Riding Dirty On I 95

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Nikki Turner's Heartbreak of a Hustler's Wife. Queen of hip hop fiction Nikki Turner follows her gritty, emotionally charged novel The Glamorous Life with this new tale from the hood featuring a beautiful down-on-her-luck sister who can out-hustle the best of them as she rises from the ghetto to glory. After Mercy’s beloved dad is murdered in cold blood on her seventh birthday, her mother gives her up to foster care. But despite an unsavory upbringing, Mercy vows to make something of herself–at all costs. Working as a concierge at a hotel notorious for its shady clientele, Mercy meets and falls hard for a notorious dealer who keeps her living large in Gucci clothes and off-the-hook apartments. Then she lands a real lucrative deal: running drugs up Interstate 95 from Miami to New York. But Mercy doesn’t want to live the gangsta life forever. She’s got bigger dreams. She turns legit and makes her mark, yet despite a new, cleaned-up career, she can’t get the streets completely out of her blood. A sexy hustler named C-Note steals her heart. And as their relationship heats up, Mercy discovers that their pasts are hopelessly–and tragically–entwined.

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Nikki Turner's Heartbreak of a Hustler's Wife. The high priestess of the hood, Nikki Turner, is back with the novel fans have been feenin’ for: the sequel to her #1 bestselling novel, A Hustler’s Wife. Des, Virginia’ s slickest gangsta, is about to become a dad when he is charged with the murder of his own attorney. But with Yarni, his gorgeous wife (and a brilliant lawyer), now calling the shots, Des isn’t going back to the slammer without a fierce fight. Even with the heat on, Des manages to take his game to the next level and finds a new hustle, one that will allow him to possess the three things all major players desire: money, power, and respect. He becomes a preacher. Reluctantly, Yarni stands by her man as he trades in his triple beam scale for a Bible and a Bentley and makes his Church of the Good Life Ministry a welcoming place for all sinners to step up to the altar. But when Des’s nephew is killed in the high-stakes heroin trade and Des learns that someone close to him okayed the hit, the dyed-in-the-wool gangsta sets aside the Bible for the gospel of the streets–even if it means risking the one person who’s always had his back.

#1 bestselling author Nikki Turner returns with an explosive new novel about a woman at an emotional crossroads–and the men left in her wake. Isis Tatum knows firsthand the way love can mess up a person. After all, she saw her mother drive a truck through the home of her father’s mistress before killing her dad. And ever since Isis was a teenager, her love life has been a series of disasters: Her first sweetheart was executed by the state of Virginia, and her next lover was sent to jail for murder. Now Isis is a successful jewelry designer, but she remains a failure with men. When she meets Logic, a Las Vegas high roller who treats her like a princess, Isis reckons she’s finally struck gold–literally. Logic sees to it that her custom pieces of jewelry are seen on the hottest rap stars and pro athletes. But when this Mr. Right ends up in jail too, Isis starts to believe that she’s cursed, that she’s a true Black Widow. Always one to roll with the punches, she embraces her life and walks bravely down all its twisted paths, taking her business to unprecedented heights while letting the men who dare to get involved with her take their chances. “Few writers working in the field today bring the drama quite as dramatically as Nikki Turner. . . . [She’s] a master at weaving juicy, ’hood-rich sagas of revenge, regret, and redemption.” –Vibe.com “Turner [takes] street literature to the next level, further proving that she is indeed ‘The Queen of Hip-Hop Fiction.’ ” –UrbanPublicity.com

Nikki Turner, Queen of Hip-Hop Lit, is back with one of her gutsiest female characters yet, a glamorous chick with a high-end hustle that can rival any man’s game. As the respected, renowned concierge for a luxury hotel chain, Beijing Lee caters to the wealthy and famous. Whether it’s securing a dinner reservation, a fleet of limos, or a record deal, or protecting her clients from the paparazzi, there’s nothing Beijing can’t do. She’s stacked up an impressive pile of IOUs from the world’s elite—and one day she decides it’s time to start cashing in. Before long, she’s a five-star diva running her own lucrative business, where she secures her clients their most outrageous—and increasingly illegal—desires. But Beijing has her own addiction: a man named Lootchee, who lavishes her with even more diamonds and luxury than she already has. But behind Lootchee’s charm and over-the-top romantic gestures is a selfish, high-stakes hustler who lures Beijing into a dangerous web that takes even this seasoned enterpriser by surpise, and breaks her heart in the process. Once the ball finally drops, it’ll take a ghost from Beijing’s past to rescue her—not only from those who are out to seriously harm her, but from herself.

“Nikki Turner has truly brought the female hustlers to light. Fellas betta watch out, because the Girls in the Game are taking over!” –LaJill Hunt, author of Drama Queen and No More Drama A collection of explosive stories handpicked by the undisputed “queen of hip-hop fiction,” Girls in the Game presents an all-women crew of urban-lit divas. The game here is survival, and every ghetto-hardened gangsta in these tales does what she’s gotta do to make it on–or off–the mean streets. Call them what you will, but until you’ve faced their reality you’ll never know what you would do if you were in their pumps. Just remember: It’s a dirty game, and women are usually the best players. “The game ain’t to be told but sold. If that’s so, the women in Girls in the Game should be millionaires!” –KaShamba Williams, author of Mind Games “She’s baaaaaaaack! Nikki Turner has returned, bringing with her the new divas of urban fiction. These ladies raise the bar as they chronicle the streets like never before. Get ready for a literary treat.” –Tracy Brown, author of White Lines

The undisputed queen of hip-hop fiction, #1 Essence bestselling author Nikki Turner unwraps a talented new collection of writers with raw urban stories to jingle your bells this season. Christmas in the Hood presents fresh talent alongside shining stars such as K. Elliott and Seth “Soul Man” Ferranti–all writing gritty tales that reveal what the holidays bring for the naughty and the nice who live by the code of the street. In “Secret Santa,” after her children’s Christmas presents are stolen, a woman has to decide what she’s willing to sacrifice to give them the holiday they deserve; in “Me and Grandma,” a senior sleighs more crack than candy canes to bring Christmas cheer to her needy grandkids; and in “Holiday Hell,” Noelle must raise $23,000 to repay a loan shark or her sister will become a ghost of Christmas past. True to the streets and true to the season, these stories will raise the holiday spirit in the heart of even the most ghetto-hardened gangsta. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Nikki Turner's Heartbreak of a Hustler's Wife. “The ghetto’s voice without constraint.”—Upscale, on Tales from da Hood

A major new history of the literary traditions, oral and print, of African-descended peoples in the United States.