A South Side Love Story

"In this raunchy, romantic soap-opera–style tale of promiscuity and corruption, Jessica continues this saga with the usual drama, romance, and loveable bad boys. Yet, with an ending that will leave you breathless. The only thing on nineteen-year-old Star Anderson's mind is taking care of her son, by any means necessary. However, by means of breaking her back at a minimum wage nine-to-five is not an option. Therefore, she follows in the footsteps of her friend, Roxie, down a path of scamming, tricking, and robberies. Though this path seems to be paved with fast and easy money, tragedy strikes when plans become hurried and messy. Star's big sister, Tricey, attempts to clean up Star's mess while fighting with her new and loving beau. He suddenly wants her to leave Chicago with him with no explanation. Though she is deeply concerned about her boyfriend's sudden need to leave Chicago, Tricey is so focused on rescuing Star that being a lovesick puppy and following him out of state is not an option. However, Lyric doesn't mind being lovesick. She and her boyfriend are knee-deep in love and the "lifestyle". Their relationship is full of excitement, raunchiness, and spontaneity. Yet, once he settles into the lifestyle and presents Lyric with an ultimatum, she is forced to decide how knee-deep in love and the lifestyle she is willing to be. While Lyric contemplates allowing her heart to make her decision instead of her mind, Tricey's bitterness drives her to secretly stalk her boyfriend, which leads to a revelation of hidden deception and the biggest blow of deceit she has ever experienced."-- Author's synopsis.

Tricey, Vic, and Lyric are three friends from the Southside of Chicago fighting in the tumultuous war between finding the one amongst the chaotic sea of Mr. Wrongs. After breaking up with her baby's father, Memphis, Vic is in the arms of one new beau after the next; turning her heartbreak into a life filled with bald-headed h*e shenanigans. Vic's new approach to love terribly clashes with Asa's uncontrollable need for being more than her next sneaky link. However, Vic's refusal to commit doesn't keep Asa's alpha male, street swag from trying desperately to blow up the wall that she has built around her terribly damaged heart. As Vic runs from Asa's attempts to woo her, Tricey has done the unthinkable: fallen in love with her friend-with-benefits. After the heart-rendering endings of her past relationships, Akbar was the ideal replacement. Everything was perfect about him... except for his pregnant wife. After fighting against it, she falls in love and realizes that she needs to walk away from the man that she can't imagine living without. Then enters "Blood" the dope boy ready to sweep her off of her feet. But can she find the courage to walk away from the explosive chemistry between she and Akbar in order to enjoy the life that Blood wants to give her? While Tricey is stuck between a dope boy and her married love, Lyric and Salem are approaching their wedding date. As they prepare to spend the rest of their lives together, Salem is under the impression that he has chosen the perfect wife-to-be. Lyric struggles with this cloak of perfection as she figures out a way to quietly end the affair she's had on the side since the day she met her soon-to-be-husband. This is only the beginning of this Urban Romance, which is filled with love that hurts, betrayals, and feels tragically unsustainable. Packed with a sea of characters that add their own two cents of drama and contribute to the shocking and heartrending end, this love story is of three homegirls, not only falling in love with the one, but also falling in love with themselves. * This is a re-release of the previously published book, Love, Sex, Lies. Since this book was written when I was very young, I wanted to give it the quality and attention that these characters deserve. This story has been revamped. Changes have been made, and many scenes have been added.

The journey to finding love for these women has been full of ups, downs, and bald-headed hoe shit, but it's been real. Tricey would have given anything to have a simple relationship filled with moments spooning with her man as he watched sports, cooking dinner, and petty disagreements- rather than drugs, murder, and federal investigations. However, for the past year, Tricey has been happy with the dope boy housewife lifestyle. Yet, it wouldn't be like right unless Blood's secrets come flying out of the closet and turn their happy home into a war zone. Lyric has finally found the one. Yet, now that her love life isn't in shambles, her biological family is threatening her sanity. Vic is finally settled into her own skin. She may not know who her father is, and she may be single, but she is so content and focused on bettering herself that, finally, love unexpectedly finds its way to her in the most unconventional way. Now that Star has found freedom, she still feels imprisoned- IN HER POCKETS! Her embedded hustler mentality is itching to get back out there and make this schmoney. However, the threat of violating parole puts her between a rock - being broke - and a hard place - making money in the wrong way. What's a girl to do when she is forced out of her Red Bottoms, into prison garb, and, now, back into hand me downs? As she takes the road that leads to financial freedom, she stumbles upon the biggest roadblock that threatens not only her freedom, but her life. Tricey, Vic, Lyric, and Star return with an emotional roller coaster that will leave your head spinning. In this finale, watch as all of the lies and betrayal comes crashing down. Lessons will be learned. Time will heal old wounds. And unforeseen tragedy will force some to finally do what's right. Do these bitches finally get their shit together in this finale? Let's see...

She knew trouble when she saw it, and he was definitely trouble. After spending years dealing with her flighty mother, a café on the edge of ruin, a misbehaving backyard fountain, and tea that may or may not be increasing the libido of her elderly neighbors, Fiona Campbell has had enough. She’s ready to move out, get away from her mother and all the craziness that accompanies her, and start a life of her own. The last thing she needs is another complication, especially one like Matthew Monroe. When he walks through their door with a guitar on his back and a sexy gleam in his eyes, Fiona knows she should stay away. She doesn’t trust him, or his motives, but there is something about Matthew that draws her close, against her better judgment. And when disaster strikes, it seems he’s the only one she can turn to for help. But Matthew represents all the things she’s spent a lifetime trying to escape. She has her future mapped out in detail, including what kind of man she should date. She wants safety and predictability, but could it be that the best thing that ever happened to her is the one thing she never planned on?

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2020 Winner of the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence “A comically dark coming-of-age story about growing up on the South Side of Chicago, but it’s also social commentary at its finest, woven seamlessly into the work . . . Bump’s meditation on belonging and not belonging, where or with whom, how love is a way home no matter where you are, is handled so beautifully that you don’t know he’s hypnotized you until he’s done.” —Tommy Orange, The New York Times Book Review In this alternately witty and heartbreaking debut novel, Gabriel Bump gives us an unforgettable protagonist, Claude McKay Love. Claude isn’t dangerous or brilliant—he’s an average kid coping with abandonment, violence, riots, failed love, and societal pressures as he steers his way past the signposts of youth: childhood friendships, basketball tryouts, first love, first heartbreak, picking a college, moving away from home. Claude just wants a place where he can fit. As a young black man born on the South Side of Chicago, he is raised by his civil rights–era grandmother, who tries to shape him into a principled actor for change; yet when riots consume his neighborhood, he hesitates to take sides, unwilling to let race define his life. He decides to escape Chicago for another place, to go to college, to find a new identity, to leave the pressure cooker of his hometown behind. But as he discovers, he cannot; there is no safe haven for a young black man in this time and place called America. Percolating with fierceness and originality, attuned to the ironies inherent in our twenty-first-century landscape, Everywhere You Don’t Belong marks the arrival of a brilliant young talent.

Jalisa 'Gunz' Gonzalez thought that she had it all with her boyfriend Keylon. That was until Keylon committed the ultimate betrayal and Jalisa finally decided she'd had enough. She swore off trying to be with someone until she met Smoke. Smoke was probably the most gorgeous man she had laid eyes on. After experiencing heartbreak, Jalisa wasn't sure moving on with Smoke was smart, until she realized she was connected with Smoke long before she laid eyes on him.Cortez 'Smoke' Campbell is hood royalty. After experiencing tragedy at a young age, Smoke did what he had to do to take the financial burden off of his Granny. Smoke is hesitant on giving his heart out until he and Jalisa ran into each other... literally. Being crossed by the last person he ever expected, Smoke realizes Jalisa is more for him than he could have ever imagined. Or is she?Even though they both had trust issues and were skeptical at first, Smoke and Gunz decided to give love a chance. Take a ride on this love journey to see if Jalisa is really ready to move on wholeheartedly or will her past destroy the new future she wants so desperately. Some say love conquers all, but does it?

Governor General’s award-winning author Teresa Toten’s story about one girl’s transformative eight-day road-trip to retrieve her mother’s body. How do you face a heartbreaking past? One day at a time. Or as Aggie says, one crisis at a time. In Teresa Toten’s compelling new novel Eight Days, Samantha finds out that the mother she thought had died years ago has actually just passed away. Added to this charged secret is her recovering alcoholic grandfather’s strange behaviour and sudden insistence that he take Sami back to Chicago to retrieve her mother’s body. Luckily, Sami’s beloved neighbour and surrogate mother figure, Aggie, insists on coming on the road trip, bringing along her quirky sense of humour and fantastic wig collection. The eight-day journey takes us from Toronto to Chicago and back again, as Sami, an American living with her grandfather in a Muslim-dominated apartment complex in Toronto, struggles to find out who she is and where she belongs. Infused with warmth and love, even as family struggles and secrets are torn open, Eight Days is ultimately about forgiveness and strength in community. It is truly a novel for our times.

In this book Mr. Hoque tells the story of an intriguing, complex, four-sided love story set in the background of Bangladesh Liberation War from Pakistan in 1971. The story involves four young people from two different ethnic communities in Bangladesh---two from local Bengali community and the other two from the refugee immigrant community who had settled in the then East Pakistan from India during its partition in 1947. The story’s main character Kabil was a top-ranking student activist who actively participated in the armed struggle for the liberation of Bangladesh from across the border in India. His departure from Dhaka to participate in the nine months –long warfare cost him love of his life- Rokhi, the daughter of his uncle who had earlier married an Urdu speaking immigrant settler girl in Dhaka. Meanwhile, Rokhi’s earlier suitor, Andy, after being rejected by her, fell in love with Kabil’s maternal cousin Momi who herself was dreaming about marrying Kabil since her childhood. However, since Kabil was indifferent to Momi’s love, she wanted to love anew and marry Andy. Since the untenable political situation during the liberation war forced Andy and Rohki leave the country, Kabil proposed, after his return from India, to marry Momi. But Momi being hurt by Kabil’s earlier indifference and hurt by Andy’s unexpected departure declined Kabil’s proposal. Kabil then found his unexpected love in a different person who had been his political co-activist for long time and had earlier been married to one of his close student friends who had been killed by the Pakistani military.