No Shade A Hood Rat Novel

No Shade: No offense (as defined by the Urban Dictionary). Ex: “Don’t tell her I told you, but your little cousin is a ho, no Shade.” Every little girl dreams of a happy ending to their stories; a home, children and a man who loves her enough to share his life and last name. When Billy’s longtime boyfriend Marcus finally pops the question, it’s one of the happiest moments of her life. To stand with her on her special day, Billy calls on her childhood friends Reese and Yoshi. Several years passing since they’d last all come together, and some unresolved issues have driven a wedge between the girls, but they agree to put their difference aside for the sake of Billy’s wedding. The truce is a short one when Billy has to decide on a Maid of Honor and both her friends expect the position to fall to them. Just when things seem to be coming together they quickly begin to fall apart, and at a time when Billy is supposed to be basking in the sunshine of her approaching wedding she finds herself the target of shade being thrown from the most unlikely places. While Billy is going through her drama, Marcus is dealing with issues of his own. An old crime partner of his blows into town unexpectedly and his presence threatens to destroy the legitimate life Marcus has worked so hard to build. Even with the universe seemingly working against them, Billy and Marcus are determined to have their dream wedding, but first they have to survive the nightmare of planning it. There goes the neighborhood...again.

After the deaths and arrests of his entire crew and an informant-fueled investigation into his past, the man known on the streets as Animal relocates to Texas and finds fame and stardom as the newest act signed to the notorious Big Dawg Entertainment. His girlfriend, Gucci, is thrilled when she gets the news that he's coming back to New York on a promotional tour, but when she discovers the hidden agenda behind his homecoming nothing can prepare her for the life-altering consequences that will come of it. There goes the neighborhood . . . again.

Only the strong survie on the streets of Brooklyn. And while Dena Jones definitely has what it takes not only to survive but to succeed, she wants out. And she's determined to make it out of Crooklyn. She's determined to make it out of Crooklyn by any means necessary and doesn't have a problem manipulating men to get what she wants. Just ask her boyfriend Lance, or his girlfriend Michelle. True has finally made it. His debut album has the streets going crazy and is threatening to spill over into the mainstream. After the murder of his group, his jump off and almost his dreams, True's life is finally starting to look up, until karma catches up with him. Somebody wants him dead and he doesn't know why, or does he? Jah and Yoshi's was supposed to be a romance straight out of a story but there are no such things as fairy tails in the ghetto. Her position as a stylist keeps her in the mix and in the company of some industry heavyweights. Jah tries to be understanding but he can't help but to wonder just how much he can trust his girlfriend. He had promised to love her regardless of her past but in addition to wondering whether his girlfriend is creeping with her clients Jah has got a bigger problem. Someone is trying to kill True and its his job to make sure that doesn't happen.

When three young friends, Porsha, Frankie and Sahara, decide to sublease an apartment from a mutual acquaintance, life becomes one big party for the girls. But the party comes to an abrupt end when they find out they've been fleeced for their money and an eviction notice is taped to their door. They have seventy-two hours to come up with the money or be tossed into the streets by the city marshals. Armed with various schemes, they set out to try and stop the eviction and find themselves caught in the crossfire of a bloody war between the Notorious Clark family and a new player in the game. Meanwhile the police are still searching for the killer known only as The Animal, while his former lover Gucci tries to put the pieces of her life back together. When all is said and done, all parties involved will discover something about Animal and his abduction that no one was prepared for. There goes the neighborhood, again!One of Library Journal's Best Street Lit Books of 2011

From the bestselling author of In Her Shoes, All Fall Down and the forthcoming novel Who Do You Love, Good in Bedis a funny and tender story full of heart. Cannie Shapiro never wanted to be famous. The smart, sharp, plus-sized reporter was perfectly happy writing about other people's lives for her local newspaper. And for the past twenty-eight years, things have been tripping along nicely for Cannie. Sure, her mother has come charging out of the closet, and her father has long since dropped out of her world. But she loves her job, her friends, her dog and her life. She loves her apartment and her commodious, quilt-lined bed. She has made a tenuous peace with her body and she even felt okay about ending her relationship with her boyfriend Bruce. But now this... 'Loving a larger woman is an act of courage in our world,' Bruce has written in a national woman's magazine. And Cannie - who never knew that Bruce saw her as a larger woman, or thought that loving her was an act of courage - is plunged into misery, and the most amazing year of her life.

NO GOING BACK Prince, Killa-E, Daddy-O, and Danny grew up together in the projects, moving crack and cocaine, and answering to Diego, the neighborhood drug lord. They were small-timers playing for low stakes - until Prince is introduced to a heroin connect. Overnight they go from soldiers to bosses, and their crew is held together by loyalty and love. But taking the reins of power comes at a high price. Now, with Diego at their back and a traitor in their midst, they find themselves between a kilo and a hard place, ready to spill blood to stay on top.

National bestselling author K’wan presents a story of four women fighting to survive in the urban jungle. Yoshi is young, fine, and larcenous. She lives her life playing on men’s hearts as well as their pockets. She learns the hard way that all that glitters isn’t gold. Billy, a former high school basketball star, has been looking for love. Then she meets someone new and her whole world is turned upside down and she will never be the same. Reese is an around-the-way chick, trying to keep up with the Joneses. There’s a revolving door on her bedroom as she tries to find the love she always felt was missing. Her promiscuity leaves her pregnant from a one-night stand and Reese is faced with the task of breaking an age-old cycle, passed down from mother to daughter in her family, and standing on her own. Rhonda is twenty-something with three kids, by three men, and riding the system all the way to the bank. To her, work is a dirty word; between the multiple checks she gets from the government, and the games she plays with men, she’s living the life of a ghetto superstar. The game soon turns ugly when one of her “sponsors” snaps and decides to get some payback. Harlem has never seen four friends as scandalous as these. The neighborhood will never be the same again.