Powerful and sensual, Midnight is an intelligent, fierce fighter and Ninjutsu-trained ninja warrior. A devout Muslim, he takes sixteen-year-old Akemi from Japan as his wife, but their tumultuous teenage marriage is interrupted when Akemi is kidnapped and taken back to Japan by her own father, even though the marriage was consummated and well underway. To find her, Midnight must travel across three countries and numerous cultures, and meets people...

"Desperate to quell her addiction to drugs, disastrous romance, and nineties San Francisco, Michelle heads south for LA. But soon it's officially announced that the world will end in one year, and life in the sprawling metropolis becomes increasingly weird. While living in an abandoned bookstore, dating Matt Dillon, and keeping an eye on the encroaching apocalypse, Michelle begins a new novel, a sprawling and meta-textual exploration to complement...

A neglected dog finds his purpose through rapping and rhyming.

A darkly funny and heartfelt debut novel about what it means to grow up young and black on the south side of Chicago when it feels like your choices are slim to none. Claude McKay Love is an average kid coping with abandonment, violence, riots, failed love, and societal pressures. As a young black man born on the South Side of Chicago, he is raised by his civil rights-era grandmother, who tries to shape him into a principled actor for change. When...

Maverick feels strongly about family ties, making choices he feels necessary to help support his mom while his King father serves time, and leave him literally holding his son in a doctor's waiting room after he gets paternity test results back and his babymomma ghosts. Now the child he's raising is impacting the lives of his family and his girlfriend, and the gang life he led to support them all financially could leave them all bearing his responsibilities...

"From the acclaimed author of Visitation Street, a visionary portrait of contemporary Los Angeles in all its facets, from the Mojave Desert to the Pacific, from the 110 to Skid Row. When a teenage boy runs away from his father's mysterious commune, he sets in motion a domino effect that will connect six people all desperate for hope and love, scattered across the sun-bleached canvas of Los Angeles. There's Ren, just out of juvie, who travels to L.A....

In the business of high-end, no-limits desire, Desdemona Dean is the best there is. This gorgeous madam can provide any sensual fantasy, ignite any insatiable hunger. She fiercely protects the women who work for her and helps them attain the lives they deserve--especially when it comes to her beautiful, troubled new protégé, Portia. But for Desi, having it all is no longer enough. She wants everything her shattered childhood denied her. And as she...

A scientific researcher and a disgraced chemist become pawns in a power grab by a billionaire contraband smuggler targeting Paris Duncan and her family, a situation that is further complicated by an assassin lover's return from the dead.

"Chicago: home to urban Indians and immigrants and working folks and the whole gamut of people getting by in a world that doesn't care whether they do so or not. Sacred City is an incomparable follow-up to Van Alst's award-winning debut collection, Sacred Smokes. Our young narrator now heads deeper into the heart of the city and himself, accompanied by ancestors and spirits who help him and the reader see that Chicago was, is, and always will be...

"A volunteer Virginia Beach firefighter, Alayna Curry faces death every day--and is proud to carry on her retired father's legacy. But with cash always tight and her long-time boyfriend Levi pressuring her to give up what she loves to make more money, she knows she needs more cash flow to stay afloat ... All Alayna has to do is keep quiet about a scheme to burn down buildings for insurance-hungry 'clients.' And for a while she's on fire from the rush,...