367 results for “tanvier peart”

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  • IRL Author Talk: Mo'Lasses with Viktor Givens - March 6 @ 6 PM CST
    $0.00

    Celebrate Viktor Given's book, Mo'Lasses: Ancestral (Re)Memories, Myth 'nd Lore!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Wednesday, March 6 @ 6:00 PM CST

    Where: Kindred Stories' Reading Garden 

    How: RSVP to let us know that you will be present

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    There is magic, reverence and mystery in the spaces, objects and writings of Viktor le. Givens a multi-modal performance artist, whose practice centers around the gathering and arrangement of ancestral objects to re-contextualize the seemingly mundane into the spectacularly sacred. Part ritual ‘nd part prose performance score this book is written to encourage an interdisciplinary approach to (re)reading, (re)sounding, (re)imagining ‘nd (re)staging memories ‘nd pathologies of his Afro-southern-ancestors…  The work takes us on a lucid journey of  self discovery and cultural reawakening after a young man inherits a mysterious  box of objects following the passing of his grandfather in East Texas. Through recipes, flash fictions, images and  poetry  the audience is invited to reinterpret the sweet complexities of Blackness, the  memories, the objects and rituals discovered on his journey. 

  • IRL BOOK SIGNING: Burden of Love with Mya - April 12 @ 2 PM CST
    from $0.00

    Celebrate independent author, Mya's first traditionally published novel, Burden of Love! 

    EVENT DEETS 

    When: Saturday, April 12 @ 2PM 

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

    How: RSVP WITH BOOK to secure your copy of Burden of Love or RSVP ONLY to buy your book at the event. 

    This is a book signing only so there will be no chairs, etc. You will be able to meet and chat with the author as well as purchase a book to get signed. Outside copies of Burden of Love will not be allowed in the venue. 

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    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?

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

    Mya is a twenty-three-year-old, boy-mom and author from Houston, Texas. Since she was a little girl, she was drawn to books. From children’s books to young adult, her love blossomed. Mya's introduction to the literary world came at the young age of sixteen when she published her first book "His Little Secret". Starting with fan fiction and transitioning to African American romance, Mya now has a growing catalog of over 20 books which includes erotic romance and women's fiction novels. Mya’s love for black love has motivated her to create stories that reinforce the idea that regular people deserve extraordinary romantic tales. Through her books, she wants to leave readers with a discussion-provoking dialogue about the Black experience.

  • IRL Author Talk: Love Cake with Douglas Bell - May 18 @ 2PM
    from $0.00

    Celebrate the release of Love Cake with author, Douglas Bell!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Saturday, May 18, 2024 at 2 PM

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

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

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    Love Cake is contemporary fiction about Bryan Hicks and his transgender girlfriend, Nadia Brooks. Together they own and operate a bakery in conservative Texas. At its red velvet core, Love Cake is a story about how love persists in the face of prejudice and about the value of found family. It speaks to the power of loving people despite the mistakes they make.

    With thought-provoking insight, Douglas Bell in Love Cake, the second book of The Cakes Series duology and the sequel to Cake Walk, rings a bell again on an untold story that teaches how we can find the courage to show up for each other as the world tries to tear us apart.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Douglas Bell is a fiction writer based in the bustling city of Houston, Texas. He draws inspiration from a variety of sources, including the teachings of Buddha and the Dalai Lama, as well as the powerful storytelling of James Baldwin. When he's not writing, you can usually find him hitting the gym, experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen, or staying up to date with the latest fashion trends. 

  • IN PERSON AUTHOR TALK: We are a Haunting with Tyriek White & Kiese Laymon-June 1 @7PM CST
    from $0.00
    Come swoon over We are a Haunting with us! 
    EVENT DEETS
    WHEN: June 1 at 7PM CST
    WHERE: Kindred Stories Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, HTX 77004)
    HOW: RSVP to reserve your free ticket or RSVP with book to support our store and programming. 
    ABOUT THE BOOK
    A poignant debut for readers of Jesmyn Ward and Jamel Brinkley, We Are a Haunting follows three generations of a working class family and their inherited ghosts: a story of hope and transformation. 

    In 1980’s Brooklyn, Key is enchanted with her world, glowing with her dreams. A charming and tender doula serving the Black women of her East New York neighborhood, she lives, like her mother, among the departed and learns to speak to and for them. Her untimely death leaves behind her mother Audrey, who is on the verge of losing the public housing apartment they once shared. Colly, Key’s grieving son, soon learns that he too has inherited this sacred gift and begins to slip into the liminal space between the living and the dead on his journey to self-realization.

    In the present, an expulsion from school forces Colly across town where, feeling increasingly detached and disenchanted with the condition of his community, he begins to realize that he must, ultimately, be accountable to the place he is from. After college, having forged an understanding of friendship, kinship, community, and how to foster love in places where it seems impossible, Colly returns to East New York to work toward addressing structural neglect and the crumbling blocks of New York City public housing he was born to; discovering a collective path forward from the wreckages of the past. A supernatural family saga, a searing social critique, and a lyrical and potent account of displaced lives, We Are a Haunting unravels the threads connecting the past, present, and future, and depicts the palpable, breathing essence of the neglected corridors of a pulsing city with pathos and poise.
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR 
    Tyriek Rashawn White is a writer, musician, and educator from Brooklyn, where he served at-risk and marginalized youth, artists, and scholars in the classroom. He is currently the media director of Lampblack Lit, a literary foundation which seeks to provide mutual aid and various resources to Black writers across the diaspora. He has received fellowships from Callaloo Writing Workshop, New York State Writers Institute, and Key West Writers’ Workshop, among other honors. He holds a degree in Creative Writing and Africana Studies from Pitzer College, and most recently earned an MFA from the University of Mississippi. He is the author of the forthcoming novel, WE ARE A HAUNTING (Astra House, 2023).
    ABOUT THE MODERATOR

    Kiese Laymon is a Black southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon is the Libby Shearn Moody Professor of English and Creative Writing at Rice University. He is also the  author of Long Division, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, and  Heavy: An American Memoir.  Kiese Laymon was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2022.

  • Liberation Summer Discussion Series w/ The Texas Black Migrant Ecosystem
    $0.00

    EVENT MISSION:

    The mission of this workshop is to unite people from all facets of Black culture. This will not be just another networking opportunity; rather, it aims to foster connections with Black immigrants involved in movement-building spaces and with Black Americans living in proximity to social injustice. 

    Finding a path forward by discussing ways we can collaborate, build, and organize together. Learning and hearing from directly impacted Black immigrants and Black folx who sit at many intersections, and mobilizing to dismantle and create new systems of life and structure. 

    Coming face-to-face with harmful systems and policy changes in the region. We will share tools and resources so attendees can not only participate in the discussion but also find tangible ways to turn these conversations into action that challenges and transforms harmful systems.

    EVENT DETAILS

    Dates:

    • July 29
    • August 15
    • September 23

    Time:
    6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

    Location:
    Kindred Stories
    2310 Elgin Street, Suite #2
    Houston, TX 77004

    Each event will feature a panel discussion followed by a Q&A session. 

    A curated book list will accompany each event, with all featured titles available for purchase at Kindred Stories.

  • merry meet- cute: a virtual panel of Black holiday Romance authors - November 24 @ 3:30 PM CST
    from $3.00

    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. 

  • YA Book Club for Adults Presents Legacy of Orisha Read - A - Thon
    $0.00

    We are so excited for Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi, the third and final book in the Legacy of Orisha series, which comes out June 25, 2024!!!

    In preparation, we are re-reading Children of Blood and Bone as well as Children of Virtue and Vengeance with our Young Adult Book Club for Adults and we want all of you to join us!

    Here's how: 

    • The first bookclub meeting is free and open to anyone. 
    • However, our bookclub meeting for Children of Virtue and Vengeance and Children of Anguish and Anarchy are exclusively available to those who pre-order Children of Anguish and Anarchy through us.
    • You can pre-order Children of Anguish and Anarchy here !
    • Once you pre-order, you'll be added to our exclusive Legacy of Orisha Read-A-Thon Facebook Group
    • You will also receive the links for each book club meeting and a little bit of swag.

    Meeting Times

    • Children of Blood and Bone - May 21 at 7 PM CST (virtual)
    • Children of Virtue and Vengeance - June 24 at 7 PM CST (virtual)
    • Children of Anguish and Anarchy - July 27 at Time: TBA (hybrid)

    About the Book(s)

    Children of Blood and Bones 

    In a world where magic has disappeared and magis, once revered, are targeted by a ruthless king, Zélie has always feared she would share the fate of her mother, killed at the hands of the king’s guards when Zélie was just a child.

    Now, at seventeen, Zélie has a chance to bring magic back to the land of Orïsha. With the help of her brother Tzain and the fugitive Crown Princess Amari, she sets off on a journey to restore her people’s magical abilities. In order to succeed, they’ll have to outwit and outrun Prince Inan, who is hell-bent on ridding the world of magic.

    In the face of danger, death, and a star-crossed romance, Zélie must grapple with the ramifications of bringing magic back to her people—and come to terms with her own powers.

    About Children of Virtue and Vengeance

    Zélie must save Orïsha from a devastating civil war in the dazzling second installment of the Legacy of Orïsha trilogy by Tomi Adeyemi.

    After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But the ritual was more powerful than they could’ve imagined, reigniting the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with magic ancestry, too.

    Now, Zélie struggles to unite the maji in an Orïsha where the enemy is just as powerful as they are. But when the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Orïsha, Zélie must fight to secure Amari's right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy's wrath.

    With civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: She must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.

    About Children of Anguish and Anarchy 

    New allies rise.
    The Blood Moon nears.
    Zélie faces her final enemy.
    The king who hunts her heart.

    When Zelie seized the royal palace that fateful night, she thought her battles had come to an end. The monarchy had finally fallen. The maji had risen again. Zélie never expected to find herself locked in a cage and trapped on a foreign ship. Now warriors with iron skulls traffic her and her people across the seas, far from their homeland.

    Then everything changes when Zélie meets King Baldyr, her true captor, the ruler of the Skulls, and the man who has ravaged entire civilizations to find her. Baldyr’s quest to harness Zélie’s strength sends Zélie, Amari, and Tzain searching for allies in unknown lands.

    But as Baldyr closes in, catastrophe charges Orïsha’s shores. It will take everything Zélie has to face her final enemy and save her people before the Skulls annihilate them for good.

  • IRL The Banned Wagon - October 7, 2023
    $0.00

     The Banned Wagon: A Vehicle for Change is road-tripping through the South this #BannedBooksWeek (October 1-7).

    EVENT DEETS
    Date: Saturday, October 7

    Time: 1pm-4pm

    Location: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart St., Houston, TX, 77004)

    Book bans are on the rise in America, driven by new laws and regulations limiting the kinds of books that kids can access.

    Penguin Random House, in partnership with Freedom to Read Foundation, PEN America, Free Little Library and local bookstores, is roadtripping through the South handing out free copies of banned books to people in affected communities who need and want them most. 

    Join us for an afternoon of tunes, community, free books and giveaways! 
  • Houston Reads Alice Walker! Presented by Project Row Houses, Kindred Stories, and Chanecka Williams
    $0.00

    A message from Chanecka Williams:

    "Alice Walker has been a force in the world for over forty years. As a writer, poet and activist, she is relentless in her pursuit of a free(er) world for all. In this social, political, time-space reality, Walker’s work feels essential to be explored with new eyes. Join us as we read her novels, short story collections, and a few of her nonfiction works. It would be remiss to not mention that this journey is as spiritual as literary being that Alice Walker has always given credit to the spirits that accompany her. "
    This gathering will be held on the online video conferencing platform Zoom. Please join us by registering for this month only or the entire meet-up series here.

    Kindred Stories is proud to partner with Project Row Houses and Chanecka to present Houston Reads Alice Walker.

    Alice Walker Meeting Schedule:

    September 18 - The Temple of My Familiar
    October 16 - Possessing the Secret of Joy
    November 20 - The Third Life of Grange Copeland
    December 18 - In Love & Trouble
    January 15 - Meridian
    February 19 - You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down
    March 19 - By the Light of My Father's Smile
    April 16 - The Way Forward With a Broken Heart: Stories
    May 21 - Now is the Time to Open Your Heart
    June 11 - In Search of Our Mother's Garden Pt. I & Pt. II
    July 16 - In Search of Our Mother's Garden Pt. III & Pt. IV
    August 20 - Alike Walker Poetry Reading
    September 17 - Gathering Blossoms Under Fire
    About Alice Walker

    Alice Walker is an internationally celebrated writer, poet and activist whose books include seven novels, four collections of short stories, four children’s books, and volumes of essays and poetry.  She won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 1983 and the National Book Award.

    About Chanecka Williams

    In May 2020, after realizing books were talking over her personal Instagram account, Chanecka started a new account with the handle @headwrpreader centering literature. As a book influencer, she is extremely passionate about book discovery. She is always ahead of the curve on new and lesser known book releases. Currently, she works as a team member at Kindred Stories in addition to pursuing a Master of Library and Information Science. She hopes to work as a research librarian and archivist.

    About Project Row Houses

    Project Row Houses is a community platform that enriches lives through art with an emphasis on cultural identity and its impact on the urban landscape. We engage neighbors, artists, and enterprises in collective creative action to help materialize sustainable opportunities in marginalized communities.

    Project Row Houses occupies a significant footprint in Houston’s Historic Third Ward, one of the city’s oldest African-American neighborhoods. The site encompasses five city blocks and houses 39 structures that serve as home base to a variety of community-enriching initiatives, art programs, and neighborhood development activities. PRH programs touch the lives of under-resourced neighbors, young single mothers with the ambition of a better life for themselves and their children, small enterprises with the drive to take their businesses to the next level, and artists interested in using their talents to understand and enrich the lives of others. Although PRH’s African-American roots are planted deeply in Third Ward, the work of PRH extends far beyond the borders of a neighborhood in transition. The Project Row Houses model for art and social engagement applies not only to Houston, but also to diverse communities around the world.

    ABOUT KINDRED STORIES

    Kindred Stories was born of a love for reading and a passion for community.

    Kindred Stories is here to give kids and adults alike a space to explore the wide open world of literary content and creative works fashioned by black and brown hands. We are a bookstore committed to amplifying Black voices and bringing diverse stories from throughout the African diaspora to our local community in Houston, TX. We will be located in the Third Ward neighborhood, where we'll provide a well curated offering to edify the swelling appetites for authentic stories as told by those who have lived them.

    We are beyond thrilled to serve Houston and the world at large through our website offerings. Stay tuned for what’s in store with the opening of our physical space later this year.  Thank you for being a part of our tribe!

  • Virtual Author Workshop: Decolonizing Therapy with Jennifer Mullan - January 10 @ 6:30 PM CST
    from $10.00

    Are you a mental health worker? Come spend a evening diving into your practices and decolonizing them with clinically psychologist, Jennifer Mullan. 

    THE DEETS

    When: Wednesday, January 10 at 6:30 PM

    Where: Virtual Via Zoom

    How: Grab your ticket and we'll shoot the Zoom link to you!

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    A call to action for therapists to politicize their practice through an emotional decolonial lens.

    An essential work that centers colonial and historical trauma in a framework for healing, Decolonizing Therapy illuminates that all therapy is—and always has been— inherently political. To better understand the mental health oppression and institutional violence that exists today, we must become familiar with the root of disembodiment from our histories, homelands, and healing practices. Only then will readers see how colonial, historical, and intergenerational legacies have always played a role in the treatment of mental health.

    This book is the emotional companion and guide to decolonization. It is an invitation for Eurocentrically trained clinicians to acknowledge privileged and oppressed parts while relearning what we thought we knew. Ignoring collective global trauma makes delivering effective therapy impossible; not knowing how to interrogate privilege (as a therapist, client, or both) makes healing elusive; and shying away from understanding how we as professionals may be participating in oppression is irresponsible.

    ABOUT AUTHOR 

    Jennifer Mullan, Psy.D is a dynamic international speaker, professor, healer-spiritualist, scholar-activist and widely known as the Rage Doctor ™. Dr. Jennifer Mullan is the author of “Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma & Politicizing Your Practice”.

    Trained as a clinical psychologist; Dr. Jennifer Mullan birthed Decolonizing Therapy ®, a psychological evolution that weaves together political, ancestral, therapeutic and global well-being. 

    Dr. Mullan is a major disruptor in the mental health industrial complex. Her work is an urgent call to dive to the root of global and generational trauma to unlock the wisdom of our sacred rage. 

    Decolonizing Therapy ® catalyzes a growing movement of practitioners who are unlearning colonial methods of psychology. They are co-creating a new liberatory model of mental health.

    Dr. Jennifer Mullan received ESSENCE Magazine’s 2020 Essential Hero Award in Mental Health, and was featured on The Today Show, Vox, Cosmopolitan, Allure, GQ, Bloomberg, Heal Magazine, Catalyst and the Calgary Journal, among many others. She currently lives in Northern NJ on land that was stewarded by the Leni Lenape people.


  • SEPTEMBER 2026: Romance Book Club -September 8 @ 7PM
    $0.00

    We're meeting to discuss Revive Me: Parts 1-3 by J.L Seegars!

    BOOK CLUB MEETING DEETS

    When: Tuesday, September 8 @ 7PM CST

    Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St, Houston, TX 77004)

    How: RSVP ONLY to let us know you plan to attend! Support the Romance Book Club by purchasing a copy of the book from Kindred Stories below!

    Revive Me Pt. 1

    Revive Me Pt. 2

    Revive Me Pt. 3

    *This series is a Kindred bestseller, and we'll be discussing all three books in the series. Earlier this year, we discussed Restore Me, and now we're excited to continue with Chris and Mallory's story.

    ABOUT THE REVIVE ME BOOKS

    Revive Me Pt. 1

    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 one of a trilogy.

    Mallory

    The first time I kissed Christopher Johnson, I knew he would be my biggest mistake. It didn’t stop me from wanting him though, and when the ghosts from my past came barging into the present, it didn’t stop me from agreeing to let him help.

    It was supposed to be a simple business arrangement, a few months of playing a role that came far too easily to the both of us, but it wasn’t long before it became more.

    Love. Devotion. Heartbreak in its truest form.

    Some people say life is for the living, but I say life is for the prepared. For the planners who know that controlling every piece on the board is the only way to get the result you want.

    To avoid unfortunate complications like having your heart broken by a man past experiences taught you, you never should have trusted in the first place.

    Christopher

    There’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do for Mallory Kent.

    I think I knew it the first time I laid eyes on her, and it’s remained one of my unspoken truths for the two years that I’ve known her. But I never thought I’d get the opportunity to do anything about it because Mallory is one of those people who doesn’t need anyone.

    She’s strong, serious, and always in control of every situation around her, which is why the second I see her looking panicked and uncertain in the arms of a figure from her past, I don’t think. I just act.

    I had no idea that one small decision would lead to this. A fake relationship—designed to solve her problems and mine—turned real. An earth shattering love torn apart by the very forces that led to its conception. Forces that turned me into the source of our destruction.

    There’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do for Mallory Kent, including break her heart to save her soul.

    Revive Me Pt. 2

    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 a 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.

    Revive Me Pt. 3

    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 three of a trilogy.

    Mallory

    Hope is a dangerous thing. It holds you close like a lover, whispering promises it never intends to keep, and just as soon as you relax into its arms, it lets you go. Sending you spinning into an abyss of nothingness. When I sent him away four years ago, he promised he would come back to me, and even as I asked him not to, I hoped that he would.

    Hope. I tucked it deep inside of me, underneath the scars of our before, beside the dreams of our after. Hidden like contraband. Guarded like a treasure. Broken like every promise that ever fell from his lips and hit my ears. Eventually, I got tired of hoping, of waiting for him, and I plunged my hands inside my own heart, ripping past scar tissue and muscle, veins and arteries to root it out.

    Hope. He conspired with it to make a fool of me, and when I freed myself from it, exorcised that pointless dream, I promised myself that no one would get the chance to do that to me again. Then, and only then, did he appear.

    My promise, a spell that conjured him. My determination, a challenge. My heart, the only prize he hopes to win.

    Christopher

    Life without Mallory Kent has taught me that time doesn’t heal wounds. It turns them into scars. Jagged tissue that grows around your pain, covering it with raised skin that will never again be smooth to the touch. My first scar formed when I was just a child. Too young to fully understand what my mother’s loss would mean for my life but old enough to remember the echo of the pain inside my empty chest. It was a unique agony. One I never expected to feel again.

    But that was before I loved her. Before I let things that had nothing to do with us cost me everything.

    It’s been four years since I decided to honor her request to stay away. To move on with my life and give her a chance to move on with hers. And she might not agree, but it was more than enough time for us to try and do the impossible. The only thing our time apart has done is remind me that wherever she is, is where I’m supposed to be.

    Now I just have to make her believe it.

     

  • Dema Designs Tea Tasting with Delita Martin - January 12 @ 4PM
    $5.00

    Join us for an intimate tea tasting with Delia Martin, printmaker and creator behind Dema Designs! 

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Sunday, January 12 @ 4 PM

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

    How: RSVP to let us know you'll be coming 

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