If I Ruled the World
Harlem, a 26-year-old bookstore and cafe owner in Columbus, Ohio, has a well-earned hard-nosed view of life. Her drug-addicted mother abandoned her, and her father died in prison. Her grandmother eventually took her in but died shortly thereafter, leaving Harlem with a house and the funds to open her own business. Until she met Morgan, a college student selling magazines door-to-door, Harlem had no real friends. The two went into business together and shared a life of young single women, dodging the hustlers and drug dealers while looking for love. Morgan, a magnet for the wrong kind of man, is the only one who knows Harlem's vulnerabilities. When two handsome men come into the store and Harlem is too cool to stake a claim on the one she really wants, the couples end up mismatched with rising tensions as the relationships ebb and flow, until they are tested by tragedy. Fans of urban literature will love this novel, but some readers might find the sex and violence too graphic and the language too rough.Vanessa BushCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved