dream of becoming a star ballerina. So for now she's just dancing in the wings, watching from behind the curtain, and hoping that one day it will be her turn to shimmer in the spotlight. When the director of an important dance festival comes to audition her class, Sassy's first attempts to get his attention are, well, a little wobbly. But Sassy just knows, somehow, that this is her time to step out from those wings, and make her mark on the world. Actress/choreographer Debbie Allen and Kadir Nelson collaborated on Brothers of the Knight, about which School Library Journal raved, "the strutting high-stepping brothers are full of individuality, attitude, and movement."

This stunning children’s book from the photographer behind the Instagram sensation Brown Girls Do Ballet, combines irresistible photos of young ballerinas of color with inspirational text that empowers all children to express their true selves through movement and music.

When TaKiyah Wallace-McMillian went to enroll her three-year-old daughter into her first ballet class, she immediately noticed the lack of diversity of backgrounds and abilities among the students pictured on the school's website. In response, TaKiyah, a photographer, began taking pictures of young dancers of color and launched an Instagram called Brown Girls Do Ballet. The Instagram was an instant sensation, drawing a community of dancers of all ages. A nonprofit organization, that provides resources, mentoring, and inspiration worldwide followed soon after.

Takiyah’s first children’s book is full of gorgeous photographs of irresistible young BIPOC ballerinas of all levels -- from beginners to more experienced dancers. Writer JaNay Brown-Wood's poetic text, inspired by the dancer's graceful poses and powerful leaps, encourages young readers be proud of who they are and empowers them to take center stage. Brown Girls Do Ballet will inspire all readers to pursue their dreams no matter what barriers are put in front of them.

A long-awaited, comprehensive collection of renowned poet and performance artist Jayne Cortez’s poetry.

Like the jazz rhythms that inspired and punctuated her practice, Jayne Cortez improvised her way through and across disciplines, bridging poetry and performance with music and the visual arts to create a unique body of work. Consciously rupturing the boundaries between art and politics, Cortez’s practice uneasily fits within literary movements of the 20th century, residing everywhere and nowhere between the Black Arts Movement, Surrealism, feminism, and early performance art. As intersectional as it is interdisciplinary, her work is consistently visceral and fearless, acting as a powerful expression of collective rage on behalf of the disenfranchised and dispossessed. In the words of historian Robin D.G. Kelley, “her poetry was never ‘protest’ but a complete revolt, a clarion call for a new way of life.”

Thirteen-year-old Lamar Washington is the maddest, baddest bowler at Striker’s Bowling Paradise. But while Lamar’s a whiz at rolling strikes, he always strikes out with girls. And Lamar’s brother, Xavier the Basketball Savior, is no help. Xavier earns trophy after trophy on the basketball court and soaks up Dad’s attention, leaving no room for Lamar’s problems.

Until bad boy Billy Jenks convinces Lamar that hustling will help him win his dream girl, plus earn him enough money to buy an expensive pro ball and impress bowler Bubba Sanders. But when one of Billy’s schemes goes awry, Lamar ends up damaging every relationship in his life. Can Lamar figure out how to mend his broken ties, no matter what the cost?

This debut novel from Crystal Allen heralds the arrival of a fresh new voice in middle grade fiction.