Fans pick 83 books like A Hustler's Wife

By Nikki Turner,

Here are 83 books that A Hustler's Wife fans have personally recommended if you like A Hustler's Wife. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Addicted

Joylynn M. Jossel Author Of The Root of All Evil

From my list on an urban spin on love, romance, and erotica.

Why am I passionate about this?

Not only am I an avid reader of the urban love/romance/erotica genre, but I'm an award-winning, bestselling author in the genre, having written under multiple pen names. I've worked with enough traditional editors and freelance editors to know a well-crafted, entertaining, engaging read of this nature when I not only write one—ha!—but read one. As an author, I rarely offer book reviews—you'll only find one review from me on Amazon—but that's because I'm brutally honest and hard to win over, and I respect my relationship with my fellow literary artists too much to risk it on a not-so-favorable review. So, you know when I say it’s good, it’s good.

Joylynn's book list on an urban spin on love, romance, and erotica

Joylynn M. Jossel Why did Joylynn love this book?

Zane was one of the first to be so bold as to own the art of sex and mix it with the art of literature. Doing more than writing about sex just to be writing about sex, she provides you with a storyline so enthralling that even before all those 50 shades, Addicted was adapted to film and can be watched on national networks and streaming platforms worldwide, making it one of the first erotica novels of our time to have mainstream success.

By Zane,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Addicted as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Addictedis the story of Zoe, an African American arts dealer. It traces her life from the time she first meets her husband, Jason, in the fifth grade, falls in love with him over a game of Twister in the eighth grade, loses her virginity to him in high school and eventually marries him. Everything seems perfect in Zoe's life to her friends and family as she secretly deals with serious problems in her marriage.

After failing to get Jason to open up to her sexually, Zoe becomes involved in not one, not two, but three extramarital affairs. By the time…


Book cover of From the Streets to the Sheets

Joylynn M. Jossel Author Of The Root of All Evil

From my list on an urban spin on love, romance, and erotica.

Why am I passionate about this?

Not only am I an avid reader of the urban love/romance/erotica genre, but I'm an award-winning, bestselling author in the genre, having written under multiple pen names. I've worked with enough traditional editors and freelance editors to know a well-crafted, entertaining, engaging read of this nature when I not only write one—ha!—but read one. As an author, I rarely offer book reviews—you'll only find one review from me on Amazon—but that's because I'm brutally honest and hard to win over, and I respect my relationship with my fellow literary artists too much to risk it on a not-so-favorable review. So, you know when I say it’s good, it’s good.

Joylynn's book list on an urban spin on love, romance, and erotica

Joylynn M. Jossel Why did Joylynn love this book?

Leave it to literary genius, Noire, to take the best of both literary worlds—street lit and erotica—and intertwine them into several tantalizing literary quickies. How can the result not be one of the best takes on urban love, especially when she curated some of the best in the business to contribute to the anthology?

By Noire,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked From the Streets to the Sheets as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this bold collection of hard-hitting urban erotic quickies, Noire, the undisputed Queen of Urban Erotica, brings you eleven authors who explore, without apology or restraint, street sagas of sexual pleasure.

Boasting an all-star lineup of some of today’s hottest authors–and sprinkled with heat from some fresh new talent too–this collection from Noire thoroughly lives up to her credo of giving her fans just what they like: street drama with a sheet-drenching erotic twist.

Here you’ll find sexy tales from fan favorites K’wan, Joy, Thomas Long, Jamise L. Dames, Andrea Blackstone, Gerald Malcom, Euftis Emory, Kweli Walker, and Erick Gray,…


Book cover of Heart Of The Hustle

Joylynn M. Jossel Author Of The Root of All Evil

From my list on an urban spin on love, romance, and erotica.

Why am I passionate about this?

Not only am I an avid reader of the urban love/romance/erotica genre, but I'm an award-winning, bestselling author in the genre, having written under multiple pen names. I've worked with enough traditional editors and freelance editors to know a well-crafted, entertaining, engaging read of this nature when I not only write one—ha!—but read one. As an author, I rarely offer book reviews—you'll only find one review from me on Amazon—but that's because I'm brutally honest and hard to win over, and I respect my relationship with my fellow literary artists too much to risk it on a not-so-favorable review. So, you know when I say it’s good, it’s good.

Joylynn's book list on an urban spin on love, romance, and erotica

Joylynn M. Jossel Why did Joylynn love this book?

Underrated this author may be, but not this book! I wish this genre could be taken as seriously as literary fiction often is, because author Azayler puts her heart and soul into everything she writes. She is truly the queen of urban romance and love, studying the craft to make sure that her characters penetrate the spirit of the reader. No one can make being in love be so dangerous, to the point where the characters are willing to die for it.

By A'zayler,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Heart Of The Hustle as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When a prodigal son returns to his family's criminal empire, he finds danger on the horizon—and a love worth fighting for—in this gritty urban romance.

Heir to the infamous DeLuca drug cartel fortune, Angel DeLuca walked away from it all to pursue a normal life. Then a wrenching betrayal shattered his belief in anything but saving his family's hard-won legacy. Now he's come back to lead the DeLuca empire—no matter the cost. But his most dangerous rival is the one woman whose fierce determination he can't resist . . .

Emilia East grew up in the game—virtually a daughter to…


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Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Tap Dancing on Everest By Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up…

Book cover of Spoiled Rotten

Joylynn M. Jossel Author Of The Root of All Evil

From my list on an urban spin on love, romance, and erotica.

Why am I passionate about this?

Not only am I an avid reader of the urban love/romance/erotica genre, but I'm an award-winning, bestselling author in the genre, having written under multiple pen names. I've worked with enough traditional editors and freelance editors to know a well-crafted, entertaining, engaging read of this nature when I not only write one—ha!—but read one. As an author, I rarely offer book reviews—you'll only find one review from me on Amazon—but that's because I'm brutally honest and hard to win over, and I respect my relationship with my fellow literary artists too much to risk it on a not-so-favorable review. So, you know when I say it’s good, it’s good.

Joylynn's book list on an urban spin on love, romance, and erotica

Joylynn M. Jossel Why did Joylynn love this book?

If Nikki Turner's Hustler's Wife had a little sister, it would be this book. Oh, to be young, dumb, and in love again... or never again. The author puts it in the reader's hand to determine if love truly conquers all, or if all conquers love. Guess it depends on how strong that love truly is.

By Brandi Johnson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Spoiled Rotten as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When her brother is killed, Trouble, who has everything she could ever want because of her brother and his “complex occupation”, embarks on a mission of revenge that involves seducing the enemy and then killing him.


Book cover of The Coldest Winter Ever

Kai Storm Author Of That One Voice

From my list on fiction novels that will make you believe they’re real.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m Kai Storm, author of reality-based urban fiction and erotica, erotica blogger, YouTuber, and Podcaster. I love reading books that feel real, that make you feel, and that teach you something as they entertain you.

Kai's book list on fiction novels that will make you believe they’re real

Kai Storm Why did Kai love this book?

Another great read of my teens that had me looking for real versions of the people described in this book, aka I wished I lived in this book!

It was like an action-packed movie; all the details of the story came to life in my head at the time I read it. Books like this one made me wish I could tell stories like this.

By Sister Souljah,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Coldest Winter Ever as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In a stunning first novel, renowned hip-hop artist, writer and activist Sister Souljah brings the streets of New York to life with a powerful and utterly unforgettable tale. Ghetto-born, Winter is the young, wealthy daughter of a prominent Brooklyn drug-dealing family. Quick-witted, sexy, business minded and fashionable, Winter knows no restrictions. No one can control her. She's nobody's victim. Winter knows the Brooklyn streets like she knows the curves of her own body. She manoeuvres skilfully, applying all she has learned to come out on top, no matter how dramatically the scenes change. But a cold winter wind is about…


Book cover of Dead Weight: A Memoir in Essays

James E. Cherry Author Of Edge of the Wind

From my list on contemporary African American authors.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm a contemporary African American writer born and raised in the South. It was this sense of place that has shaped my artistic sensibilities. I was in my mid-twenties, searching, seeking for answers and direction on my own, when other Black southern writers were instrumental in pointing me in the right direction: Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, Margaret Walker, Ernest J Gaines, Alice Walker, Arna Bontemps, Albert Murray, just to name a handful. Their writings were revelatory. The same issues that they were dealing with a generation earlier were the same ones I was struggling with every day. It opened my eyes, mind, heart and creativity to put into perspective what I was feeling. 

James' book list on contemporary African American authors

James E. Cherry Why did James love this book?

This book epitomizes what it means to be Black and male in American society and how one’s poor choices or the choices that chose one can be overcome. Horton, a native of the segregated South and the by-product of educators, headed north to college and became swept away by the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s. A major drug smuggler, he spent seven years in prison for his crime. But it was during that time, that poetry discovered him and upon his release he earned a B.A., Master, and PhD degrees. In fact, he describes himself as the only tenured professor with seven convicted felonies. In addition, Horton is an award-winning poet, essayist, musician, and devotes much of his time to outreach into the criminal justice system to provide hope for others. Dead Weight, with its theme of redemption, is destined to become an American classic and should be…

By Randall Horton,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dead Weight as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Dead Weight chronicles the improbable turnaround of a drug smuggler who, after being sentenced to eight years in state prison, returned to society to earn a PhD in creative writing and become the only tenured professor in the United States with seven felony convictions. Horton's visceral essays highlight the difficulties of trying to change one's life for the better, how the weight of felony convictions never dissipates.

The memoir begins with a conversation between Horton and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man statue in New York City. Their imagined dialogue examines the psychological impact of racism on Black men and boys, including…


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Book cover of Ferry to Cooperation Island

Ferry to Cooperation Island By Carol Newman Cronin,

James Malloy is a ferry captain--or used to be, until he was unceremoniously fired and replaced by a "girl" named Courtney Farris. Now, instead of piloting Brenton Island’s daily lifeline to the glitzy docks of Newport, Rhode Island, James spends his days beached, bitter, and bored.

When he discovers a…

Book cover of Street Pharm

Kelly Parra Author Of Graffiti Girl

From my list on realistic, edgy, multicultural young adult fiction.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a multicultural published author from California. I attended different schools growing up, reading classic literature that I couldn't relate to, resulting in becoming a reluctant reader. I didn't live in historical time periods. My skin was a lighter shade of brown. In my world, I met kids from diverse backgrounds, who spoke slang and had personal hardships. Where were the books like that? That's why I wrote Graffiti Girl. To share a realistic, multicultural approach so the reluctant reader could have characters they could see themselves in. That's why I chose these books, in no specific order, that share contemporary, urban stories involving people of different cultures, who face unique hardships.

Kelly's book list on realistic, edgy, multicultural young adult fiction

Kelly Parra Why did Kelly love this book?

Street Pharm is a dark, cultural, and realistic look into Tyrone's life as a teenage drug dealer.  A raw and urban story of a teen who inherits a life of crime because of the situation he was born into and the harsh awakening that comes with it. An intense and page-turning read that had me glued till the very end.

By Allison van Diepen,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Street Pharm as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

A successful teen drug dealer is forced to reexamine it all in this riveting novel, now in trade paperback with a new cover, from the author of Snitch.

Ty Johnson knows survival. The supply game’s in his blood. And now that he’s taken over his pop’s business, Ty’s smarts and skills have earned him some serious street cred. But Alyse knows nothing about Ty’s reputation, and he’s determined to keep it that way. She’s too beautiful, too brainy, too straight-laced to ever get involved with someone who deals. As long as Ty walks the line, life’s pretty sweet.

Then one…


Book cover of Hello, Transcriber

Danielle Girard Author Of Up Close

From my list on thrillers set in small towns with big secrets.

Why am I passionate about this?

My first books were set in and around San Francisco, an area I knew well and with plenty of opportunities for crime stories. When we moved to Montana twenty years ago, people asked when I’d write one there. I resisted setting dark stories in my own city, where my kids were growing up. Reading about the Bakken Oil Formation in North Dakota, a boom of wealth and expansion and a subsequent bust, offered a perfect storm—the kind that drives desperation, where locals conflict with newcomers, where money—new and old—drives people to make bad decisions. After a visit to the area, the fictional town of Hagen, North Dakota, and the Badlands Thriller Series was born. 

Danielle's book list on thrillers set in small towns with big secrets

Danielle Girard Why did Danielle love this book?

In Black Harbor, Wisconsin’s most crime-ridden city, Morrissey has created a town that is a villain all on its own. A place no one wants to live. Hazel Greenlee has no choice.

An aspiring writer, Hazel is trapped in a less-than-perfect marriage and takes the only job she can find—as a police transcriber. But when her neighbor confesses to hiding the body of an overdose victim in a dumpster, Hazel sees the potential for a story that might help her break out of the frozen hell of Black Harbor.

Morrissey builds Hazel’s desperation, and the desperation of the town itself, with mounting tension so well drawn you can actually feel it in your bones and an ending so intense it leaves you breathless. 

By Hannah Morrissey,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Hello, Transcriber as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Every night, while the street lamps shed the only light on Wisconsin's most crime-ridden city, police transcriber Hazel Greenlee listens as detectives divulge Black Harbor's gruesome secrets. As an aspiring writer, Hazel believes that writing a novel could be her only ticket out of this frozen hellscape. And then her neighbor confesses to hiding the body of an overdose victim in a dumpster.

The suspicious death is linked to Candy Man, a notorious drug dealer. Now Hazel has a first row seat to the investigation and becomes captivated by the lead detective, Nikolai Kole. Intrigued by the prospects of gathering…


Book cover of Chasing Justice

Margaret Mizushima Author Of Standing Dead

From my list on mysteries transporting you into the great outdoors.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m fascinated by the mountain wilderness and national parks of my home state, Colorado. In my younger days, I hiked to the mountain lakes of the Sangre de Cristo range near my hometown and then later the high-country trails of northern Colorado and Rocky Mountain National Park. When I began writing the Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries, I combined my experience as a veterinarian’s wife with my love of the great outdoors and dogs to create Killing Trail, book one of eight in my series that features Deputy Mattie Cobb, her K-9 partner Robo, and veterinarian Cole Walker. Together they solve mysteries in the fictional mountain community of Timber Creek, Colorado.

Margaret's book list on mysteries transporting you into the great outdoors

Margaret Mizushima Why did Margaret love this book?

Chasing Justice starts off with a bang, literally, as an explosion in a national forest rocks Maya Thompson, a former marine who has recently started a new job with US Forest Service law enforcement, into a new challenge when she must become handler for K9 Juniper, a Belgium Mallinois whose handler has been killed.

Debut author Kathleen Donnelly delivers a tense, action-packed mystery/suspense set in the Colorado wilderness that provides a terrific start to this new National Forest K9 series. It is apparent that as a narcotics detection K9 handler, Donnelly really knows her stuff about canine nose work and dog training.

I was immediately taken with both Maya and Juniper, and I look forward to the next book in the series.

By Kathleen Donnelly,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Chasing Justice as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A former marine learns to love again in this suspenseful, action-packed K-9 search and rescue from debut author Kathleen Donnelly.

After losing her military K-9, former marine Maya Thompson swears she’ll never work with dogs again. But when she returns home to Colorado and accepts a job with US Forest Service law enforcement, fate brings K-9 Juniper into her life just as another tragedy unfolds.

Juniper, a beautiful two-year-old Malinois, isn’t the only new addition to Maya’s life. Josh Colten, the local deputy sheriff, insists on helping with her new case. Handsome and mysterious, he’s all anyone in town can…


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Book cover of The Road from Belhaven

The Road from Belhaven By Margot Livesey,

The Road from Belhaven is set in 1880s Scotland. Growing up in the care of her grandparents on Belhaven Farm, Lizzie Craig discovers as a small girl that she can see the future. But she soon realises that she must keep her gift a secret. While she can sometimes glimpse…

Book cover of King Suckerman

Lloyd Sachs Author Of T Bone Burnett: A Life in Pursuit

From my list on crime with soundtracks you'll want to playlist.

Why am I passionate about this?

My earliest filmgoing memory is of a bad guy getting pushed down the stairs in Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much. That shocking scene has stayed with me, leading me into a lifetime of exploring the dark visions of crime stories. It was only natural that my love of rock music, and in its interaction with other media would draw me to mystery writers whose books were fueled by their love of rock, blues and pop. "If not for music and movies, I wouldn't be a novelist," George Pelecanos once told me. "They have influenced me more than any author. I want to shout about it." Me too.

Lloyd's book list on crime with soundtracks you'll want to playlist

Lloyd Sachs Why did Lloyd love this book?

A lot of people know George Pelecanos from his work as a TV writer, but long before he contributed to The Wire and The Deuce, he was turning out great mysteries, most of them set in his hometown of Washington, D.C. These are smart, sociological thrillers that teach you a lot about life on the city's mean streets. What sets books like King Suckerman apart for me is how much they teach you about the way popular music—heard from car radios, boom boxes, and record store systems—defines people's lives. For me, one of the book's many highlights is a fierce exchange between a guy who, based on Jimi Hendrix's funky playing in Band of Gypsys thinks the guitarist should be filed under soul rather than rock because that was the direction he was going and a friend who responds, "What you think you are, man, the Amazing Kreskin... gonna…

By George Pelecanos,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked King Suckerman as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 13.

What is this book about?

While out looking to buy drugs, small-time dealer Dimitri Karras and his friend, record-store owner Marcus Clay, stumble into a big deal gone bad, acquire some cash that is not theirs, and become players in a savage game of cross and double-cross.


Book cover of Addicted
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Book cover of Heart Of The Hustle

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Interested in drug trafficking, medications, and Virginia?

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