Books of Soul

Flaws and All by Shana Burton

July 1, 2010
Faith, family, and friendship have always been top priority to lifelong friends Lawson, Reginell, Sullivan, Angel, and Kina, but each one is about to be put to the test during one turbulent year.

Lawson Kerry is a struggling single mother who has finally gotten her life together. Now, a fierce custody battle with her ex threatens to the tear apart everything she’s built.

Reginell Kerry is a starry-eyed singer determined to make it to the top of the charts, but will she change her tune when a chance at fame means shedding her clothes and her self-respect?

Sullivan Webb is the pampered wife of a charismatic pastor with political aspirations, but she just might destroy her husband’s campaign and their marriage if she can’t control her wandering eye.

Angel King has dedicated her life to nursing following the destruction of her marriage. Can she maintain her professionalism when she discovers that her newest patient is the woman who stole her husband?

Kina Battle has had enough of her husband’s verbal and physical abuse. When she’s pushed to the edge, the situation heads in a deadly direction, and there’s no turning back.

Nothing is sacred, all bets are off, and the lives of these ladies will never be the same. Will they have the strength to hold on to their friendships and put their trust in God?

Urban Trade Paper
Available August 1, 2010 in Paperback

The Memory Quilt: A Christmas Story for Our Times by T.D. Jakes

December 30, 2009

Atria
Available 11/03/09 in Hardcover

A perfect Christmas for Lela Edwards this year would include the presence of her husband, her three daughters, and her favorite granddaughter, Darcie. They would each be happy, healthy, and properly married. But life doesn’t always unfold in a perfect way, even for God-loving, churchgoing people like these. Lela’s husband of fifty years, Walter, has recently passed, and the daughters now live in towns and states far from the Chicago neighborhood where they were raised.Darcie is traveling to Missouri City, Texas, to be with her mother, not to Chicago to be with her grandmother, whom she expects to come down hard on her for deciding to divorce her husband and the father of her unborn child. Lela is upset and annoyed with Darcie and herself for breaking her own time-honored tradition of making a quilt to celebrate each family wedding. The quilt is still in separate pieces, and apparently so is the marriage of Doug and Darcie.

The Christmas season is about celebrating the birth and meaning of Christ; about the hope and inspiration that the story we revisit each year offers. So, as the days of the season progress, Lela participates in a Bible study group that focuses on the Virgin Mary. This is the cold season in Chicago and rough weather, literally and figuratively, is ahead for Lela, her family, neighbors, and fellow church members, but in the Scriptures are messages and guidance. If they heed the lessons of the Virgin Mary, they will learn from their mistakes and misjudgments of each other and find favor with God.

Be Careful What You Pray For by Kimberla Lawson Roby

December 27, 2009

William Morrow
Available 02/01/10 in Hardcover

New York Times bestselling author Kimberla Lawson Roby returns with this delightful sequel to The Best of Everything, in which the infamous Reverend Curtis Black’s beautiful daughter, Alicia, is all grown up — and headed for trouble of her own

Her first marriage didn’t work out, but that isn’t going to stop Alicia Black, the privileged daughter of the charismatic Reverend Curtis Black, from getting what she wants. One month after her wedding to her second husband, she can’t believe her good fortune. God has heeded her prayers, blessing her with Pastor JT Valentine, a handsome, dynamic man of the cloth with his own large congregation, just like her father. Unfortunately, Alicia doesn’t understand just how much like Curtis her new husband truly is. She doesn’t know that JT has been sneaking around town with other women — or that he only married her to get close to her father’s money and fame. But while Alicia is blinded by love, her dad certainly isn’t. He warned his little girl that JT simply can’t be trusted. After all, it takes one to know one, and who better to see into the darkness of a sinner’s heart than Curtis? It will take a miracle to save the day. But God acts in mysterious ways, and soon a host of lies, longtime secrets, and acts of betrayal comes to light, and Alicia must face some very crucial and life-changing decisions. This time, she’s got to be careful what she prays for. . . .

Something Old, New, Borrowed & True by Pamela R. Jeffers

December 19, 2009

Something Old, New, Borrowed & True
by Pamela R. Jeffers

Harvest Time Innerations                                                                                                                                           Available 11/2/09

Tvoya Harrington is a woman caught between two loves and too many lies. She’s about to marry the man of her hopes and dreams when a childhood sweetheart returns home to bury his father. Perfectly-laid wedding plans start to crumble as long-buried secrets are unearthed and Tvoya begins to wonder if the man she thinks is the answer to her prayers is really God-sent.

Something Old, New, Borrowed & True, by debut Christian Fiction author Pamela R. Jeffers, is an engrossing and inspirational tale about matters of the heart and trusting God – even through the unexpected twists that test your faith, friendships and family.

Sins of the Father by Angela Benson

September 1, 2009

Sins of the Father
by Angela Benson

Avon A
Available 09/01/09

God asked the biblical Abraham to sacrifice his son. But Abraham Martin’s only god is money.

Successful media mogul Abraham Martin has great wealth, an elegant wife, Saralyn, and a rebellious son, Isaac. He also has a secret: a second family that no one knows about. Now, after thirty years — driven by the urging of his long dormant conscience — Abraham is determined to do the right thing by finally bringing his illegitimate children into the light…and into the family fold.

But beautiful, manipulative Saralyn will never accept the proof of her husband’s indiscretions. Isaac, the heir, shaken by his father’s revelations, will fight mercilessly when his world is threatened, and may lose everything that matters as a result. And while Abraham’s forgotten daughter, Deborah, is open to the undreamed-of possibilities suddenly awaiting her, his son, Michael, cannot forgive the man who cruelly abandoned them to near poverty. And he’s driven by only one desire: revenge!

Angela Benson’s Sins of the Father is a powerful story of a house bitterly divided — a rich, multilayered family saga of betrayal and redemption, rage and compassion, faith, forgiveness, and ultimately, of love.

Secrets and Lies by Rhonda McKnight

August 22, 2009

Secrets and Lies
by Rhonda McKnight

Urban Books
Available December 1, 2009

Faith Morgan is struggling with her faith. Years of poor communication and neglect leave her doubting that God will ever fix her marriage. When a coworker accuses her husband, Jonah, of the unthinkable, Faith begins to wonder if she really knows him at all, and if it’s truly in God’s will for them to stay married.

Pediatric cardiologist Jonah Morgan is obsessed with one thing: his work. A childhood incident cemented his desire to heal children at any cost, even his family, but now he finds himself at a crossroads in his life. Will he continue to allow the past to haunt him, or find healing and peace in a God he shut out long ago?

Worth a Thousand Words by Stacy Hawkins Adams

August 22, 2009

Worth a Thousand Words: A Novel (Jubilant Soul)
by Stacy Hawkins Adams

Revell
Available 07/01/09

Life has always gone Indigo Burns’s way. She’s smart, pretty, and talented, and she knows exactly what she wants. A photography internship at her hometown’s local newspaper is the next step in her well-laid plans for her future. But her long-term goals are put to the test when her boyfriend Brian proposes–two years before he’s supposed to and in front of all the guests at her college graduation party. Too concerned about his feelings to say no, she heartily agrees, but inside she’s cringing.

Indigo knows in her heart that she’s not prepared to sacrifice her dreams to become Brian’s wife–not before she has achieved any of them. Will she find the answers among family and friends in Jubilant, Texas? Or will the picture-perfect life she dreams of be left behind?

Everybody Say Amen by ReShonda Tate Billingsley

August 6, 2009

Pocket Star
Available 02/24/09

Gold Pen Award-winning author ReShonda Tate Billingsley returns to the Houston congregation of her #1 Essence magazine bestseller, Let the Church Say Amen, in this warm and powerful sequel.

When her husband hears God’s call to become a preacher, Rachel Jackson Adams is distressed — she grew up a preacher’s daughter, and knows how difficult life under the microscope can be for a reverend’s family. But hot-headed Rachel has toned down her wild ways, and for the sake of her marriage and her two children, she is now the reluctant first lady of Zion Hill, unafraid to rock the boat with her unconventional ideas for revitalizing the church. When her son, Jordan, begins fighting at school, Rachel turns to the boy’s father, Bobby — Rachel’s first love from years ago. Married now himself, there should be nothing between them except their concern for Jordan — so why does seeing Bobby again feel so distractingly tempting? With her brothers facing dramas of their own, and her father, Reverend Simon Jackson, recovering from illness, Rachel must listen carefully to discover what God truly wants for her — and to decide if Bobby is the lover of her dreams or the devil in disguise.

The List by Sherri Lewis

March 6, 2009

The List by Sherri Lewis

In Stores March 2009

Single and satisfied? Not Michelle, Angela and Lisa. These saved but sexy, successful black women think they’re getting too old to keep waiting on God to send their soulmates. Under the protective eye of their more spiritual sistergirlfriend, Vanessa, and the scrutiny of newly saved manhater, Nicole, the ladies go on a hilarious adventure to “be found” by their husbands.

Armed with their list of essential must-have’s, would-be-nice’s, icing-on-the-cake’s, and total-deal-breakers, they start their search – but soon encounter issues specific to the saved woman on the dating scene. Is online dating okay for Christians? How long do you wait before you tell the hottie you just met that you’re celibate and plan to stay so until married? He’s too fine to pass up – how saved does he really need to be? And of course, how do you keep things holy when he’s oh-so-sexy?

It’s not long before they realize they still have to trust God to know what’s best for them and that He loves them enough to send them everything on The List.

Love on the Line by Laura Castoro

January 26, 2009

Love on the Line
by Laura Castoro

Available February 1, 2009

Identity, attitudes, and culture collide as a mother and daughter’s values and backgrounds are challenged by everyone around them in this moving, often humorous, and unforgettable novel from Laura Castoro.

It ain’t easy being biracial and a trust fund baby, but blue-eyed Jesse Morgan is determined to just be herself at an eastern college—where no one will know who or what she is…unless she chooses to tell them. What Jesse doesn’t yet realize is that “no past” doesn’t equal “no problems.”

High-powered executive Thea Morgan is marrying Rev. Xavier Thornton—the former athlete and successful black businessman-turned-pastor, a man she first fell in love with at sixteen. A fair-skinned black woman who cracked the glass ceiling in the Texas oil business, Thea assumes her identity difficulties are behind her. She hasn’t yet met Xavier’s new congregation in a down-on-its-luck Arkansas town…nor Mrs. Hattie Patterson—the matriarch of St. Hurricane Church who has fixed opinions about how a minister’s wife should behave. Will Thea lose her struggles to win over Xavier’s congregation, people who just don’t understand her big-city ways? It will take every bit of her humor, business acumen, and just plain hard-loving to deal with her crisis of faith and the sinking feeling that, just maybe, love can’t conquer all.

Like mother, like daughter, Thea and Jesse discover that sometimes to get what you need most you to have to put everything, even love, on the line.