BOOKS
Boys, Beauty & Betrayal
Tanisha wants what most teenage girls want: an A on her math test, a boyfriend, new jeans and a mother who is not mentally ill. Fourteen year old Tanisha “Teenie” Carlson and her friends: Maria, Lori, Rashanda, Grace and Justine are witty, smart and moderately popular, but the fabric of Teenie’s world is woven together by a complex thread of secrets and lies. Hiding behind her ‘Mona Lisa’ crooked smile, is another secret that Tanisha fears will destroy her social standing. Yet, like most adolescent girls, Tanisha is determined to fake her way to fabulous without snapping like a twig in her worn designer jeans.
Camp Colorblind
What girl hasn’t stared at her phone waiting for a boy to call? When a summer camp stint births new friendships, romance, a new attitude and a new name, a humiliating loss to her nemesis proves to be the catalyst that helps Tanisha challenge and dispel her homegrown stereotypes and begin to replace her insecurity, shame, and self doubt with healing, maturity and self confidence. Readers will cheer for a healthy resolution to Tanisha’s ‘mama drama‘ when she is forced to examine the many layers that make up her mother’s delicate psyche.
Chemistry & Chaos
At sixteen, wiser and armed with more confidence, the girls embrace their fragile teen life challenges with class, confidence and a splash of sass. Layer by layer, the reader learns that just like Teenie Carlson’s character, her friends are fearfully and wonderfully made while still flawed in very believable, relatable and forgivable ways. The grace and strength displayed by each character will prove encouraging to readers of all ages as the girls confirm that a strong friendship network circle of support is as important as a good bra.
Dancing With God's Grace
From prom, temptation, break-ups and reconciliation, each chapter in book four of the series continues the storyline of a main character and unveils the cosmetic facades that frame each girl’s carefully made-up image. As they morph from awkward caterpillars into charming butterflies, their shared experiences impact each life in sustainable ways. Their bond is strengthened when the group provides support through a friend’s frightening healthcare scare while nurturing another friend forced to redefine her family structure. A true love story, Dancing with God’s Grace proves that the heart wants what it wants even if the want of the heart goes against popular opinion.
Sunshine on Sunday
High school graduates eager to embrace their independence, the girls are armed with their trademark charisma, style and wit on a journey that includes college for some, heartache, new love, additions to the friendship circle and a controversial discovery for one of the ladies. On their personal paths of self-affirmation, the ladies are surprised to learn that “like them” their mothers are complex women seeking friendship and love. Readers will cheer when a character’s mother reinvents herself and starts a new chapter in her own life.
Love, Secrets & Pearls
In the final book in the Black Diamond Series, the girls have blossomed into young women and continue their life journey linked arm in arm. While adding more souls to their friendship circle, the ladies embrace the reality that love is uniquely defined, secrets have healing qualities and healthy friendship should be treasured like a sentimental string of pearls. Through it all, forever friendship clues are revealed that readers will want to replicate in their own lives as the girls reaffirm that a strong friendship circle of support is still as important as a good bra and as comforting as a warm quilt.