Showing results by narrator "Adenrele Ojo" in All Categories

Things were going a little too well for Dylan Delacroix. After upstaging her boss on a big account, she gets dispatched to the last place she wants to be: her hometown, Seattle. There, she must use her superstar corporate-consulting skills to curb the worst impulses of an impossibly eccentric tech CEO - if she doesn’t, she’s fired. The fun doesn’t stop there: Dylan must also negotiate a ceasefire in the endless war between her bohemian parents and the straitlaced neighbors.

On a rainy day in May 1964, history professor Cecily Bridge-Davis begins to search for the sixty-five acres of land she inherited from her father’s family. The quest leads her to uncover a dark secret: In every generation, one offspring from each Bridge family unit vanishes—and is mysteriously whisked back in time. With only a family Bible and a map marked with the locations of mysterious containers to aid her, Cecily heads to the library, hoping to discover the truth of how this curse began, and how it might be ended.

Despite being born into slavery, Linda Brent enjoys a happy childhood - until the deaths of her parents and kind mistress leave her an orphan and the property of the lascivious Dr. Flint. Linda becomes the target of his unwanted advances, which she temporarily evades by bearing the children of another man. But when Dr. Flint threatens to sell her children unless she submits, Linda hatches a desperate plan to escape, working to secure her children's freedom as well as her own.

Savvy Sheldon spends a lot of time tiptoeing around the cracks in her life: her high-stress and low-thanks job, her clueless boyfriend and the falling-apart kitchen she inherited from her beloved grandma—who taught her how to cook and how to love people by feeding them. But when Savvy’s world starts to crash down around her, she knows it’s time for some renovations.

Once in a great while a debut novelist comes along who dazzles us with rare eloquence and humanity, who takes us to bold new places and into previously unimaginable lives. Gaile Parkin is just such a talent - and Baking Cakes in Kilgali is just such a novel. This gloriously written tale - set in modern-day Rwanda - introduces one of the most singular and engaging characters in recent fiction: Angel Tungaraza - mother, cake baker, keeper of secrets - a woman living on the edge of chaos, finding ways to transform lives, weave magic, and create hope.

Three months since his debut, Aegis, aka Hugo Malalou, is becoming one of America’s most popular superheroes. But between protecting the city of San Miguel, surviving high school and maintaining some degree of a social life - he’s stretched very thin. Worse, monstrous new threats and old enemies attack Aegis from all corners. On the other side of the country, Greyson Hirsch remains committed to destroying this new generation of heroes. And his latest target, a young team of idealistic crusaders, is blind to the storm hurtling their way.

Bootlegging was Milton and Yvonne Hamilton's ticket out of poverty, prison time, and plain bad luck. Now they've moved on - to a bigger, richer pool of clientele - right in their own respectable new middle-class backyard. And their growing friendship with seemingly-perfect couple Joyce and Odell Watson is proving golden in more ways than one. As Milton soon learns, Odell is hiding an outside family and dubious business dealings. It's the perfect recipe for a blackmail scheme that will help Milton hide his own dirty secrets - even from Yvonne....

This scorching collection from award-winning author Thom Jones features his best new short fiction alongside a selection of outstanding stories from three previous books. Jones's stories are full of high-octane, prose-drunk entertainment. His characters are grifters and drifters, rogues and ne'er-do-wells, would-be do-gooders whose human frailties usually get the better of them. Some are lovable, others are not, but each has an indelible and irresistible voice. They include Vietnam soldiers, amateur boxers, and veterans of the psych ward, and more.

When Tyson Trice finds himself tossed into the wealthy community of Pacific Hills, he expects not to belong. Not that he cares. After recovering from being shot and surviving the rough streets of Lindenwood, he doesn’t care about anyone or anything. Golden girl Nandy Smith has spent most of her life building the pristine image it takes to make it in Pacific Hills. After learning that her parents are taking in a troubled teen boy, Nandy fears her summer plans and her reputation will go up in flames.

Salo’s queen has finally accepted his desire to be a mystic despite taboos concerning men’s use of magic. But her acceptance is not support; it is strategy. Under a disguise of the queen’s making, Salo enters Jungle City as a pilgrim to the Red Temple, only to find a magical barrier barring his entrance. Left at the mercy of the warring political factions that run the city, Salo faces a series of obstacles wrought by an unseen hand, knowing he cannot return home without completing his pilgrimage. But Isa, King of the Saire clan, has her own plans for Salo.

When an international warning siren accidentally goes off, convincing everyone that a meteor shower may just be the end of life as they know it, six couples—friends, exes, crushes and rivals—must take shelter. Inhibitions are abandoned, confessions are made and love blossoms, but what happens when the world doesn’t end?

Titan is dead. And the world needs heroes more than ever. Hugo’s dream of becoming a superhero blows up in his face. And the impossible rage that remains pulls him deeper into darkness. After several successful battles, Greyson’s ragtag team rides a wave of stardom. But what people love more than celebrating their heroes is tearing them down. And Quinn’s investigation into Titan’s murder gets derailed, leaving her reputation in shambles. But this journalist’s relentless pursuit of the truth could cost more than her job. These strangers are on a collision course with destiny.

A lie can follow you to death. The first time my mother told me that, it didn't resonate. I'd made it a point to always tell the story that suited me in the moment. Truth or fiction. Except . . . I didn't count on the lies I told myself. Or the woman who held up the mirror so I could see them.

Kang-Dae is fighting a war. With enemy forces overpowering his own, the threat of defeat is constant. The Xian king knows if he doesn't find a way to turn the tide of this raging storm, his kingdom will be lost. He constantly fights with all he has, but he does so without his seer, who is a world away. Separated by both mystical forces and an army, his hope of seeing her again begins to dwindle.

Paris, 1806. The renowned botanist Michel Adanson lies on his deathbed, the masterwork to which he dedicated his life still incomplete. As he expires, the last word to escape his lips is a woman’s name: Maram. The key to this mysterious woman’s identity is Adanson’s unpublished memoir of the years he spent in Senegal, concealed in a secret compartment in a chest of drawers. Therein lies a story as fantastical as it is tragic: Maram, it turns out, is none other than the fabled revenant.

One thing about me? I don't play games. Another thing about me? I don't waste time. In my role as Mr. Black Detroit, my focus is supporting my community and planning the city's annual Juneteenth celebration. Again, my time is valuable. I should've ignored the text. But . . . there's something about Daphne that makes me want to engage. Maybe it's the way she commands a room and isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. Or maybe it's the glimpse of vulnerability in her eyes. It's probably just her. Whatever it is in the beginning quickly morphs into something else entirely, though.

Etta comes from Nowhere, a village of survivors of the great plague that wiped away the world that was. In the world that is, women are scarce and childbearing is dangerous...yet desperately necessary for humankind's future. Mothers and midwives are sacred, but Etta has a different calling.

Tenderness and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and regret - Alexia Arthurs navigates these tensions to extraordinary effect in her debut collection about Jamaican immigrants and their families back home. Sweeping from close-knit island communities to the streets of New York City and midwestern university towns, these 11 stories form a portrait of a nation, a people, and a way of life.

Years ago, Old Earth sent forth sisters and brothers into the vast dark of the prodigal colonies armed only with crucifixes and iron faith. Now, the sisters of the Order of Saint Rita are on an interstellar mission of mercy aboard Our Lady of Impossible Constellations, a living, breathing ship which seems determined to develop a will of its own. When the order receives a distress call from a newly-formed colony, the sisters discover that the bodies and souls in their care - and that of the galactic diaspora - are in danger.

A long time ago, I helped her. Little tips about what to wear, how to leave a man wanting more, ways to be sexy without being too obvious. The guy she'd wanted was wrong for her, though. Still, she'd wanted him anyway and ended up with a broken heart. But she wasn't the only one, because even after I'd made my own intentions known, she walked away. Now, she's back in town. Still beautiful, still intelligent, still funny, and ready to start over after a bad breakup from someone who never deserved her in the first place.