18 Books Published by NAL on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

To get to happily ever after, sometimes you need to start from scratch….
 
Abbey Ross, who runs her own bakery in Oakland, California, is known for her visually stunning wedding cakes. But lately, Abbey’s own love life has become stale. According to her best friend, Bendrix, Abbey’s not the spontaneous young woman she was when they were teenagers listening to the Cure and creating attention-grabbing graffiti. Of course, her failed relationship with a womanizing art forger might have something to do with that. Nevertheless, it’s time for Abbey to step out of the kitchen—and her comfort zone—and Bendrix has even handpicked a man for her to date.
 
Samuel Howard is everything Abbey’s dreamed of: handsome, successful, and looking to raise a family. But a creamy icing might be needed to hide a problem or two. When Samuel complains about disrespect for the institution of marriage, Abbey’s reminded of her nontraditional family, with thirteen children from various mothers. And when Samuel rails about kids having kids, Abbey thinks of her twenty-year-old sister who’s recently revealed her pregnancy.
 
Soon Abbey is facing one disaster after another and struggling to make sense of it all. Her search for love has led her down a bitter path, but with the help of her unique family and unwavering friends, she just might find the ooh la la that makes life sweet.

READERS GUIDE INCLUDED

When you’re in trouble and sinking fast, whom do you call?

Piper Nelson is stuck. She can’t quite stay away from the husband she divorced. She isn’t always attentive to the high school students she teaches. And even she admits that she’s been drinking too much and seeking out unsuitable men. Piper’s mother, married to a celebrity evangelist, and her sister, who’s immersed in plans to wed a professional football player and star in a reality TV show, are both too self-absorbed to sympathize with Piper’s angst. They tell her to get a grip. But how can Piper ever really recover from the blow she suffered five years ago, when a car accident took the life of her young daughter?

When Piper’s ex-husband announces that his new girlfriend is pregnant, Piper is forced to take stock. Realizing that it’s time for a change is one thing, but actually making it happen is quite another. And despite what she thinks, Piper can’t do it alone  Lucky for her, a couple of crazy, funny new friends are ready to step in when she needs them most and show her how to live and laugh again.

CONVERSATION GUIDE INCLUDED

 “Be there. Those seven letters encompass the tao of fatherhood.” —Etan Thomas

In Fatherhood, beloved NBA player, poet, youth advocate, and devoted dad Etan Thomas speaks from his heart on what matters most in his life: being there for his children. As a highly respected player in the NBA and a leading participant in President Obama’s Fatherhood Initiative, Etan has reached out to young men (often young fathers) in the juvenile detention system and in local communities. He knows firsthand the difference having a father in your life every day can make—and as a father of three, Etan walks the talk in his own life.

Now he brings together a chorus of voices—highly revered professional athletes and coaches, actors and performing artists, politicians and leaders of faith—to weigh in on the importance of being a father in our nation today. Isaiah Washington, Howard Dean, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Taye Diggs, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Tony Hawk, Al Sharpton, Chuck D and many more share what they’ve learned from being a father, having a father, or in some cases not having a father around.

Through these inspiring personal experiences, Etan and the men he’s gathered together hope to share the message that by standing up and taking an active role as fathers, men not only find their own lives more joyful and fulfilling—they pass on to the next generation an unshakable legacy of love, wisdom, responsibility, and strength.

From the bestselling author, an inspirational novel about three sisters who rediscover each other-and themselves…

After thirteen years in Hollywood, Alicia Day is giving up her dream of stardom and heading home to Detroit-and back to her roots.

Hope Teesdale is desperately seeking the truth about her husband’s death when she hears from her long-lost half-sister Alicia. Suddenly her idea of family is put into question.

Heaven Jetter hasn’t spoken to her sister Hope in years. Her spirit is being held captive by an abusive boyfriend. Her only comfort comes from admiring a mysterious man from afar on the streets of Detroit.

As the sisters reunite, they’re determined to help one another find their silver linings. And realize that they never have to go it alone again…

The widely praised New York Times bestseller, and Mosley’s first new series since his acclaimed Easy Rawlins novels…

Leonid McGill is an ex-boxer and a hard drinker looking to clean up his act. He’s an old-school P.I. working a New York City that’s gotten a little too fancy all around him. But it’s still full of dirty secrets, and as McGill unearths them, his commitment to the straight and narrow is going to be tested to the limit…

An inspiring novel about taking risks and following your dreams from ?one of the hottest fiction authors of today.?(Urban Reviews)

At forty-three years old, Oleana Day feels restless. She just needs change, and a direction. She?s found it in Matthew Harper. He?s smart, financially stable, drop-dead sexy, and has no baggage. There?s just one problem?he?s 18 years younger, and he?s full of surprises. But what unfolds between them is something neither would have guessed?an unexpected romance about coming to terms, coming of age, and fighting for the love of your life.

Meet Georgia Brown-a humble housewife determined to become a household name….

After eleven years of marriage, Georgia Brown is fed up with her husband, Marvin, a popular radio personality. It’s not just because she suspects he’s having an affair, or because she’s suddenly expected to raise his thirteen-year-old daughter, Chloe-whom she never even knew existed. It’s because of the comments he makes about her weight, their marriage, and their sex life…on national radio!

Now, to save their marriage, Marvin invites Georgia to the station for an on-air rebuttal, having no idea it will launch her career. Or that what began as a battle at home will now be a blistering war for all to hear….

The explosive novel that introduced #1 New York Times bestselling author Terry McMillan-now in a new trade edition.

In the dishiest book of the year, the top-rated and controversial radio host delivers the good, the bad, and the ugly on the industry’s biggest stars. But we’ll let her speak for herself:
 
Whitney Houston: "We have watched her go from our princess…to what looks like one step above a crackhead."
 
Lil’ Kim: "[She] started out as a black girl from the hood and now she’s posing as a white girl from Hollywood."
 
Mariah Carey: "Mariah will deny all day that she has ever had any plastic surgery…Check the before-and-after photos."
 
Star Jones and Al Reynolds: "I give it three years."

The Essence bestselling authors of Love Don’t Live Here Anymore put a sexy new spin on modern romance.

Aaron and his best friend Nina have been soulmates since childhood. They believe the reason their friendship has lasted is because they never crossed the line and fell in love. But this summer, Aaron and Nina are taking their friendship where it’s never gone before, proving that romance is sweeter, sexier, and scarier when the stakes are sky high.

Being a diva isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Just ask Billie Burke. Brainy, beautiful, and at the top of her game, she’s the beauty editor at the world’s leading fashion magazine, where paying tribute to the perfect pink lip gloss is serious business. Trouble is, all this corporate climbing and party-hopping has left her with migraine headaches-and a long, lonely bout of celibacy.

Enter Jay Lane-a gorgeous performance artist who came up in a grisly ’hood in a part of Brooklyn completely foreign to Billie. In no time, this beauty expert’s nights are bubbling over with hot passion-and she’s caught in an affair that’s as addictive and crazy as the city itself.

Meet the Moores. Mom, dad, in-laws, all of them loving, fighting, staying together, and falling apart. As generations collide, as personal and professional lives intersect and combust, a stunning secret comes to light-and cuts deep into the heart of what really makes and breaks a family.

Lance is doing just fine for himself in New Orleans, except that he can’t stop thinking about the one girl who broke his heart-and their engagement. When she found out about his bad-boy past-a past that included one of her best friends-she called the whole thing off.Now he’s on a quest to win her back with a little help from his best friend Akhet, an ex-thug turned local rap star. But when Akhet suddenly has to face some unfinished business from his former life, Lance learns a dangerous lesson: Before you can start on the future, you have to put the past to rest.

Lyle Johnson is a hot and handsome Wall Street investment banker with no intention of settling down. His new partner is Tess Aventura Dubois—recently widowed and bequeathed a multi-million-dollar fortune. What she’s investing in now is interest in Lyle, who can afford to share her luxurious lifestyle—if she can keep from him her deepest, darkest secret…

Stella Payne is forty-two, divorced, a high-powered investment analyst, mother of eleven-year-old Quincy- and she does it all. In fact, if she doesn’t do it, it doesn’t get done, from Little League carpool duty to analyzing portfolios to folding the laundry and bringing home the bacon. She does it all well, too, if her chic house, personal trainer, BMW, and her loving son are any indication. So what if there’s been no one to share her bed with lately, let alone rock her world? Stella doesn’t mind it too much; she probably wouldn’t have the energy for love - and all of love’s nasty fallout - anyway. But when Stella takes a spur-of-the-moment vacation to Jamaica, her world gets rocked to the core - not just by the relaxing effects of the sun and sea and an island full of attractive men, but by one man in particular. He’s tall, lean, soft-spoken, Jamaican, smells of citrus and the ocean - and is half her age. The tropics have cast their spell and Stella soon realizes she has come to a cataclysmic juncture: not only must she confront her hopes and fears about love, she must question all of her expectations, passions, and ideas about life and the way she has lived it. Told in Stella’s own exuberant, dead-on, dead honest voice, How Stella Got Her Groove Back is full of Terry McMillan’s signature humor, heart, and insight. More than a love story, it is ultimately a novel about how a woman saves her own life - and what she must risk to do it.

Much-heralded and long awaited, Terry McMillan’s tour-de-force novel introduces the Price family-matriarch Viola, her sometimes-husband Cecil, and their four adult kids, each of whom sees life-and one another-through thick and thin, and entirely on their own terms. With her hallmark exuberance and cast of characters so sassy, resilient, and full of life that they breathe, dream, and shout right off the page.

Dana left New York to escape a roller-coaster relationship. Vincent is living in Los Angeles, trying to forget his own shattered marriage. They want to plan a future together—but first they have to stop running from their pasts. Eric Jerome Dickey, a rising star on the bestseller lists, delivers a boldly honest novel—about love that starts with a lie.

Take two women with a score to settle, blend seamlessly into Manhattan high society, and serve chilled. What you have is the debut of the year?a deliciously intoxicating novel about getting rich and getting even…Beautiful Morgan Nelson is making waves as VP of a Fortune 500 corporation. Dakota Cantrell is a bond trader making all the right moves on Wall Street. Together they’ve found the right men, shattered the color barriers, kicked the boys club to the curb, and made a name for themselves as the Divas of New York big business. But their luxurious lifestyles are still worlds apart from the old money of Park Avenue?the haunt of their charismatic new business partner Blake St. James. He’s a man with a secret, a hidden motive, and a scheme that threatens everything Morgan and Dakota have acomplished. Now, they’re going to fight fire with fire, betrayal with betrayal. No compromise. No rules. No limits. For success is truly…the best revenge.