Nikki Ling is half black and Japanese. She's independent, street-smart and the daughter of a prostitute. Living in the mean streets of East New York and Bedford Stuyvesant Brooklyn she's forced to make a living the only way she knows how. When a wealthy, South African diplomat asks for her hand in marriage things seem to get brighter. Until she realizes that the soft-spoken, reserved, gentleman is pathological, kinky, and sadistic. One day she meets a mysterious stranger who approaches her with the Criss Cross. Is the Criss Cross her ticket to a better life? Or will the Criss Cross ultimately become the double cross? Wait! The Criss Cross isn't done yet! The old gang from Life, Love & Loneliness have some unfinished business to resolve. In this page-turning novel see how the drama unfolds for Lyric, Lacey, Madison, Joshua, and Estelle.

Kiss the year goodbye with this sultry anthology... New Year's Eve is the time to make a naughty resolution, so shed your inhibitions and indulge in this sultry collection of escapades from four of the hottest writers around. In Brenda L. Thomas's "Every New Year," a shoot-out lands a respected doctor in the hospital with a bad case of amnesia, and in the care of a man too sexy to resist. In "Whatever It Takes" by Tu-Shonda L. Whitaker, a sassy older woman tries to break off her steamy relationship with her best friend's twenty-three-year-old son, but he shows her he's man enough to fulfill her needs. Crystal Lacey Winslow proves you can be "Dangerously in Love" when a prim and proper young woman's wild side takes over after the man she's dating slips up with another woman. In "My Boo" by Daaimah S. Poole, a Philly girl's long-distance boyfriend never has time for her -- not even around the holidays. So when her ex-roommate's latest lover comes knocking, she's ready to get the party started.

Life, Love & Loneliness, the debut novel from Crystal Lacey Winslow, takes its reader on a tumultuous journey through the life of its main character, Lyric Devaney. Lyric is an aspiring black actress who knows exactly what she wants out of life, and who possesses the uncanny ability to manipulate others in order to achieve her goals. She has no qualms about stepping on the toes of friends, lovers, family and acquaintances that stand between her and her desires. Lyric's latest scheming lands her a six-figure movie deal and the film's starring role -- which she manages to steal from a friend! Lyric has nearly fulfilled her dreams. But she's missing one thing -- the Mayor of New York City! Their long-time affair has reached a turning point. Lyric, infatuated with his political status, ambition, and of course, wealth, makes a life-altering decision at the pinnacle of her career. Then tragedy strikes...