Search results: 74 results for “by Valerie Wilson Wesley”
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74 results
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A Glimmer of Death
A Glimmer of Death
by Valerie Wilson Wesley
$15.95Award-winning author Valerie Wilson Wesley launches a thrilling new mystery series set in New Jersey, featuring a multicultural cast, and starring a caterer-turned-realtor with the gift of second sight...
In the first of a thrilling new series, one woman's extraordinary psychic gift plunges her already-troubled present into chaos--and puts her future in someone's deadly sights...
Until now, Odessa Jones' inherited ability to read emotions and foretell danger has protected her. But second sight didn't warn her she would soon be a widow--and about to lose her home and the catering business she's worked so hard to build. The only things keeping Dessa going are her love for baking and her sometimes-mellow cat, Juniper. Unfortunately, putting her life back together means taking a gig at an all-kinds-of-shady real estate firm run by volatile owner Charlie Risko...
Until Charlie is brutally killed--and Dessa's bullied co-worker is arrested for murder. Dessa can't be sure who's guilty. But it doesn't take a psychic to discover that everyone from Charlie's much-abused staff to his long-suffering younger wife had multiple reasons to want him dead. And as Dessa follows a trail of lies through blackmail, dead-end clues, and corruption, she needs to see the truth fast--or a killer will bury her deep down with it. -
A Fatal Glow
A Fatal Glow
by Valerie Wilson Wesley
$15.95Sometimes even good luck can mean bad fortune. For Odessa Jones—reluctant psychic, part-time caterer, full-time realtor—an elegant affair turned deadly threatens her reputation, and her life . . .
Recently widowed Odessa Jones is sure the exclusive catering job she’s scored from wealthy businessman Casey Osborne will propel her catering career into the big leagues. So when Dessa’s pesky second sight warns her that Osborne is bad news, she ignores it. She wishes she hadn’t when he drops dead at his brunch after sampling her homemade preserves. Osborne’s death is declared a homicide. Dessa and the friends who helped her cook are considered suspects . . .
To clear her name and find the truth, Dessa delves into Casey Osborne’s life. Everyone from his sinister business partner to his tormented ex-wife has reason to kill him—and the opportunity to do it. With the help of her spirited aunt, loyal co-workers and mischievous cat Juniper, she desperately searches for answers. Until a second murder leads Dessa down a frightening path filled with insidious hidden agendas—and someone poised to change her life forever. -
A Shimmer of Red
A Shimmer of Red
by Valerie Wilson Wesley
$16.95*ships in 7-10 business days
With pandemic-fearing city dwellers fleeing to the New Jersey suburbs, Risko Realty—and Odessa Jones—are having their best year ever. Finally on solid financial footing, Odessa is debt-free and looking forward to the future. But she doesn’t need second sight to sense her new young co-worker, Anna Lee, is on edge--and straight-up terrified--in spite of her hot sales record and sunny, outgoing attitude. And when Anna is killed in a hit-and-run, Odessa sees immediately that it was no accident . . .
It's soon clear that Anna was being stalked. But even with the help of family, friends—and Odessa’s feisty cat, Juniper—Odessa is coming up with more questions than clues. Why was Anna avoiding influential real-estate mogul Emily Delbarton? Why is Delbarton’s decidedly creepy brother so fixated on Anna? Did Anna make enemies through her previous job at the town’s exclusive gentlemen’s club? And can Odessa rule out her own ex-fiancé—who’s back in her life with an astounding connection to Anna—and wanting a second chance? Finding the answers will come at an increasingly deadly cost—one Odessa’s talents must somehow trap a killer to repay . . . -
suddenly we (Wesleyan Poetry Series)
suddenly we (Wesleyan Poetry Series)
Evie Shockley
$15.95Evie Shockley's new poems invite us to dream―and work―toward a more capacious "we"
In her new poetry collection, Evie Shockley mobilizes visual art, sound, and multilayered language to chart routes towards openings for the collective dreaming of a more capacious "we." How do we navigate between the urgency of our own becoming and the imperative insight that whoever we are, we are in relation to each other? Beginning with the visionary art of Black women like Alison Saar and Alma Thomas, Shockley's poems draw and forge a widening constellation of connections that help make visible the interdependence of everyone and everything on Earth.
perched
i am black, comely,
a girl on the cusp of desire.
my dangling toes take the rest
the rest of my body refuses. spine upright,
my pose proposes anticipation. i poise
in copper-colored tension, intent on
manifesting my soul in the discouraging world.under the rough eyes of others, i stiffen.
if i must be hard, it will be as a tree, alive
with change. inside me, a love of beauty rises
like sap, sprouts from my scalp
and stretches forth. i send out my song, an aria
blue and feathered, and grow toward it,
choirs bare, but soon to bud. i am
black and becoming.―after Alison Saar's Blue Bird
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The Ex Dilemma (Batchelor Life)
The Ex Dilemma (Batchelor Life)
$18.95"Marry or lose your inheritance." A commitment phobic heir in Detroit, Michigan faces the ultimate challenge from his powerful grandmother and family company CEO in this charming, irresistibly fun and flirty new contemporary romance from award-winning author Elle Wright.
Wesley Batchelor is desperate for an image reboot—stat. A mysterious social media influencer keeps revealing his many reckless romantic liaisons, putting everything Wesley has worked so hard for at stake. Worse, he’s in deep trouble with his grandmother and Batchelor Enterprises boss, Joyce, his one and only true cheerleader. So he’s stunned and relieved when his gorgeous ex, private detective Albany Keyes, is recruited to track down the leaker . . .
All Wes has to do is keep a cool-headed professional distance. Easy, right? Until the incendiary passion between him and Albany suddenly reignites. And he realizes he wants more from her—just like always . . .
For Joyce's sake, Albany reluctantly accepts the assignment to aid Wes. After all, she needs the money to regroup after a disastrous divorce. But this time, she's going to call the shots. She doesn’t need her heart re-broken by the only man she's ever loved. Yet she soon finds their differences are drawing them together again. And again. And again. Now, with both their careers and their hearts on the line, can they risk another chance on each other—this time, for keeps?
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PRE-ORDER: You Better Love What You See: Living with Joy, Confidence, and Unapologetic Self-Worth
PRE-ORDER: You Better Love What You See: Living with Joy, Confidence, and Unapologetic Self-Worth
$30.00Hollywood icon and Emmy Award-winning Abbott Elementary actress Sheryl Lee Ralph shares the personal stories that have shaped her and the advice that has guided her throughout her life—helping readers breathe deeper, love stronger, and rise higher.
Sheryl Lee Ralph understands a truth most of us learn the hard way: There are moments in life when you must let your light shine. Moments when the noise of the world tries to mute your mic and silence your voice, dull your glow, and convince you to forget who you are. She has known those moments intimately—under the bright lights of Broadway and in the quiet hum of hospital rooms, on red carpets and in church pews. Sheryl has worn crowns and carried a few crosses, but through it all remained her unshakable faith in one simple belief: better must come. No matter how many times life knocks you down, you can rise, you must rise, reclaim yourself, and begin again.
You Better Love What You See isn’t a list of commandments to make you feel guilty, a to-do list, or the play-by-play story of an actor’s life. Filled with boundless empathy and wisdom, it’s a moving guide for anyone who wonders if they’re enough, who wants to lead with love and heal themselves, or who still battles with self-doubt.
Sheryl’s reflections draw from her life as a performer, mother, daughter, wife, sister, and above all a wise, wild woman. She shares stories about remaining determined in the face of defeat, overcoming obstacles when systemic oppression tried to keep her down, and how to find strength in every storm, including:
* Experiences from her childhood as the only girl of color in her Catholic school, to being fired from a TV role for not being “Black enough”
* Enrolling in the very first coed class at Rutgers University
* Bringing down the house with her historic Emmy Award win and acceptance speech
* And many more inspiring moments touching on themes such as faith, resilience, choosing joy, and finding purposeSheryl’s warm and empowering message is that, bottom line, when you look in the mirror, you better love what you see, because feeling powerful and purposeful won’t come from external accolades or approval—it starts with YOU. Her strong, authentic voice and magnetic presence are evident on every page—and readers will return to it again and again whenever their light is feeling a little dim.
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PRE-ORDER: Wild Hearts
PRE-ORDER: Wild Hearts
$24.99The story that captivated readers―now complete for the first time.
Passion for the Heist introduced readers to the love story of Passion Adams and Percy “Pain” Wells―a tale of survival, betrayal, and love. Now, experience The Wild Hearts Duology in one volume, including Passion for the Heist and the never-before-published sequel, Murder of Crows.
A crime brought them together. Grief bound them. Love made them infamous.
Percy “Pain” Wells returned from prison with two things: a ruined reputation and his grandmother’s medical bills. Debts don’t care if he’s trying to go straight, and the streets he once ruled now whisper his name like a warning.
Passion Adams has nothing left but the locket holding her parents’ ashes, a monster for an uncle, and habits that numb the pain. When the locket is stolen in a robbery, she thinks it’s gone forever. Then it turns up in the hands of a stranger with hardened eyes and a calm that screams danger.
Pain should walk away, but something about Passion―her fire, her pain―won’t let him go. Their lives collide, and what starts as a mission to make things right becomes a fight to stay alive. Their explosive love turns two broken souls into the most wanted names in the city, hunted by cops and the underworld alike.
For Passion and Pain, there are only two ways out: disappear into the shadows or become the story everyone tells.
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PRE-ORDER: The Fall of Elvenesse
PRE-ORDER: The Fall of Elvenesse
$27.99Award-winning author Kai Ashante Wilson returns with a bold new vision of fantasy. The Fall of Elvenesse transforms the genre of Tolkien in the image of N. K. Jemisin, Marlon James, and Simon Jimenez.
Elves have ruined the world.
From their high mountain, the cruel knights of Elvenesse range out to conquer. They pillage, they enslave, they wreak genocide. Always the Elves have taken, never considered when the bill for their crimes will come due.
That time has come. The fury of the world has awoken. The victims will have their vengeance.
A divine scourge of fire sweeps across the land toward Elvenesse, and the last free people of the Nations flee before it. As the mountains char, rivers boil, and savannas burn, the Free Nations rely on the muscle and magic of their strong and runt freaks. But as their one remaining Saint assumes his power, he receives a prophecy: the Nations' only path to survival runs through Elvenesse. Only by navigating the Elven labyrinth can he win his people's lives.
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PRE-ORDER: For the Villain (Deluxe Edition) (Hunt the Red Hood, 2)
PRE-ORDER: For the Villain (Deluxe Edition) (Hunt the Red Hood, 2)
$19.99The second book in the Hunt the Red Hood duology from bestselling author B.B. Reid.
While caring for her grandmother, a young woman is caught between a sly wolf hellbent on seducing her and an enigmatic stranger with a heart of tarnished gold.
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PRE-ORDER: I Can Feel It All Over: A Novel
PRE-ORDER: I Can Feel It All Over: A Novel
$28.00In this radiant and incisive debut novel in the tradition of works by ZZ Packer and Toni Cade Bambara, a Black woman fights to reclaim—and reinvent—her world after a little understood illness and a public health crisis threatens to upend everything she has.
Forty-seven-year-old Harmony Johnston is not suited for New York City life in 2019. From shampoos to synthetics to cell phones—the ubiquitous staples of modern daily life cause her physical pain, for reasons no one, including Harmony, understand. Doctors deny her illness is real, after seven years of enduring this private war, Harmony has her doubts too. Betrayed by her body and mind, as well as those closest to her—her obstinate physician sister, her sneaky best friend, and a spectral aunt who appears and disappears at whim—Harmony clings to the one doctor who offers hope.
In war, there are sacrifices: hair, boyfriend, sleep. Conditioned to place the comfort of others above her own needs, Harmony strives to be accommodating in an increasingly inhospitable world. But when the prestigious non-profit she works for relocates to an office with new wiring, painting, and carpeting (and the same old racial tensions) that exacerbate her pain, she quits her job and begins to set firm boundaries that upend her life, make her universe a little smaller, and magnify her loneliness.
As Harmony grows increasingly ill threatening her relationship with her one sympathetic doctor, she cuts herself off completely from the outside world and plunges into depression and literal darkness. When she eventually resurfaces, the world is irreversibly altered. With everyone now nearly as isolated as she is, Harmony resolves to re-connect with all she has lost. But can things ever really go back to normal?
At turns devastating, funny, and affirming, I Can Feel It All Over is an unforgettable debut novel about bodily autonomy, art, connection, and the pursuit of an authentic life amid the world's confines.
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PRE-ORDER: We Made the World: Five Centuries of Queens, Warriors, and Other Foremothers
PRE-ORDER: We Made the World: Five Centuries of Queens, Warriors, and Other Foremothers
$30.00We Made the World: Five Centuries of Queens, Warriors, and Other Foremothers traces five centuries of history through twelve extraordinary women of African descent—from queens and warriors to artists and activists—weaving together collective memory, oral tradition, and personal grief into a landmark work that places Black women at the center of world history.
In 1949, a seamstress from a small coastal town in the Gold Coast colony stood up in a room full of men and voted to split from the most powerful political party in the country. Her name was Hannah Kudjoe. She spent the next decade organizing the women who would win Ghana's first democratic election and help make it the first sub-Saharan African nation to gain independence from European colonial rule. When Nkrumah published his autobiography, she wasn't in it.
We Made the World does for twelve women what it does for Hannah Kudjoe. It finds the woman who was in the room, who was essential to the room, and whose name was removed from the record the moment her usefulness to powerful men was exhausted.
We're talking about Queen Njinga of Angola, who fought the Portuguese to a standstill for forty years and died at eighty still a sovereign. Wangarĩ Maathai, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who saved a Nairobi forest by walking upstream through a river at dawn to plant trees while the police watched. Brenda Fassie, the queer Black pop icon who sang South Africa through the end of apartheid and whose music still stops a room on any continent.
The author traveled to eleven countries to write this book. She gathered oral histories from descendants and community keepers across four continents. And she wrote it while experiencing great loss and grief which means this book knows in its bones what it costs to carry someone's memory, and what it costs not to.
We Made the World is five hundred years of history rewritten from the inside. It is the book that asks what we have lost by not knowing these women's names, and begins the important work of giving that back to us all.
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PRE-ORDER: The Art of Rising Again: Heal Your Inner Bully. Hear Your True Voice. Honor Your Worth.
PRE-ORDER: The Art of Rising Again: Heal Your Inner Bully. Hear Your True Voice. Honor Your Worth.
$22.99Discover how to overcome challenges, regain your footing, and rise stronger.
In The Art of Rising Again, join artist, writer, speaker LaNia Roberts (LaNia the Artist) for a bold and transformative journey that will guide you to live with greater self-worth, resilience, and unapologetic joy.
Life knocks us down. Over and over again. And getting back up can feel impossible. Whether you've been navigating illness, divorce, failure, or other life-altering events, it is time to break free from shame, embrace self-compassion, and rediscover your purpose.
LaNia has been there too, and in The Art of Rising Again she comes alongside you and shares her story of overcoming some of life’s biggest challenges so you can find the permission and strength to do it too. Combining her stunning artwork with practical tools that will empower you during the journey ahead, she offers you inspiration to regain your footing and rise stronger. Organized into 10 impactful sections, this book offers:
* Raw, personal stories from LaNia’s life, revealing how she overcame challenges and silenced her inner critic
* Devotions, affirmations, and actionable steps to empower you on your journey of healing and growth
* Stunning fine art paintings by LaNia, celebrating memory, identity, and liberation through vibrant colors and layered storytellingThe Art of Rising Again is an ideal gift for loved ones and friends who need encouragement, those who may not yet recognize their own worth, or anyone recovering from life’s toughest challenges.
If you are ready to walk the path of transformation, this no-nonsense, straight-to-the-heart guide will help you get started. This book will empower you to reclaim your confidence, pursue your dreams, and rise again.
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