An all-new stand-alone novel featuring Brenda Jackson’s fan-favorite Madaris family.

Ninetysomething Mama Laverne is determined to find all of her great-grandchildren their perfect match before going home to glory. So far, her success rate is 100 percent—and she intends to keep it that way.

After sustaining injuries in Iraq, US army ranger Chancellor (Chance) Madaris was told he’d never walk again. Chance credits his great-grandmother Mama Laverne with giving him the will and fortitude to heal and prove the doctors wrong. He has a healthy respect for her meddling ways and knows he’ll eventually end up next on her matchmaking list.

When Zoey Pritchard was eight, she survived a car accident that left both her parents dead. She was sent to live with her great-aunt, who refused to speak about her parents. Zoey has no memory from before the crash, but she’s been having the same dream over and over…

Guided by nothing but a hunch and images from her dream, Zoey travels to Houston. Searching for answers, Zoey uncovers a scandal involving her parents and the wealthy and powerful Madaris family. Her trail leads her straight to Chance’s door. The dislike and intense attraction are instant and simultaneous. Was it chance or Mama Laverne’s plan to throw this pair together?

For fans of the New Camelot series by Sierra Simone and Kennedy Ryan’s All the King’s Men duet, comes The Illusion of Power. A spicy, contemporary romance that follows future First Lady, Selene Taylor, during the integral months of her husband's campaign for the Oval where she finds herself navigating the embarrassment of his infidelity, the dangers of being a Black woman in proximity to political power, and perhaps worst of all, falling for the two men tasked with protecting her.

The next book in the New Haven series, interconnected standalones featuring second chances, fiery passion, and Black heroines who get their happily ever afters. This is part two of the Revive Me trilogy.

Mallory

The day Christopher Johnson decided to kill me, I already knew what it was like to die. I had already experienced it once. Having the life leeched from my body, blood stolen from my veins, oxygen pulled from my lungs.

When he decided to walk back into my life, I was in the middle of my third resurrection, healing from the loss of my brother when I was still raw from losing him.

It wasn't going well.

I guess the human heart can only stop so many times, can only take so much damage before it questions whether it's worth it to be revived. My heart is on its last leg, but even that can't stop me from seizing the chance to have him again.

Even if it's just for a little while.

Chris

Walking away from Mallory Kent is one of the hardest things I've ever done.

The devastation that marred her features that night still haunts me. Refusing to let me forget that the knife I plunged into her heart to protect her had pierced mine as well. Dogging my steps as I walked through my miserable life without her.

Coming back had always been a part of the plan. Even as I gave in to the forces hellbent on tearing us apart, I knew we weren't done. I just didn't know we'd come back together like this: under a cloud of unexpected grief with the pain of our stolen future lingering just beneath the surface.

This time together was never supposed to happen. I hadn't accounted for it when I started working to clear a path back to her, but I'm thankful for it. For the opportunity to comfort her in a way no one else can. For the chance to hold her until the demons in my life force me to walk away again.

In a world where love is forbidden, one girl must fight for her heart and freedom through deadly trials in the first book of a new dystopian romantasy duology from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author J. Elle.

Welcome to The Heart Trials.
The prize is love.
The cost is everything.

In Ethyria the highborn may love; the lowborn may only feel what the Benevolent allows.

Saltblood lowborn Axira Merreri survives the decaying districts by keeping her heart locked tight, couriering goods by day—and smuggling the ruler’s euphoric Heartfillers to the highborn by night. Until a drop goes wrong and her execution looms.

When she strikes a dangerous bargain to steal something from the Tournament of Hearts, a ruthless dating competition to gain highborn citizenship, she enters. Not for love. For freedom. But as the twisted allure of the competition turns deadly, an unexpected connection cracks her defenses, forcing her to confront a truth she fears: In a regime built on engineered happiness, the most dangerous weapon she has is her heart.

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author J. Elle delivers a breathless series opener that is bold, bone-chilling, and wholly original. For fans of the cutthroat competition of The Hunger Games, Love Island, and Powerless, this dystopian romantasy explores what happens when the heart becomes the empire’s sharpest blade.

A young man journeys from Paris to Rwanda to discover the truth about his family's past in this bestselling, prize-winning novel from internationally renowned Rwandan-French novelist and hip-hop artist Gaël Faye.

"Gaël Faye's talent is breathtaking."--Imbolo Mbue, author of Behold the Dreamers

Milan--the twelve-year-old son of a French father and a Rwandan mother--blames flunking his exams on the emotional toll of the genocide in his mother's homeland. In truth, his mother never talks about Rwanda; the violence is an abstraction that only reaches their French suburb through television broadcasts. That is, until Milan meets Claude, a small boy with a bandaged head whom Milan's mother introduces as a cousin who has come to France seeking medical treatment. Milan embraces him as the brother he's always wanted--until, one day, Claude is sent back to Rwanda without warning, leaving him heartbroken and confused.

Four years later, the boys reunite as teenagers when Milan visits Rwanda for the first time with his mother in the wake of her divorce and discovers a more fractured and vibrant community than he could have imagined. But the trip raises more questions for him than it answers--about family, the war, and its aftershocks. Over the course of many years, Milan will return to Rwanda again and again, compelled to unearth the secrets that have taken root in the shadows of long silences, confront the past, and imagine a new future.

Partly inspired by acclaimed author Gaël Faye's own relationship with Rwanda and its history, Jacaranda is a rich and deeply felt portrait of a man seeking to understand his family and his nation as it heals from the unthinkable.

A Coretta Scott King Honor Book

Three-time Newbery Honor author Jacqueline Woodson explores race and sexuality through the eyes of a compelling narrator

Melanin Sun has a lot to say. But sometimes it's hard to speak his mind, so he fills up notebooks with his thoughts instead. He writes about his mom a lot--they're about as close as they can be, because they have no other family. So when she suddenly tells him she's gay, his world is turned upside down. And if that weren't hard enough for him to accept, her girlfriend is white. Melanin Sun is angry and scared. How can his mom do this to him-- is this the end of their closeness? What will his friends think? And can he let her girlfriend be part of their family?

“In these kaleidoscopic stories of Jamaica and its diaspora we hear many voices at once: some cultivated, some simple, some wickedly funny, some deeply melancholic. All of them shine.”—Zadie Smith

Tenderness and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and regret—Alexia Arthurs navigates these tensions to extraordinary effect in her debut collection about Jamaican immigrants and their families back home. Sweeping from close-knit island communities to the streets of New York City and midwestern university towns, these eleven stories form a portrait of a nation, a people, and a way of life.

A life affirming story of rehabilitation and hope after prison. The third novel from multi-award-winning Danielle Jawando, perfect for fans of Angie Thomas and Elizabeth Acevedo.
 
‘Jawando’s writing is incredibly raw and real; I felt completely immersed’ Alice Oseman, author of the Heartstopper series
 
When fifteen-year-old Tyrell Forrester gets caught up in a high-profile armed robbery, he's sentenced to eighteen months in a young offenders’ prison. Now he’s getting out, and he’s determined to turn his life around. Despite his release, systemic discrimination makes it difficult for Ty to truly be free. Inspired by a visiting poet while inside, Ty discovers a whole new world through spoken word and is finally finding his voice. But will society ever see him as anything other than a criminal?

Praise for And the Stars Were Burning Brightly:

'An outstanding and compassionate debut' Patrice Lawrence, author of Orangeboy

'One of the brightest up and coming stars of the YA world' Alex Wheatle, author of Crongton Knights

‘An utter page turner from a storming new talent. Passionate, committed and shines a ray of light into the darkest places - the YA novel of 2020!’ Melvin Burgess, author of Junk

Praise for When Our Worlds Collided:
 
'A raw, unflinching and powerful story that will stay with me for a long time’ Manjeet Mann, author of The Crossing
 
‘A beautiful ode to found family, and a compassionate look at the power of connection borne from the ashes of tragedy and apathy’ Christina Hammonds Reed, author of The Black Kids
 
‘Hard-hitting yet still hopeful, this is an emotional powerhouse of a book’ Alexandra Sheppard, author of Oh My Gods

Warning - this novel contains themes that some readers may find upsetting, including suicide and self harm.

If you are looking for a happily ever after, then this is the subscription for you! We love our romances be to be inclusive so expect to see romances featuring folks of all gender identities, body sizes and age ranges. Also, be prepared for a little spice (aka smut) every once in the while.

What you get: A mix of paperback and mass paperback frontlist and backlist books.

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Celebrate Brenda Jackson's 150th book, Spilling the Tea! 

EVENT DEETS

When: Tuesday, May 15 @ 7PM

Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

How: RSVP WITH BOOK

ABOUT THE BOOK

Ninety-something Mama Laverne is determined to find all of her great-grandchildren their perfect match before going home to glory. So far, her success rate is 100 percent—and she intends to keep it that way.

Ninety-something-year-old Felicia Laverne Madaris, known in the family as Mama Laverne, is determined to find all of her great-grandchildren the perfect match before she goes home to glory. So far, her success rate is 100 percent, and she intends to keep it that way.

After sustaining injuries in Iraq, US Army Ranger Chancellor (Chance) Madaris was told he’d never walk again. Chance credits his great-grandmother, Mama Laverne, with giving him the will and fortitude to heal and prove the doctors wrong. He has a healthy respect for her meddling ways and knows he’ll eventually end up next on her matchmaker’s list.

When Zoey Pritchard was eight, she survived a car accident that left both her parents dead. She was sent to live with her great-aunt who refused to speak about her parents. Zoey has no memory from before the crash, but she’s been having the same dream over and over…

Guided by nothing but a hunch and images from her dream, Zoey travels to Houston. Searching for answers, Zoey uncovers a scandal involving her parents and the wealthy and powerful Madaris family. Her trail leads her straight to Chance’s door. The dislike and intense attraction are instant and simultaneous. Was it chance or Mama Laverne’s plan to throw this pair together?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

BRENDA JACKSON is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than one hundred contemporary multicultural romance novels, including the Madaris Family series, the Westmorelands series, and The Playas series. She was the first African-American author to have a book published under the Harlequin/Silhouette Desire line and the first African-American romance author to hit both the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists in the series romance genre. Many of her books have been adapted into movies. Brenda lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and divides her time between family, writing and traveling. brendajackson.net.