cover image Real Wifeys: On the Grind

Real Wifeys: On the Grind

Meesha Mink, Touchstone, $14.99 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-4391-7311-4

Raw sistah Kaeyla "Goldie" Dennis is only 16 when she becomes the kept plaything of the much older, married Damion "Dyme" Gunners after entering his Newark, N.J., store. She drops out of school and waits seven years for him to leave his wife and make their relationship legit. During her affair with Dyme, her disapproving grandmother, Mama Bit, dies, and Goldie turns a desperate 22 by the time Dyme finally proposes, only to turn around and dump her. Goldie tries a legit life before transforming her apartment into her personal strip club, which leads to a dangerous smackdown with Make$, a ruthless rap star, and his cronies. Mink, coauthor with De'nesha Diamond of the Desperate Hoodwives series, goes solo to launch this first disturbing installment of a gritty new urban series with a down and dirty intensity that's heartbreaking given Goldie's age and circumstances. (Jan.)