Street Lit, Urban Lit resources: Modern Adult Books

Ty Johnson knows survival. Since inheriting his pop's business at sixteen, Ty's developed smarts, skills, and mad discipline. The supply game's in his blood. And life is pretty sweet when you're on top. But one slip - or one serious competitor - and life turns ugly fast. Suddenly, Ty's got to rethink his whole strategy, and for the #1 dealer on the streets, strategy is not just about staying ahead. It's about survival.

Jaris Spain has a hard time believing in himself. Between his pessimistic father, his falsely optimistic mother, his failure at sports, difficulty in the classroom, and inability to be noticed by the one girl that matters to him, Jaris struggles to find his own place in the world.

With the state of mind Trevor was in, Vanessa could talk him into anything. Would she get him involved in crime again? It could happen, only this time Trevor might not be so lucky. But back then, Trevor had had enough brains to dump her. Now he was in deeper. The web Vanessa had woven around him was stickier and tighter.

In the alley on his way home from work, Derrick Shaw witnesses a murder. To save his life, Derrick promises not to reveal the identity of the shooter, a former Tubman student. But he feels sick and guilty about his vow of silence.

Book #2 of The Bluford High Series.
In grade school, Darcy and Brisana were friends. Now the former friends are bitter rivals, and the tension between them is getting worse. When Darcy learns that Brisana is after her boyfriend, she knows she must do something. But what?

Kevin had been talking about how much he wanted some real money and that he'd do almost anything to get it. Jaris could sympathize with Kevin wanting to help his grandparents out, but wanting—needing—money that desperately was dangerous. It led to getting mixed up with the wrong crowd. Jaris always thought Cory Yates had drug connections in Los Angeles. He was a two-bit hustler, and he spent way too much time hanging around high schools.

After a young girl is shot in what appears to gang-related violence, Jaris Spain decides to take a closer look and discovers a trail leading to another Tubman High School student, DeWayne Pike, who may be covering up something in his past.

Jaris and Marko were in a position where they could see through the doorway. The slider was open to let in cool, fresh air. Sereeta was sitting in a chair from the kitchen table. Her hands were bound. An older woman sat in another chair, her hands bound too. The woman looked disheveled. Her face was bruised and swollen. Two little girls huddled in one corner of the room, clutching stuffed animals and whimpering. Their eyes were wide with terror

Book #7 of The Bluford High Series.
This story continues the tale of the Wills family. Darcy learns that Hakeem, her first boyfriend, is moving out of the state. Then her grandmother's health declines and a mysterious new person comes into her life.

When Trevor's mother discourages his relationship with known troublemaker Vanessa, Trevor hides it from his family and friends.

Book #1 of The Bluford High Series.
Centers on the life of Bluford sophomore Darcy Wills, who contends with the return of her long-absent father, the troubling behavior of her younger sister Jamee, and the beginning of her first relationship.

Denique thought that if she wasn't so messed up in her head, she'd sort of like Trevor. But it would just end badly. So she focused on school. She wanted to graduate and get a job. College was now out of the question. Her family lived in the projects. Denique had to get a job as soon as possible after high school. With her and her mother bringing in money, the family could move to a better, safer place.

Lydell Nelson was a senior now, but hardly anyone in the class knew him. During lunch, he was always writing in a journal. Nobody ever bothered to ask him what he was writing, and he never volunteered any information. Lydell seemed to be a lonely person. But when people tried to be friends, he just turned them away.

What was the big deal? Oliver Randall was helping out two rocker friends by fronting for their band. He didn't think he was Lil Wayne. But he was enjoying it more than he thought he would. And he was creating a lot of buzz for the group. Girls were practically throwing themselves at him. Marko Lane wasn't the only one giving him a hard time. Alonee Lennox, his girlfriend, was troubled too.

Fifteen-year-old Tyrell, who is living in a Bronx homeless shelter with his spaced-out mother and his younger brother, tries to avoid temptation so he does not end up in jail like his father.

Frankie has always looked up to his older brother, Steve, a popular senior who always gets what he wants: girls, a soccer scholarship, and street cred with the local cholos. After getting into a fight, Steve takes Frankie under his wing, and Frankie's social currency begins to rise. The cholos start to recognize him. Things start to get out of hand, though, and Frankie may have to choose between respecting his brother and respecting himself.

Tells the story of Tasha, a fourteen-year-old unwed mother of a baby girl. In her ghettoized world where poverty, racism, and danger are daily struggles, Tasha uses her savvy and humor to uncover the good hidden around her.

Quincy and Biddy are both graduates of their high school’s special ed program, but they couldn’t be more different: suspicious Quincy faces the world with her fists up, while gentle Biddy is frightened to step outside her front door. When they’re thrown together as roommates in their first "real world" apartment, it initially seems to be an uneasy fit.

"With a bolt of lightning on my kicks . . .The court is SIZZLING. My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop all that quivering. Cuz tonight I'm delivering," announces dread-locked, 12-year old Josh Bell. He and his twin brother Jordan are awesome on the court. But Josh has more than basketball in his blood, he's got mad beats, too.

After two years in a loving home, TJ's mother got him back. She was clean. No pot. No meth. His chest felt like it was burning. His heart was racing. Trapped. He felt trapped. He didn't have a say. Everything he had come to care about would be gone: Miss Dixie, hot meals, friends, Mae's little hand, and Annabelle. And the brutal life he'd escaped quickly reclaimed him.

Whatever happens, school comes first. Her mother said it like she meant it. These words played over and over again in Dani Garcia's head. But life got in the way. There were mouths to feed and rent to pay. Plus someone had to watch baby Benny. Dani knew adversity, but she was the kind of strong that comes from within: strong mind, body, and soul. Then a horrible rape and its powerful aftermath threaten to bring Dani's life crashing down-- forever. She's trapped in a reality that she cannot control, but she gains the strength to never back down and finally has faith in her own power.

Keshawn's life was about before and after. Before, Keshawn didn't have a computer. After, he helped his mom install software on their new computer. To monitor him. What a joke! It got him thinking. He could make money. So he offered his skills. Grades for cash. It was that simple. Only it wasn't. Then he realized Neecy was his way out. She needed good grades. But she wanted to earn them. Keshawn knew she would make it right.

Jair hated being short. Back in middle school, he figured he hadn't hit his growth spurt. But now he was a junior at Cap Central. To compensate, he made sure everyone knew how tough he was.

One morning before school, some girl tells Piddy Sanchez that Yaqui Delgado hates her and wants to kick her ass. Piddy doesn’t even know who Yaqui is, never mind what she’s done to piss her off. Word is that Yaqui thinks Piddy is stuck-up, shakes her stuff when she walks, and isn’t Latin enough with her white skin, good grades, and no accent. And Yaqui isn’t kidding around, so Piddy better watch her back.

In this compelling coming-of-age story, 17-year-old Seven McKnight is attending Trinity University in Atlanta. Soon she learns that things aren't always what they seem, first loves might not survive, and new loves can be surprising.

I'm Zsa-Zsa. Some call me arrogant, but I call it confidence. I'm 17, but I'm grown and have been for a long time. I have my own ride, my mama doesn't clock my time, and my boyfriend, Ameen, is getting money like you wouldn't believe. There's only one problem: when Ameen gets mad, sometimes he takes his anger out on me.

José can't keep up. As the only English speaker in a family of undocumented immigrants, he handles everything from taking family members to the doctor to bargaining with the landlord. Plus he works two jobs. With all this responsibility, he's missing a lot of school. When he does make it, he falls asleep in class. José knows he has to turn things around if he wants to graduate from Rondo Alternative High School.

Book #5 of The Bluford High Series.
A new life. A new school. A new bully. That's what Darrell Mercer faces when he and his mother move from Philadelphia to California. After spending months living in fear, Darrell is faced with a big decision. He can either keep on running from this bully or find some way to fight back.

Book #10 of The Bluford High Series.
Darcy Wills needs help. A frightening ordeal at the end of the school year has turned her world upside down, and her parents, don't seem to notice. With her ex-boyfriend miles away in Detroit and her beloved grandmother gone, Darcy is more alone than ever. Unable to deny the pain she's been hiding, Darcy turns to her remaining friends only to discover one of them has an even bigger secret. Now, forced into a crisis beyond her control, Darcy must take a stand for herself--and for her friend.

Book #6 of The Bluford High Series.
This book is about Bluford freshman Tyray Hobbs, the tormentor of Darrell Mercer. Traces Tyray's troubled home life, his desire to rebuild his reputation, and his quest to get revenge on Darrell, the only boy who ever stood up to him.

Book #9 of The Bluford High Series.
Martin Luna is in deep trouble. Just months ago, a horrible tragedy took his little brother, and now it threatens to take him too. On one side are his desperate mother, a friendly teacher at Bluford High, and a pretty girl named Vicky. On the other are his old neighborhood and his hunger for revenge. Torn between the two, Martin stands at a crossroad, with his life hanging in the balance. Which way will he go?

Book #8 of The Bluford High Series.
Follows the story of Hakeem Randall after his move to Detroit. Far from Bluford High, Hakeem quickly finds himself in a world of trouble, and his family is at the center of it. To complicate matters, a new girl hopes to make him forget Darcy forever.

Contains short stories about teenage love and angst.

Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is extremely dark, meets a new teacher with a birthmark on her face and makes some discoveries about to love who she is and what she looks like.

The summer after his absentee father is killed in a random shooting, Paul works at a Harlem soup kitchen, where he listens to lessons about "the social contract" from an elderly African American man and mentors a 17-year-old unwed mother who wants to make it to college on a basketball scholarship.

Also crosses with historical fiction.
In 1863, fifteen-year-old Claire, the daughter of an Irish mother and a black father, faces ugly truths and great danger when Irish immigrants, enraged by the Civil War and a federal draft, lash out against blacks and wealthy "swells" of New York City.

The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to rediscover old ways-farming, barter, herb lore. But now the monied need a harvest of bodies, and so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, eternal powers, and the tragic mystery surrounding her mother and grandmother. She must bargain with gods, and give birth to new legends.

Genna is a fifteen-year-old girl who wants out of her tough Brooklyn neighborhood. But she gets more than she bargained for when a wish gone awry transports her back in time. Facing the perilous realities of Civil War–era Brooklyn, Genna must use all her wits to survive. This is the affecting and inspiring tale of a fearless young woman’s fight to hold on to her individuality and her humanity in two different worlds.

Explores the second wave of the Great Migration. Shifting from spoken word to free verse to traditional forms, she reveals "that soul beneath the vinyl."

Capital Central High School, or Cap Central as the students like to call it, is in the northeast quadrant of Washington, D.C. Any urban school faces broad challenges, and Cap Central is no different. But some tight-knit juniors meet the difficulties head-on with courage, friendship, determination, and hard work.

Steve Harmon, a teenager awaiting trial for a murder and robbery. As Steve acclimates to juvenile detention and goes to trial, he envisions the ordeal as a movie.

Isis Carter got schooled early on in surviving the streets. When some girls put a beatdown on her, she took back what was hers. When her brother was killed and her mom, Queenie, bailed, Isis fought to stay strong. And when her dad abandoned her for his new family, sixteen-year-old Isis buried the hurt by looking out for herself--and hookin' up with bad boy Fresh...until a run-in with the law shatters Isis's world and threatens to destroy her future.

Nasreen and Mia are two very different girls. But they stand out at Arondale High. And kids make assumptions about the only Muslim and the new black girl--the only African American--in school. "Who let you into the suburbs?" Samantha asks. Everyone gawks.

The Lure tells the story of fifteen-year-old Blaise Montgomery, who lives on the dangerous outskirts of Washington, DC, where a stray bullet can steal a life on the way to school and death lurks around every corner. Drugs and violence are the only ways to survive, so Blaise and her friends turn to gangs for safety, money, and love. And when Blaise is accepted into one of the toughest gangs in the city, she's finally part of a crew. A family.

When sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson dies from two gunshot wounds, his community is thrown into an uproar. Tariq was black. The shooter, Jack Franklin, is white. In the aftermath of Tariq's death, everyone has something to say, but no two accounts of the events line up.

Lexi come unglued in this novel in verse. She's alienated from school and family. Her father is in the county jail. She cannot connect with her chain-smoking stepmom. Her brother, Blaine, is trapped in his own autistic world. And her infant sister's death has sent her into a spiral of grief and rebellion. Bright, witty, and irreverent, Lexi tries to navigate the rocky transition from adolescent to young woman.

When Misa Atkinson confesses to the murder of Steven Bingham, her sister’s brother-in-law, for doing the unthinkable to her son, everything is turned upside down. Misa now faces jail time and the loss of her son forever, and his drug lord brother, Frankie Bingham is out for revenge.

Three years after narrowly escaping a one way trip to the gas chamber, the fugitive known only as Animal finds himself drawn back to the scene of the crime: Harlem. Throughout his entire time in exile, the only thing that kept Animal going was the thought that he would one day be reunited with his soul mate, Gucci--but one bullet changed everything.

After being thought dead, Animal resurfaces on the streets of New York to keep true to his promise, and make it rain blood over Harlem. All those who had wronged him would feel his wrath, including Shai Clark, boss of the New York underworld. However, touching a man like Shai Clark proves to be easier said than done. Using Animal's soul mate Gucci as bait, Shai sets a trap for the young killer. Once again Animal finds himself captured, but this time there would be no trial.

When Animal's former lover, Red Sonja, shows up on his doorstep with a little girl, claiming Animal is the father, he and Gucci immediately fear it's a ploy for money. But Red Sonja has come to collect a debt of a different kind, one that can only be paid in blood.

Growing up on the cold, mean, inner-city streets of Baltimore is Netta, leader of an all girl clique called the Pussy Pound. With no father and a dope fiend for a mother, Netta learns at an early age to use her beauty and her body to get the things she wants, money, cars, and jewelry. Chasing the almighty dollar, Netta meets Black, a local drug dealer with a deep seeded hatred for New Yorkers, who fall head over heals in love with her. With a broken heart, Black discovers that Netta is only after his money and he seeks the ultimate revenge against her life.

Meet the Banks sisters--Simone, Bunny, Tallhya, and Ginger. The four beauties are living under the same roof, but they can't stand each other. Their only common denominator is their loving grandmother, Me-Ma. When she's not at work trying to make ends meet, she's home with her girls, trying to keep them from killing each other. Tragedy strikes when Me-Ma has a fatal heart attack. The sisters are shocked to find that she left the house and all her money to the church. Now the pastor wants them out.

Kaia didn't choose the streets. The streets chose her. Tossed from a broken home, Kaia is forced to learn just how grimy street life can be. Shedding her innocence, Kaia goes from being an often overlooked, stepped upon little girl to a woman.

In order to avoid an Internal Affairs investigation, Detective Wolf must hunt down the "Black Lotus Killer," a pursuit that leads to a cold case from his past.

Tracy Ellison, the star of Omar Tyree's Flyy Girl and For the Love of Money, returns in this bestselling novel, Boss Lady. Everybody's favorite flyy girl is a little bit older, a whole lot wiser, and just as sassy as ever. After a series of triumphs in the world of letters and acting, Tracy takes on the dazzling world of Hollywood's A-list players to film a project close to her heart.

A young girl fights to overcome her past after escaping rape, bullying, and homelessness.

Returning home from his janitor’s job early one morning, Obie Bullock—leader of a Philadelphia anti-violence group—stumbles upon a crime scene: someone slit the throat of a police officer. Obie corners and kills the masked assassin, who turns out to be the brother of a drug dealer. Demands for revenge follow, sparking fast-paced action while examining the lives of a working-class family struggling to survive in the projects of Philadelphia.

After a black drug dealer goes to jail in Brooklyn, his ruthless 17-year-old daughter takes over his empire. A look at the mores and manners of the black underclass, this one with money.

The sequel to The Coldest Winter Ever, this novel is frighteningly fierce, raw, and completely unpredictable. Written in the words of Porsche Santiaga, Winter’s sharp-tongued, quick-witted younger sister, this is a coming-of-age adventure woven with emotional intensity.

Bobby Dallas, a budding radio talk-show host, has no skeletons or kids in the closet. All that's missing is a talented, sexy, smart black woman by his side. And that should be easy, right? But after a shattering breakup with his first love, Bobby wanders for years between women and jobs, unsure about marriage, family, economics, and his overall stability. Having achieved his dream of becoming a highly successful radio talk-show host, Bobby is a man with the best of intentions not only in his career, but also in love. He learns, though, that being a "do right man" is far from easy.

Cassandra Rivers and Leila Aponte are friends who have been puttin' it down as Sabrina Steelo and Fatal Beauty on the underground hip hop scene. But when G Double D, founder of gangsta rap label Explicit Content, seduces Fatal with promises of solo stardom, she falls for his rap hook, verse, and sample.

There is a secret society of women that few are privy to, all of them vying for an opportunity to live a luxurious, lavish lifestyle by snagging a rich and famous singer, rapper or athlete. Betty was not in it to be a wife or the baby momma of a wealthy public figure. Betty, a senior majoring in psychology, has developed skills much more powerful. But when she encounters a man that she would never have anticipated falling for, the tools she used so well against men begin to turn against her.

Tracy Ellison, a young knockout with tall hair and attitude, is living life as fast as she can. Motivated by the material world, she and her friends love and leave the young men who will do anything to get next to them. It's only when the world of gratuitous sex threatens heartbreak that Tracy begins to examine her life, her goals, and her sexuality.

Tracy Ellison, the heroine of Flyy Girl, returns in this sequel. From hard-knocks Philly to glamorous Hollywood, she has walked the walk. Now 28 years old and a major movie star, the original Flyy Girl is returning to her East Coast roots. As Tracy reconnects with friends, she seems on the brink of a happily-ever-after existence. But as she begins to address the uncertainties of her youth, Tracy stirs up difficult questions about past loves, ambivalent family ties, and her artistic ambitions. Can attaining success and happiness really be as simple as Tracy makes it look?

When Jessica Jones and her three best friends go out on prom night, a tragic incident turns a night of achievement into a crime scene, and the girls are left with bloody hands and shattered futures.

Fabiola Mays has a voice like honey and a body to match, but one heartbreaking setback after another threatens to derail her dreams of a recording deal. At Christmastime, rent is past due, and the cops intend to kick her family to the curb until a small-town gangster comes to the rescue and offers them a place to stay.

This is the story of Helena, Storm and Keyshawn, three very different young ladies living in Marcy projects who are linked together by one man.

The glamorous life of a gangsta’s girl corrupted and blinded Bambi, but she got her heart broken in the process. She vowed that whoever crossed her would pay–usually in large bills. With street knowledge and business savvy, Bambi builds a business empire, encountering all kinds of men along the way.

Bambi built EventsRUS from the ground up, doing high end events. Bambi’s goal was to stack more than enough money to ensure that her husband, Lynx, would never again have to distribute illegal narcotics. But once Lynx is released from prison, all her high hopes and dreams turn into a horrible nightmare. She learns that Lynx has an insatiable love and growing appetite for gambling, which threatens to bring both of them to ruin. Caught between the venture capitalist bankers, the underground financers and having loyalty and love for her man, Bambi has to make life-changing decisions and deceptions. The wrong move could cost her everything.

Follows Silver Jones as she flees Harlem, with its loose women of the night and seductive, heroin-shooting men, for Spelman College, where she dreams of becoming a doctor. Blue's wide cast is often villainous, paper thin and brimming with crack-smokers and sex-peddler

Yarni is a successful corporate attorney who wants nothing more than for her husband, Des, to renounce his hustlin’ ways and commit to his life as a pastor, especially after someone tries to kill him. But Des isn’t ready to abandon his old habits just yet. He has to find out who is behind the murder attempt, and he wonders if the brazen robbery that took place during one of his church services is related. But before he or Yarni can regain their footing, a young woman shows up on their doorstep—Desember Day, the 18-year-old daughter Des never knew he had. And, unfortunately, she takes after her father, so trouble isn’t far behind.

Unique and her tight-knit gang of sisters from other misters, Kiara, Kay and Zoe, have all been raised to idolise the same things. Money, lavish living and men. Well, men if they will help provide access to the money and the lavish living, that is.

Born to one of the city’s most notorious crime families, Shai Clark has always managed to be a good kid. A college hoops star, Shai shunned the world his father created and focused on his dreams of going pro. Tommy, Shai’s trigger-happy older brother, is next in line for the throne and rules under his father through brute force. But Poppa has bigger plans for Shai. The situation soon turns ugly when Poppa is murdered and Tommy is removed from the equation. Shai takes up his father’s mantle and brings his game to the streets. He quickly learns that there are two sides to every coin, and the streets hold no mercy for the weak.

Best friends since childhood, Darin Harmon and John Williams are young men on the brink of realizing their dreams. For John, it his music; for Darin, football. When Darin suffers an injury that closes the door on his sports aspirations, he reluctantly follows his friend into the music scene and quickly gets swept up in promoting John's new "Loverboy" identity to R&B superstardom. But the celebrity lifestyle of big-time money, fast women, and easy drugs quickly takes it toll, and the friends find themselves at a crossroads that will forever shape each of their futures.

Knocked up by a Southern preacher, Keyshia is sent to live with her aunt in New York, but after a horrific act of violence, the timid young woman becomes ice-cold.

At historically black Dillard University in New Orleans, Leslie Beaudet struggles with a dark secret of power in a world pulling her in many different directions. Her friends and family see her in many ways, but does anyone know the true Leslie? When a series of murders befall her community and increasingly points in Leslie's direction, her friends and relatives realize they've never really known her at all. Slowly, a complicated young woman emerges. She is terrified of failure, struggling with family secrets, praying for elusive security, and craving the power to change her fate. Her power was hidden from her until now...and it might be too late to stop her.

Pamela Xavier is a young woman left for dead by her drug-dealing boyfriend. With stacks of bills, no food in the fridge, and a baby on the way, Pammy turns to the streets for survival. She relies on her alter ego, Carmen, to guide her through the male-dominated game and to achieve what she thinks will buy back her life and her happiness: money. In no time, Carmen graduates from call-girl to leader of a major drug cartel- all to raise her son so he may never know her same pain and struggle. But with money on her mind, Carmen realizes that the perilous choices and consequences of the game come at a higher cost than she could have imagined.

Song Byrd is African American (in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood), unwanted (conceived during an adulterous affair), and poor in the material sense but extraordinarily rich in spirit. She struggles against outsider status and intense guilt over her mother’s murder. Behind it all, places of pure joy, “dreaming the hurt away,” and glorious little pieces of sky shine through.

A fierce fighter with heart and a powerful mind, Midnight is willing to do anything to defend his family, the women he loves, and his business and property. In this riveting prequel to her urban classic, The Coldest Winter Ever, Sister Souljah reintroduces readers to Ricky Santiago’s strong, humble, and dangerously attractive lieutenant. The intricate storytelling in this tale of love, loyalty, strength, and survival will sweep readers from the wealthy North African estate of Midnight’s father to the complicated challenges of the Brooklyn projects where Midnight lands with his beautiful mother.

Two twisty tales of women on the run and under the gun.

Desember Day is beautiful, confident, and smart. Her boyfriend, Fame, loves her, but even her love for Fame can’t stand in the way of Desember selling anything and everything—legal or illegal—that can turn a profit. Desember wants to know who her father is though, and her mother refuses to tell her who he is.

13 year-old AnnMarie Walker dreams of a world beyond Far Rockaway. While attending a school for pregnant teens, she comes across a flyer advertising movie auditions in Manhattan. Astonishingly, improbably, and four months before she’s due to give birth—she lands a lead role. For a time, AnnMarie soars, but when the film fades from view and the realities of her life set in, AnnMarie’s grit and determination are the only tools left to keep her moving forward.

A female ex-con moved by the power, poetry, and dangerous passion of Tupac Shakur has plans to play it straight and do the right thing for her survival. But her lover, Jesus, the man she went to prison for on a gun possession charge, is intent on bringing her back into his game. She finds herself caught between inescapable yet contradictory forces-the passion for the streets and the inspiration of her conscience, just like her idol Pac. With righteous anger to burn, she's got to pull her life together before it's too late.

Damina Rose is Native of Detroit but a resident of Tampa. A daughter of a hustler and a fashionista so Mina is no stranger to speaking her mind or meeting the grind. After two attempt's of being raped by people she trust and valued her heart grew cold.

Tressa always thought that the best moment in her life was the day she gave birth to her twin boys, Khalil and Hadji, but even better was when she got the news that their abusive father, Lucky, was dead. His death gave Tressa an opportunity to start over. It doesn't take long for her to realize that even though Lucky is dead, she would never be free of him. When the twins discover that the man who raised them had a hand in killing their father, nothing can stop them from plotting their revenge. Tressa’s life thrown into chaos and she is about to find out that nothing is what it seems.

Recounts a young black street-girl's horrendous and redemptive journey through a Harlem inferno. For Precious Jones, 16 and pregnant with her father's child, hope appears and the world begins to open up for her when a determined teacher bullies, cajoles, and inspires her to learn to read, to define her own feelings and set them down in a diary.

After more than ten years of successfully raising two sons on her own, Denise Stewart finds herself involved with both of her sons' fathers as well as in a relationship with a new man. Jimmie, the father of her eldest child, who, after learning that his son is a top basketball prospect, suddenly wants a major role in the teenager's life. Walter, the father of Denise's second son, is trying to gain custody of his twelve-year-old. After attending the Million Man March in Washington, Walter believes he should assume full responsibility for his son instead of for just two weekends out of each month. And there's Brock, the truck driver who is falling in love with Denise but is uncertain whether he wants the burden of a ready-made family.

Rio, only child of a singer turned alcoholic, feels he has nothing to hold on to except the idea of escaping the ghetto. Years ago, he took a gun charge for a friend and did prison time. Unable to find a job when he gets out, Rio turns to hustling.

Desire has managed to overcome her tragic childhood and life on the streets to become a talented singer on the verge of stardom, but her success, and her own morals, are soon tested by the temptations of fame and fate.