During times of an economic downturn, some choose to focus on lack while others decide to look for a business opportunity. Risk is part of the territory of entrepreneurship, but investing in a new business in economically challenging times can be particularly daunting.

These women have done everything the right way: their mothers, grandmothers, aunts and teachers told them to put education first. “The boys will come later,” they would say. They warned young women not to mess up their lives. These women were good girls and did as they were told.

Tracy Nicole, entrepreneur turned novelist, outlines the lives of two cousins who grew up as sisters as they work out life and love in Atlanta. Torie and Lisa are both in their prime. Both are beautiful, educated and are set up to head towards bright futures, but each is searching for her own missing piece of the success puzzle.

How refreshing it is to read stories from voices seldom heard! In Heidi W. Durrow’s debut novel, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, the titular character speaks not only in a voice familiar to Black women but also shares the experiences of a growing population of people of color: the children of parents of both black and white heritage.