Forever Beautiful by Suzette D. Harrison

Floretta Coleman-Mercer is young, Colored, and gifted. The nineteen-year-old graduate of Madame C.J. Walker’s Lelia College of Beauty Culture is now in pursuit of a business degree from Oberlin College. Her long-held dreams of traveling the world are within reach until one telephone call shatters everything. Her mother, Iva Rae Coleman, is dead.

Devastated, Floretta returns to the small, all-Black town founded by her enslaved ancestors to lay her mother to rest only to have her dreams snatched away by family obligation. Her younger brothers need her. So does her thrice-widowed great Aunt Sis, now homeless courtesy of a fire caused by Floretta’s forgetful grandfather.

Choosing family over her immediate future, Floretta makes peace with her decision only to be caught in the vortex of her parents’ unorthodox relationship. Add to that head-spinning, the magnetic chemistry shared with horse rancher and Seminole Indian, Packer Sims. Join Floretta’s journey to claim and create a life that’s forever beautiful and fully hers.

Excerpt from Forever Beautiful by Suzette D. Harrison

“Floretta Eve, one day when the world is safe for young Colored women to travel loosey goosey and fancy free you can.” Granddad patted my arm in an involuntary fashion. “Until then remember this town was created as a refuge and haven.” He patted me again. “There’s no need for us to live as vagabonds. We have Colemanville. And you’re a descendant of Profit.”

As Daddy escorted them out I closed my eyes and counted to ten to keep from screaming.

Men will not control me!

Not Granddad. Not Daddy.

Everett Mercer might be The King of Colemanville, but he ain’t the king of me.

My referring to my father by a title others sometimes used occurred only when I was frustrated with him, which seemed to be increasing lately. His owning prime acreage and being the note holder on business loans for many in our community had earned him that moniker. But inwardly I knew he wasn’t a despot who paraded himself like a white god.

Still, I was vexed, and determined to find a way out of this mess. But right then I was beyond exhausted and wanted nothing but to crawl into bed and sleep away the nightmare of my mother’s death.

I stood intent on heading to my room after checking to make sure my brothers were still sleeping as peacefully as possible.

 

Wandering Beauty by Suzette Riddick

Jillian Hart has reached her breaking point. Every moment of her day is seemingly consumed catering to her family’s needs and wants as a wife and mother of two. Her only source of solace is the day spa, where she works as a part-time esthetician. Even that is at risk of being taken away by Ivan Hart, Jillian’s demanding husband, and his unrealistic expectations.

When her husband does the unthinkable, Jillian flees with her children to Colemanville, North Carolina to the home of her maternal grandmother, Nana Flo. At her lowest, Jillian must reassess her life and confront the choices that have derailed her dream of owning a day spa specializing in esthetician services.

In Colemanville with Nana Flo’s help, Jillian discovers she and her great-grandmother, Iva Rae Coleman, are kindred spirits after learning intimate details about Iva’s life. With this revelation, she accepts that the crumbling of her marriage was unavoidable to propel her toward her destiny to carry on the Coleman family legacy.

Join the journey of this wandering beauty to see if family secrets, scandals, and her husband’s determination to reconcile will hinder Jillian from fulfilling her destiny.

Excerpt from Wandering Beauty by Suzette Riddick

After the Christmas holiday party things between Ivan and I had become a hundred times more tense. Especially since I didn’t quit my job. I might as well have quit. I went from working thirty hours a week back to the twelve hours where I started after getting my esthetician license. Van had started high school and Iesha first grade. Working three half days a week kept Ivan happy. As the kids grew older, I saw nothing wrong with expanding my hours at work. Van had his after-school activities and Iesha enjoyed going to the after-school program with her best friend and cousin, Megan.

It wasn’t enough that I waited until Van went off to college last fall to work my way up to thirty-two hours. Ivan found any excuse to complain that I wasn’t home. Even forbidden me to hire a housekeeper to come in once a week. Told me it was my job to keep his house clean.

Refusing to resign from my job had put an enormous strain not only on our marriage, but the atmosphere in our home. Last weekend, Ivan and I got into an ugly argument when he started badgering Iesha because she wasn’t practicing the violin for an hour every day. I lost it when he demanded she go to her room and stay there until he told her she could come out.

 

Soignée Sisterhood Conversation with Suzette D. Harrison

Suzette D. Harrison grew up in a home where reading was required, not requested. Turning her love of reading into a rising literary career, Suzette was first published when her poetry was included in a creative journal in middle school. While she loves happy endings, Harrison pens flawed characters in need of redemption, and loves crafting storylines with intricate layers and depth, often leaving readers with unexpected plot twists.

Harrison pays homage to Alex Haley, Gloria Naylor, Alice Walker, Langston Hughes, and Toni Morrison as literary legends who inspired her creativity. However, it was Dr. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings that unleashed her writing. Literally. The award-winning author is a wife and mother who holds a culinary degree in Pastry & Baking. Suzette is currently cooking up her next novel…in between batches of cookies. Website: https://sdhbooks.com

What is Generations?
Generations is a collaborative series created with my beloved “Twinny Twin”, author extraordinaire, Suzette Riddick. Generations features ten novellas grouped in five sets of two books each. Each set offers one novella that is historical fiction, one novella that is contemporary women’s literature. The historical and contemporary heroines from each set are directly interconnected. Actually, all ten heroines are interconnected because they hail from the small, all-Black fictitious town of Colemanville. In short, Generations is a celebration of our culture (past and present), sisterhood, and the power and strength of Black women.

Why was Generations created?
For years, Twin and I discussed a possible collaboration without knowing precisely what that would look like, or what said collaboration would be. The time never felt right until last year when during one of our monthly telephone chats. We felt divine prompting and decided to stop talking and make it happen. Initially, we planned to each write a contemporary novella based in Colemanville. During our discussion revelation happened, making it clear that we should both write to our strengths.

African-American Historical Fiction is my passion, and Twin was ready to stretch beyond the genre of Romance to take on Women’s Fiction so we modified our approach. That’s how we received the idea to write from two different genres and time periods while connecting our stories through the power of family and heritage.

 

Soignée Sisterhood Conversation with Suzette Riddick

At fifteen, an upperclassman slipped Suzette Riddick her first romance novel. Immediately, she became engrossed in the romance genre. Years later, she discovered there were romance novels written by African-American women with characters that looked like her. Searching local bookstores for her favorite authors became an enjoyable pastime for Suzette.

Suzette’s love for the genre and a need to find a place of escapism encouraged her to write her first novel, A Special Summer, in 2008, under a pen name. After readers provided positive feedback and expressed their eagerness to know what would happen next with the characters, Suzette was inspired to write the sequel, When Love Comes Around, and before she knew it, the Love Conquers All Series was born. Second Chance at Love, from the Love Conquers All series, received a nomination for an Emma Award for E-book of the Year.

Currently, Suzette is working on creating stories with fascinating characters that will make readers want to follow them on their journeys to love and happiness. Although reading and writing are near and dear to Suzette’s heart, being a wife, mother, sister, friend, and nurse practitioner makes her the happiest.

Please share something our readers wouldn’t know about you.
Readers wouldn’t know that I can be spontaneous. Out of the blue, during a summer vacation, I went kayaking, which was pretty daring since I’m not a strong swimmer.

If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be?
Loyal, sensitive, and funny.

What are you currently working on?
Currently, I’m working on an exciting series titled Generations with one of my favorite authors and my twin, Suzette D. Harrison. The series will be a collection of ten novellas. Five from a historical perspective written by Suzette D. Harrison. I will be writing five from a contemporary perspective. What I love about this series is that Suzette D. Harrison and I did our thing when it came to world-building. Stories told to us by our elders throughout the years fueled our imaginations to create Colemanville, North Carolina, an all Black southern town. I can’t wait for readers to visit Colemanville.

Tell us about your first contemporary title in the Generations Series.
Wandering Beauty is the story of Jillian Hart, the granddaughter of Floretta Coleman-Mercer from Forever Beautiful by Suzette D. Harrison. In this story, readers will witness the special bond between Jillian and her grandmother, Nana Flo. As Jillian’s life is imploding, it’s Nana Flo who she leans on for comfort and eventually runs to Colemanville, North Carolina, to seek wisdom and guidance from. While in Colemanville, Jillian realizes that her future and the past are interconnected. This gives her the courage to step out on faith to fulfill a lifetime dream at the age of forty. Even if it means her marriage will come to an end.

Although the novellas in the series can be read as a stand-alone. I would encourage readers to start with the historical novella and then read the contemporary novella for a seamless reading experience.