Into the Darkness By: Mia Scaletta Have you ever felt like you don’t fit in except with a small group of friends? Those bonds, tested and proven over time, can be more powerful than any blood or family ties. They’re the friendships that make you laugh, make you cry, and even make you cringe at times, especially when the jokes are corny enough. This small band of friends never imagines that they’re anything but ordinary. They enjoy video games, hanging out on the weekends, and riding their bikes around their small town. But under this cloud of normalcy lies a couple dark secrets that cause pain and heartache, and not all of them are entirely from this world. Join Lilac and his friends on a quest to discover who they really are, solve life-threatening mysteries, and uncover feelings they’ve had all along.

Flat chested and agile as monkeys, the pretty little Sheppard sisters hunt exotic insects as decorations for their mud pies and childhood games. Yet, by the age of ten, Mya Sheppard's body has outgrown her innocent mind. Deeply troubled by its unwanted attention, Mya climbs trees hoping to remain within the protected cradle of childhood. But the violence that chased the Sheppard girls to California finds them and forces them and their Mother back to Georgia and into the home of Donovan Sheppard's religious parents. Struggling against bouts of anxiety brought on by salty California, Mya finds herself in a whirl of trouble one afternoon when she's left in the care of a grandfather who finds her tempting. Despite the domestic issues plaguing the family, this assault seizes Mya's ability to defend her body against others, and her own hands. Brutally honest and graphically told, Mya introduces the reader to the life of a family fighting for love and normalcy, and struggling to remain together.

Vixen Williams has always been known as a woman of many faces. The fiercely devoted one she uses for her best friend, the one of a lover and confidant to her fiancé, and the real one she keeps reserved for looking in the mirror and battling her inner demons. Life is fairly normal for Vixen until her verbally abusive mother reenters her life, dredging up traumatic childhood memories, and bringing a handsome stranger into the mix with her devious antics causing Vixen to reprise her role as caregiver and bread winner. Gino Romano is infamous for many reasons: his notoriety for being one of the youngest king pins in New York City, the cold manner in which he handles business, and the notable political ties he's managed to create along the way through "profit sharing." However, the most prominent thing he's known for is the ice fortress he's built around his heart. Because of his past, Gino keeps women at an arms length, believing it hard to find one who could accept the scarred past he comes with. Until he lays eyes on Vixen. Brought together for all the wrong reasons, Vixen and Gino find a common ground that not only develops into a budding friendship, but sparks a love affair. From the moment they become one they must fight to protect their love from those who plan to destroy it by any means necessary, one of which being the very reason Vixen ran away from home ten years ago in the dead of night. Will the forces determined to see Gino and Vixen destroyed win? Or will their love prevail? Set in a spicy Brooklyn backdrop, A Brooklyn Love Affair brings to life pain, forgiveness, and the never ending possibility of finding love.

Drawing from bell hook’s 1999 book All About Love, this volume builds on theories of love as they relate to Black Girlhood in education, shedding light on educational practices rooted in love and exploring strategies for centering Black girls and love in Grades K-12. Bringing together voices of scholars, poets, and visual artists who theorize Black Girlhood, the collection pays particular attention to practices, acts, communities, and pedagogies of love. An antidote to the physical, emotional, and psychological violence to which Black girls in the United States are subjected on a daily basis at the hands of those who work in schooling environments, it shows how teachers, school leaders, community educators, and researchers might use love as a framework for changing the narrative and experiences of Black girls. Crucially, though, in conversation with negative aspects of how Black girls experience school, it argues for a shift in perspective that highlights the myriad of ways Black girls do and can receive love within schooling spaces. Read through one of the most influential Black feminist scholars of all time, it presents a novel alternative to the dearth of research that focuses on the violence, neglect, and exclusion Black girls experience in schools, expands the scholarship on Black girls, (re)centers love in the work that educators do, and connects theoretical orientations that characterize Black girl love to practice both in and outside of classrooms. It will appeal to scholars, researchers, and educators working in the fields on urban education, race and ethnicity in education, gender studies, literacy, multicultural education, and diversity and equity in education.

In this heart-pounding sequel to the explosive novel Kiss the Ring, Naeema “Queen” Cole races against the clock to figure out who attacked her man and why—before it’s too late. Life finally seems to have calmed down for Naeema “Queen” Cole. After she brought down the Make Money Crew, Newark’s most notorious bank robbing gang, she was able to make peace with the son she never knew. His memory is even starting to feel like a blessing, rather than a curse. She and her on-again off-again husband Tank are back on and stronger than ever. But just when she thought she could put away her undercover identity as “Queen” and just be Naeema, Tank is attacked while out on a job guarding a high-profile celebrity. Everyone thinks it was the celebrity who the target, but Naeema knows the attack was personal. With Tank in critical condition and everyone else looking in all the wrong places, it’s up to her to find out which of Tank’s enemies would dare to mess with her man. Hailed for her “fast-paced action, sizzling erotic sex, and a heartwarming kick-ass heroine,” (Publishers Weekly), Meesha Mink is back with another thrilling tale following Naeema on the hunt for a killer, because she’ll die before she lets anyone take away her king.

Charly St. James takes on her biggest challenge yet when her television show goes for a ratings sweep by making over the life of a not-so-willing small-town teen with a big secret. . . Charly St. James is on top, and she's determined to keep it that way. That's why she and the producers have come up with a plan to take The Extreme Dream Team to the next level--by turning loners into VIPs. After all, how can you enjoy your new digs if your life is jacked up? But when Charly meets her first makeover, Nia, she knows she'll have to do more than dress her up and boost her self-esteem. Nia is living in the shade of her twin sister, who is luxuriating in a major case of pretty girl syndrome. And the more Charly tries to get Nia to shine, the more her twin sabotages her mission. Good thing Charly loves a challenge, 'cause these twins' troubles are more than skin deep. . . Praise For Kelli London "An amazing tale that is sure to delight, teach, and intrigue teens everywhere!" --Ni-Ni Simone on Boyfriend Season "Kelli reinvents the urban heroine--she's cuter, smarter, fearless. Excellent read." --Travis Hunter, author of On the Come Up