An intimate and revealing exploration of kindred spirits forever linked through love and devotion, even as they travel through a maze of deceit and mischief. A debut novel that screams sex, thrills, and crime From the sandbox to the grave—that’s the motto for Johnny Ivey, Johnny Dobbs, and Larry “Sparkle” Stith. In the mean red-light district of Atlanta, the lifelong friends and partners are known as the Three Amigos. One for all and all for one. Newly released from jail, Sparkle is ready to lead a life free of crime and violence. His lover, Beverly Johnson, is now the city’s police chief. But she is battling her own personal demons in search of peace while secretly protecting her friends and her political career. Meanwhile, Sparkle’s dream of reform is cut short when vengeful adversaries go on a mission to take over his friends’ turf, drawing him back into the streets he was trying to escape. The three must navigate a labyrinth of trickery in order to keep their territory, their sanity, and their lives.
Larry Stith (a.k.a. Sparkle), the 41-year-old street hustler, is again teamed with his main partner Johhny Dobbs (a.k.a. Rainbow), a lifetime pimp, drug dealer and scam artist. They are joined by Beverly Johnson (a.k.a. Bevy), Sparkle's secret lover and a corrupt police chief, as well as Asian beauty Mercedes and Aunt Rose, who knows the ins and outs of rival Black Don's business. Lifelong friends and their associates roam through the underbelly of Atlanta's glitter and glitz in a maze of whodunit.
Grit and Grind Being a best-selling romance author doesn’t make falling in love any easier … Christopher Kaiser’s books were taking the romance genre by storm. Rumor even had it that his sexy stories had actually been inspired by personal experiences. But the notorious Southern playboy wasn’t ready for a stand-alone relationship. What would happen to his writing if Christopher settled for just one muse? He was about to find out … Aspiring author Klara Woods found herself lacking inspiration. A string of bad relationships and a meet-cute gone wrong had left her with empty sheets … in more ways than one. Taking matters into her own hands, Klara decided to jump-start her career by attending a writer’s workshop in her hometown of Memphis. But it was her love life that was about to get a rewrite in the city of grit and grind. Nashvegas Nights What happened backstage didn’t always stay backstage … in Nashvegas. Music Row star Jason Jones loved three things—his dog, ice-cold beer, and gorgeous redheads. His life sounded like a country song … and he had the baggage to prove it. One minute, he was onstage, crooning to a flame-haired goddess, and then he was backstage, giving her an encore she’d never forget. Neither would he … Hot-mess express Dorothy Elizabeth Prudence was a nurse by day and lonely by night. With a name like that, she never got laid. That was about to change, thanks to her wingwoman bestie. Hitting Nashville’s Music Row for a wild night had seemed like an excellent idea. She was only looking for a good time but found a lot more than she’d bargained for. They both did … Mr. Big Ego Finding love in The Big Easy is a gamble … especially when he’s your new boss. Event planner Samantha Masson had sworn off alpha men after a nasty divorce. The last thing she was looking for was a man with an ego bigger than his bank account. Too bad that was exactly what she found when she spent a wild night in the arms of a masked stranger. Planning a Halloween masquerade gala for the infamous Victor Beaumont made a nice addition to her reputable portfolio. She just hadn’t planned on becoming a notch on his bedpost … or falling for him in the process. But there was more to the man behind the mask … Millionaire Victor Beaumont owned the largest rum distillery in New Orleans. He had power, wealth, and all that came with it, including the crushing weight of responsibility. He would gladly walk away from everything for a chance to be his own man, but tradition wouldn’t allow it … and neither would his pride. As a skilled actor, he had everyone fooled with his arrogance and charming wit. Until he met the infuriatingly talented and beautiful Samantha, who saw right through him. From rendezvous to romance, he couldn’t keep his hands off of her. To keep her, he would have to take his mask off once and for all … Keywords: small town romance, HEA, romance books, funny love books, romantic comedy, romantic comedy books, romcom books, rom-com, new adult romance, new adult, happily-ever-after, student teacher romance, college romance, romantic novels, love stories, southern romance, humorous fiction, funny romance, enemies to lovers, second chance romance, billionaire romance, boss romance, workplace romance
Rap music from New York and Los Angeles once ruled the charts, but nowadays the southern sound thoroughly dominates the radio, Billboard, and MTV. Coastal artists like Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, and Ice-T call southern rap &“garbage,&” but they're probably just jealous, as artists like Lil Wayne and T.I. still move millions of copies, and OutKast has the bestselling rap album of all time. In Dirty South, author Ben Westhoff investigates the southern rap phenomenon, watching rappers &“make it rain&” in a Houston strip club and partying with the 2 Live Crew's Luke Campbell. Westhoff visits the gritty neighborhoods where T.I. and Lil Wayne grew up, kicks it with Big Boi in Atlanta, and speaks with artists like DJ Smurf and Ms. Peachez, dance-craze originators accused of setting back the black race fifty years. Acting both as investigative journalist and irreverent critic, Westhoff probes the celebrated-but-dark history of Houston label Rap-A-Lot Records, details the lethal rivalry between Atlanta MCs Gucci Mane and Young Jeezy, and gets venerable rapper Scarface to open up about his time in a mental institution. Dirty South features exclusive interviews with the genre's most colorful players. Westhoff has written a journalistic tour de force, the definitive account of the most vital musical culture of our time.
Exciting and gritty, this sequel to Durty South Grind offers a raw realisation of one individual balancing her dedicated police work in her beloved hometown with her unbridled love for her longtime friends: hustlers. Whilst the glitzy nightlife of Atlanta is on full display, lifelong friends and associates roam through the city's dark underbelly. Police Chief Beverly Johnson has a secret lover, Sparkle, who just happens to be a street hustler running a gang of pimps and drug dealers. This compelling urban drama is sure to delight fans of Durty South Grind.
College is a big adjustment—but not if you're Kenya Posey. Even at a Southern school far from her Jersey turf, she's the one the girls envy and the boys want. Kenya's the star of a hot singing/dancing troupe, her high-school BFF Lark is on campus—could things get any better? For Lark, the answer is yes. While she's flunking socially, life is one big episode of Everybody Loves Kenya—and Lark barely gets a walk-on role. Kenya's too self-absorbed to see beyond her fabulous new life. But with Kenya's brother Eric and his rapper friend Fiasco bringing drama right to her door, all that's about to change….
The Dirty South examines the shifting significances of the South as a constructed, fantasized region in the American psyche, particularly its frequent association with tropes of dirt that emphasize soil, garbage, trash, grit, litter, mud, swamp water, slime, and pollution. Beginning with iconic works from the 1970s such as Deliverance and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, James A. Crank traces the image of a “dirty” South into the twenty-first century to explore the social, political, and psychological effects of the region’s hold on the imaginations of southerners and nonsoutherners alike. With a focus on media forms through which southern identity gets articulated and questioned—including horror movies, Swamp Thing comics, and popular music by artists such as Waylon Jennings and OutKast—The Dirty South probes the sustained fascination with southern dirtiness while reflecting on its causes and consequences since the end of the civil rights era. Highlighting the period from 1970 to 2020, during which the South began to represent several new possible identities for the nation as a whole and for the area itself, Crank considers the ways that southerners have used depictions of dirt to create and police boundaries and to contest those boundaries. Each chapter pairs prominent literary or cultural texts from the 1970s with more contemporary works, such as Jordan Peele’s film Get Out, which recycle similar investments or, critically, challenge the inherent whiteness of the earlier images. By historicizing fantasies of the region and connecting them to the first decades of the twenty-first century, The Dirty South reveals that notions about southern dirtiness proliferate not because they lend authenticity or relevancy to the U.S. South, but because they aid so conspicuously in the zombified work of tethering investors (real and imagined) to a graveyard of ideas.
"John Connolly returns with a prequel that goes back to the very beginning of Private Investigator Charlie Parker's astonishing career with his first terrifying case"--
From the southern influence on nineteenth-century New York to the musical legacy of late-twentieth-century Athens, Georgia, to the cutting-edge cuisines of twenty-first-century Asheville, North Carolina, the bohemian South has long contested traditional views of the region. Yet, even as the fruits of this creative South have famously been celebrated, exported, and expropriated, the region long was labeled a cultural backwater. This timely and illuminating collection uses bohemia as a novel lens for reconsidering more traditional views of the South. Exploring wide-ranging locales, such as Athens, Austin, Black Mountain College, Knoxville, Memphis, New Orleans, and North Carolina's Research Triangle, each essay challenges popular interpretations of the South, while highlighting important bohemian sub- and countercultures. The Bohemian South provides an important perspective in the New South as an epicenter for progress, innovation, and experimentation. Contributors include Scott Barretta, Shawn Chandler Bingham, Jaime Cantrell, Jon Horne Carter, Alex Sayf Cummings, Lindsey A. Freeman, Grace E. Hale, Joanna Levin, Joshua Long, Daniel S. Margolies, Chris Offutt, Zandria F. Robinson, Allen Shelton, Daniel Cross Turner, Zackary Vernon, and Edward Whitley.
