Booby or Jordan? That was the one question that Lenika needed the answer to more than anything. She’d spent enough of her life thinking and praying about her first love, it was time she found out the truth. Having been sexually and emotionally abused Diara has learned to keep her sweet heart to herself. In her life, love held a lack of permanence, and before she allowed herself to be let down again, she’d stay alone. Manipulative as they come, Riley and Gucci are two of the most conniving men in the state of Georgia. Full of themselves and feeling invincible, both men continue to lurk around wreaking havoc on others, with no signs of remorse... until the tables are turned.

What do you do when you’re attractive, yet self-conscious? Sweet but not innocent? Bruised but not broken? You find someone who is tough enough, and willing to love you past your flaws. You engage in a relationship with a person who can be strong where you’re weak, and build you up where you’re torn down. Just when Diara thought she’d never find love, along came Cordell. Alike, yet so different, Cordell and Diara embark on an unlikely journey of hope that unexpectedly ends in love. Jordan Grier is a young boss who has reigned heavy in the streets since he was a child. Growing up in a family full of drug dealers, Jordan is no stranger to the street life. Anything regarding drugs, guns, and money, he handles it like the king he is, but when love is thrown into the mix, he has to work a little harder to remain on top. Though she’s the daughter of a street king and a well-known face in the neighborhood, Lenika isn’t properly introduced to the game until she involves herself with Jordan. Unlike her father, Jordan isn’t sheltering her from the game. He gives her all of him at all times, not hiding anything until an unbearable tragedy strikes and he’s forced to shatter her heart with his departure. Young Love is beautiful, but old love is better...

In the summer of 1978, the B-52's conquered the New York underground. A year later, the band's self-titled debut album burst onto the Billboard charts, capturing the imagination of fans and music critics worldwide. The fact that the group had formed in the sleepy southern college town of Athens, Georgia, only increased the fascination. Soon, more Athens bands followed the B-52's into the vanguard of the new American music that would come to be known as "alternative," including R.E.M., who catapulted over the course of the 1980s to the top of the musical mainstream. As acts like the B-52's, R.E.M., and Pylon drew the eyes of New York tastemakers southward, they discovered in Athens an unexpected mecca of music, experimental art, DIY spirit, and progressive politics--a creative underground as vibrant as any to be found in the country's major cities. In Athens in the eighties, if you were young and willing to live without much money, anything seemed possible. Cool Town reveals the passion, vitality, and enduring significance of a bohemian scene that became a model for others to follow. Grace Elizabeth Hale experienced the Athens scene as a student, small-business owner, and band member. Blending personal recollection with a historian's eye, she reconstructs the networks of bands, artists, and friends that drew on the things at hand to make a new art of the possible, transforming American culture along the way. In a story full of music and brimming with hope, Hale shows how an unlikely cast of characters in an unlikely place made a surprising and beautiful new world.