Israel “Sassy” Grant has finally given up the pole. The twenty-four-year-old ex-stripper has become “Instafamous” by posting sexy pics and videos on social media, gaining her millions of followers. Typical, but she aspires to make a serious career out of modeling. Losing both her parents in a fatal car accident at the age of sixteen, she only has her older sister, Egypt, to call family. With ambitions not to be a statistic, she aims higher.In the midst of following her dream, Israel meets the man of her fantasies. Alijah Ramsey is a successful, handsome business man who says and does all the right things to get Israel in his clutches. She’s never been treated like a queen by a man before, and Alijah always shows up and shows out. Her past is riddled with one bad relationship after another, and after swearing off catching feelings, she finds herself in love again.The dilemma is, Alijah is not being one hundred percent truthful with her. Living a double life, he finesses the situation in his favor. That is until Israel becomes suspicious and starts doing some digging. When she gets to the truth, it ignites a raging inferno inside her that was once a slow burn. Love mixed with lies will only end up disastrous and Israel is bringing all the smoke. Who will be standing when it clears?
Author: Nika Michelle
Rating: 
5 reviews
Winging It in Hollywood: An adventure out West. by Benjamin Coakley
The true account of a progressive actor, who travels to Hollywood to chase his career. He stays all over Los Angeles during a three month period and encounters sexual molestation, mistaking Cocaine for something stronger, a feature film shoot in a casino and living on a three bedroom boat for six weeks for free! Along with breaking a girls heart, wooing another, while repeatedly feeling alone and frustrated. Some nights were dangerous, some just downright fun and others strangely obscure. My tale is all about the delights and oddities of Los Angeles, California from the perspective of an adventurous Actor looking for his Hollywood break.
Author: Benjamin Coakley
Rating:
5 reviews
Loving Lace by Tiandra Lewis
Three things are dead to Lacey. Love. Trust. Security. After a humiliating breakup, the young and enticing college freshman flees the city she’s called home her entire life, to a place where the only familiar face belongs to her childhood best friend. Jaxon. Two years of separation turns Lacey and Jaxon’s reunion into an intense situation and alters the fate of their friendship. Lacey realizes the sexy club owner has baggage of his own. Friend or lover, a life with Jaxon means a life of danger. Their worlds collide and she is forced to take matters into her own hands. In a world of sex, lies, drugs, and greed, Lacey is capable of anything. Can she forgive the man who is responsible for her pain? Or will he meet his demise to a woman scorned?
Author: Tiandra Lewis
Rating:
5 reviews
Once Upon a Hood Love : A Compton California Fairytale by Moni Love
Ty’Neka and Kae’Sean are close friends growing up on the Eastside of Compton, California. At an early age they both are faced with tragedy’s leaving them depending on each other more then ever. Tired of barley making it, Kae’sean has no other choice, but to turn to the ruthless streets of Compton trying to find away out.After Ty’Neka’s life falls apart right before her eyes, she learns all about heartache and pain. With a mother that’s with her physically, but not mentally she’s left feeling abandoned and alone. Coming together Ty’Neka and Kae’Sean began to plan out goals that can take them all the way to top, but when tragedy strikes them again, Ty’Neka decides she wants to switch things up making decisions that could possibly change both of there lives. Can she make things happen on her own? Or Will they both never get their happily ever after?
Author: Moni Love
Rating:
5 reviews
Insomniacs, We by J. Andrew Schrecker
Insomniacs compose grocery lists and manifestos, a phoenix lies charred in its own ashes, and shadows hide in corners, afraid of themselves. In this decade-spanning volume of poetry, J. Andrew Schrecker blends surrealism, observation, and personal confession to paint a portrait of heartache and longing in recession-torn America.
Author: J. Andrew Schrecker
Rating:
5 reviews
L. O. V. E.: Part 1 by Christian Wiggins
Chrissy falls in love with Mike her childhood friend and reunites with him after they grow up. To Chrissy her love with Mike reaches fairytale heights until she finds out he slept with her best friend and baby cousin Mesha. To Chrissy revenge is a meal best served cold.
Author: Christian Wiggins
Rating:
5 reviews
Secrets Within Her: Sequel to Daughter Cry No More by LeTresa Payne
Raine Jackson returns in a thrilling part two where she is being plagued by terrifying nightmares, visions, and voices of ghosts from the past. On a return trip home to the South, Raine meets a mysterious, handsome young man by the name of Christophe who sets off a whirlwind of events connecting her to a spirit of the past. Death seems to follow her everywhere she turns and places her at the scene of multiple murders. Fearing for her own life and safety of her sister, China, Raine is determined to end the infamous Jackson Curse that has tormented her family for over a century and bring peace to all those around her. With all of the drama surrounding Raine Jackson, one question remains: What’s her secret?
Author: LeTresa Payne
Rating:
5 reviews
fire and light: desert phoenix poems by charles ernest watson
Summer sun really tuned up and blasting with heat.
Author: charles ernest watson
Rating:
5 reviews
Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (The Reader’s Library Book 8) by Edgar Allan Poe
A complete collection of the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. Poe was born on January 19th in Boston, Massachusetts in 1809, and died in his adopted home of Baltimore, Maryland on October 7th, 1849, making him the first American writer in this series.The critical estimation of Poe’s work has increased dramatically over the course of my lifetime, which has been satisfying to observe, as he was for me—as I believe for so many lovers of literature—an early favorite, particularly because of his verse, which is rich with sonic texture and gothic subject matter: insanity, darkness, ghosts, death, etc. It is also quite manageable to read in its entirety at 75 poems depending on how many of those of questionable authorship or in various stages of completion one is willing to include in the official oeuvre. (In fact, it has been some time since I’ve heard the old familiar slight that his popularity in France during the 19th century was perhaps due to his writing gaining something of substance from Charles Baudelaire’s translations.) While perhaps not quite as dramatically prescient in new utterance, form or philosophical depth as Walt Whitman or Emily Dickinson, he certainly was as wise an observer of human nature, and equally brilliant at capturing the psychological nuances of passionate feeling and the frustrating process of understanding human experience. He also had an exquisite ear for language which has made his poems some of the most enjoyable to memorize and recite of all those in English-language verse: “The Raven” and “Annabelle Lee” immediately spring to mind, as does “The Bells,” once beautifully put to music by the American folk singer, Phil Ochs, to offer an example of the breadth of Poe’s influence and the joy with which generations of readers embrace his poems. And to be sure, beyond the varying critical estimation of his output, there is no questioning his popularity. How many 19th century writers get such unique accolades as the naming of a professional sport franchise’s mascot, or their very own bobble head, after all? And in that spirit I am delighted to offer these 75 selections as an official offering of his full poetic output for your personal assessment and, I am confidant, enjoyment.
Author: Edgar Allan Poe
Rating:
5 reviews
There Were No Cats in America: “An American Tail” Enters Trump’s America by Adam M. DeSimone
Using the 1986 animated film “An American Tail” as a framing device, this work explores the immigrant experience of émigrés who lived in the United States during the Gilded Age. While the film itself celebrates the arrival of the furry, lovable, Mousekewitz family to the U.S., this essay comments on the evolution of U.S. immigration policy from the late 19th to early 21st centuries, with special attention paid to the National Origins Act, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and to President Trump’s 2017 “Muslim bans.” Major push and pull factors associated with immigration are examined as well; a comparison between the socioeconomic conditions of the Gilded Age and modern era follow. In this essay, the author argues that the Trump administration’s views on immigration are similar to those of the 19th century’s exclusionary Nativists and their supporters. The author shows that all of this essay’s highlighted immigration policies are steeped in xenophobia, are intentionally designed not to solve the problems lawmakers claim they address, and are antithetical to the values that the U.S.—a nation of immigrants—claims as a deep part of its identity. In “An American Tail,” the film’s main heel, Warren T. Rat, tries to convince the marginalized mice-inhabitants of his world that one of his lies is truthful. Even as his story conspicuously unwinds around him, he reasserts himself by asking, “Who are you going to believe? Me, or your own eyes?” After reading this essay, the author hopes you will be able to trust your own eyes. You will be equipped with enough historic knowledge and context to think critically about President Trump’s rhetoric on immigration and refugees, decide if this is something you wish to resist, and do so while still trusting in the basic goodness of the American people, the majority of whom did not vote for Trump in the 2016 presidential election. The author intends this essay to be a small, personal contribution to today’s dialogue on immigration in America.
Author: Adam M. DeSimone
Rating:
5 reviews