DELUXE LIMITED EDITION first printing featuring stenciled edges

The LONG AWAITED adult debut novel by beloved NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING Dhonielle Clayton: a romantic contemporary fantasy novel set in New Orleans, about a woman pulled back into a forbidden love, kicking off a brand new series

Collette Marchand never wanted to return home to the immortal wards of New Orleans, let alone inherit her mother’s blood-soaked business. Collette left magic and a great love behind a decade ago, tucking herself away in Boston. But now, her mother, Lady Red, the living Conjure Saint and matriarch of the most notorious Conjure House, has died for the final time.

Back in New Orleans, Téo Baptiste is stuck. He’s working at the same hospital where, ten years ago, he lost everything – his sobriety and the love of his life, Collette. Nights at the busiest ER in the city help him bury his feelings and ignore his magical destiny to take over the undead immortal ward. But Lady Red’s death might be his chance to make things right with Collette again, and build a new future for himself.

When Collette is summoned back home to bury her mother, she uncovers Lady Red’s greatest secret: the true source of her power is a stolen card from the Deck of Life. A card that, along with the family business, passes to Collette. Determined to rewrite the past, Collette needs help from the last person she wants to see ever again: her former flame and the man who shattered her heart, Téo. Now, Collette must confront whether she’s destined to become the next Lady Red and rule over the immortal wards of New Orleans and beyond … or take a second chance at love.

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.

Ordering deadline:  Subscription orders placed before the 17th of the month are guaranteed to ship on the first Tuesday of the following month when all subscriptions are shipped.

Ordering Instructions:  Please select your subscription frequency (monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly) and proceed to checkout.

Gift subscriptions:  Subscriptions make really great gifts.  Please make sure the shipping address is the correct address for the gift recipient.

Shipping will be calculated at checkout.  All subscriptions ship via media mail and will arrive within 3-8 business days of the ship date.

Reimagines neurodiversity through intersections of race, disability, and social justice

Neurodiversity has progressed from niche activism to a household term; our culture is now saturated with social media ads promising to "train" ADHD brains and media tropes like the quirky savant. But amidst this barrage of content urging self-optimization against a neurotypical template, Neurofutures pauses to ask: what comes next? Editors Diana R. Paulin, M. Remi Yergeau, Ralph James Savarese, and Elizabeth J. Donaldson gather a diverse array of scholars and creatives to think through "crip time" ― sideways, chronic, manic, and executive dysfunction time ― to reimagine the future of cognitive difference.

Moving beyond a simplistic celebration of diversity, the collection interrogates the intersections of race, disability, and social justice. Contributors offer "mad provocations" that span from Black neurodivergence and Afrofuturism to neuroqueer paradigms and animal liberation. Through analyses of cultural texts ― ranging from the folklore of "Little Eight John" to the speculative worlds of Octavia Butler and Shirley Jackson ― the essays deconstruct the violence of neurotypical norms while advocating for the rights of neurodivergent people to full lives and care.

Neurofutures refuses the linear march of progress, instead delving into the complex, often hidden realities of lived experience to map a world that welcomes divergence, dissent, and deep compassion.

It's raining Black holiday romances and women's fiction this year and we're here to celebrate it all!

EVENT DEETS

When: Sunday, November 24 @ 3:30 PM CST

Where: Virtual via Zoom. We'll send you the Zoom link!

How: RSVP here to let us know you're coming! Also, check out the cool book bundles to support the authors. 

The Grinch (includes Only for the Holidays by Abiola Bello, A Novel Christmas by Charity Shane and Christmas in Spite of You by K.C. Mills)

The Hallmark (I'll Be Gone for Christmas by Georgia Boone, The Christmas Catch by Toni Shiloh, Only for the Holidays by Abiola Bello) 

Home Alone (Christmas in Spite of You by K.C. Mills,  I'll Be Gone for Christmas by Georgia Boone, A Novel Christmas by Charity Shane) 

ABOUT THE AUTHORS 

Abiola Bello is a British-Nigerian author from London, England. She is the bestselling, award-winning author of the children’s series Emily Knight I Am and the YA novel Love in Winter Wonderland, as well as a contributor to The Very Merry Murder Club anthology. Abiola has won London’s BIG Read 2019, was a finalist for the People’s Book Prize Best Children’s Book and was nominated for the Yoto Carnegie Award.

Charity Shane holds a bachelor’s degree and a Juris Doctor degree. Author. Higher Education Leader. Legal Expert. Writing stories that create feelings through her words is her true passion. Her soul sings AA romance and urban romance fiction. To date, she has published twelve books, one of which became a #1 Bestseller in Urban Fiction on Amazon. Charity Shane’ is dedicated to giving readers robust and diverse stories centered around love.

K.C. Mills penned her first novel in July 2015. One of her many talents is the ability to move between multiple genres and fully execute stories which are whole, realistic and heart-warming that leave readers wanting more. Her soul tends to feel at home with contemporary adult romance and urban fiction novels. To date, she has over one hundred titles, thirty-seven of which were published independently. Mills’ goal as an author is to craft Romance with an Edge that displays love in all shades of brown, with beautifully flawed humans that deserve to find their happily ever after.

Toni Shiloh is a wife, a mom, and an award-winning Christian contemporary romance author. Her novel In Search of a Prince won the first ever Christy Amplify Award. It has also been praised by Oprah Daily, POPSUGAR, Library Journal, and Booklist and is a Parable bestseller. Her books have won the Christy Award and Selah Award and have been finalists for the Carol Award and the HOLT Medallion. As a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), Toni loves connecting with readers and authors alike via social media. Learn more at ToniShiloh.com

Georgia K. Boone is a writer, a poet, and the daughter of storytellers. Sometimes, she writes songs she may one day share. Once, in a Brooklyn community center, she read James Baldwin’s quote “You can’t tell the children there’s no hope,” and she carries those words from the city to the desert and beyond. She lives on the West Coast with her family

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Theresa Arline, is a Birmingham, AL native, graduate of Texas Southern University and the owner of Public Displays of Reading, a book accesories company based in Houston, Texas. Her lifelong passion for reading has evolved into a mission to promote books by Black authors across genres. 

Now you can support your favorite independent bookstore everywhere you go!

Wear our little bookshop with Love and Pride.

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.

*ships in 7 -10 business days*

A beautiful first guide to African elephants, part of an exciting new series of animal books.

Head on safari to the grasslands of Africa to study African elephants in this beautiful nonfiction field guide for kids.

You might know that African elephants are the largest land animals on Earth, but there’s so much more to learn about these tusked creatures. Turn the pages to find out why the grandmother is in charge of an elephant family, and why big ears help elephants cool down! Meet a baby elephant as it takes its first steps, and discover how to tell the difference between an African elephant and an Asian elephant. The book also looks at the conservation challenges these iconic animals face due to climate change and ivory poaching.

Celebrate the release of The Grandest Garden with Gina L. Carroll!

EVENT DEETS

When: Thursday, June 6, 2024

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

How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support our programming and the author. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gina L. Carroll is the author of A Story That Matters: A Gratifying Way to Write About Your Life and editor of Stories Are Medicine: Writing to Heal, An Anthology. A self-pro-fessed story wrangler, Gina founded StoryHouse Texas, a creative space dedicated to cultivating and amplifying the diversity of vision and voice in story. The Grandest Garden is her debut novel. She currently lives in Houston, Texas. To learn more about Gina, visit www.ginacarroll.com.

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton is an award-winning writer, director, performer, critic, and the first Black Poet Laureate of Houston, TX. Praised by the NY Times as an artist who “defies categorization”, her genre-bending works span from stage to page, and everything in between. She is the author of Newsworthy (Bloomsday Literary, 2019) which was translated into German (Berichtenswert, Elif Verlag, 2020), Black Chameleon (Henry Holt, 2023), and an upcoming children's book, Hush Hush Hurricane (Kokila Books). Honored as part of Houston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 class, she has been a contributing writer for Glamour, Texas Monthly, Muzzle, and ESPN's Andscape, to name a few.

Her most recent choreopoem, PLUMSHUGA: The rise of Lauren Anderson, debuted at Stages Theater and made the cover of the NY Times Culture Section. Her forthcoming opera, She Who Dared, composed by Jasmine Barnes, will  debut in Spring 2025. Her memoir, Black Chameleon (Henry Holt & Co, 2023), recently won the the Carr P. Collins award for Best Nonfiction through the Texas Institute of Letters (2024). Order your copy now.

The bookclub meeting will take place on January 25, 2024 at 7 PM in The Reading Room (inside The Post). Be sure to show up with the book read (or partially read) but you are always welcome to just come and take up space. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Disrupt and push back against capitalism and white supremacy. In this book, Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, encourages us to connect to the liberating power of rest, daydreaming, and naps as a foundation for healing and justice.

What would it be like to live in a well-rested world? Far too many of us have claimed productivity as the cornerstone of success. Brainwashed by capitalism, we subject our bodies and minds to work at an unrealistic, damaging, and machine‑level pace –– feeding into the same engine that enslaved millions into brutal labor for its own relentless benefit.

In Rest Is Resistance, Tricia Hersey, aka the Nap Bishop, casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted. Our worth does not reside in how much we produce, especially not for a system that exploits and dehumanizes us. Rest, in its simplest form, becomes an act of resistance and a reclaiming of power because it asserts our most basic humanity. We are enough. The systems cannot have us.

Rest Is Resistance is rooted in spiritual energy and centered in Black liberation, womanism, somatics, and Afrofuturism. With captivating storytelling and practical advice, all delivered in Hersey’s lyrical voice and informed by her deep experience in theology, activism, and performance art, Rest Is Resistance is a call to action, a battle cry, a field guide, and a manifesto for all of us who are sleep deprived, searching for justice, and longing to be liberated from the oppressive grip of Grind Culture.

The bookclub meeting will take place on February 29, 2024 at 7 PM in the Kindred Stories' Reading Garden. Be sure to show up with the book read (or partially read). You are always welcome to just come and take up space. 

ABOUT THE BOOK