The reigning Queen of Hip-Hop Lit, Nikki Turner returns with a fresh and fierce tale sure to satisfy longtime fans and create new ones.   Desember Day is beautiful, confident, and smart. She has more game in the streets than a basketball player does on the court, and her boyfriend, Fame, loves every single inch of her. But unlike her mother, who has been in one bad relationship after another, Desember is not going to wait on a knight in shining armor to save her, and even her love for Fame can’t stand in the way of Desember selling anything and everything—legal or illegal—that can turn a profit, so that she never has to depend on a man. The only thing Desember feels she’s lacking is a father to call her own. And her mother refuses to tell Desember who he is. When Fame finds himself at the wrong end of a gun, fighting for his life, Desember wants nothing more than to stand by her man, but Fame warns her from his hospital bed that she isn’t safe. Desember wonders if she was the real target. Her mother, concerned for Desember’s safety, arranges for her daughter to travel to Richmond, Virginia, to live with Desember’s father and his wife.And when her father’s identity is finally revealed, Desember learns that she is a Natural Born Hustler. But are her troubles really over? Or is the worst yet to come? “Few writers working in the field today bring the drama [like] Nikki Turner. . . . [She’s] a master at weaving juicy, ‘hood-rich sagas of revenge, regret, and redemption.” —Vibe.com Nikki Turner is the author of the New York Times bestseller Black Widow , the #1 Essence bestseller Forever a Hustler’s Wife , and the Essence bestsellers A Hustler’s Wife, The Glamorous Life , and Riding Dirty on I-95. The first two books in the Nikki Turner Presents line were published in 2008 by One World/Ballantine Books. 1. Hate at First Sight No one could have seen it coming. If there had been a high school poll about who was most likely not to hook up, Desember and Fame would have been the clear winners. The first time Desember laid eyes on Fame was during recess at Carver Elementary School. She was eight and he was nine. The two instantly took a dislike to each other. She was wearing a yellow and green sundress and a pair of yellow sandals, with matching ribbons in her long pigtails. She was jumping double Dutch when Fame walked up and called her a black yuppie. Fame was about two inches shorter than her and rail thin. "What you called me, boy?" she stopped jumping rope to ask. Fame poked his frail little chest out and repeated himself, "I said, you a black yuppie, that's what." Desember didn't have any idea what a yuppie was, not to mention a black one, but she didn't think she was one and was willing to fight to prove it. And that's what she did. First, she kicked Fame in the groin, then commenced to whup up on his lil bony behind. One of the teachers had to pull her off of him. Desember never told that it was Fame who started with her first. That was just the beginning of their feud. Over the years there were more fights and then as they got older they still managed to make verbal digs at each other whenever possible. But toward the end of their high school careers, everything changed. The animosity gave way to a grudging respect. Fame admired her hustle-Desember had been voted most likely to succeed, best dressed and most likely to be arrested- plus she had filled out nicely. And Desember couldn't help but notice that Fame was now a full five inches taller than her with a swagger to match. Recognizing they were kindred spirits-her mouth more than matched his physical bravado-about a month ago, Fame called Desember, for what she assumed was to cop some weed or something. Desember was in the midst of her day, hustling her numerous products. But he hadn't dialed her up to purchase anything. He wanted a truce, and Fame's version of extending the olive branch was five pounds of exotic and expensive marijuana: Sour Diesel-Cali Kush, which rapper and weed aficionado Snoop Dogg had even endorsed as one of the best. Over the next month they got to know each other better. She would visit him from time to time at his apartment to blow some trees, or play some Scrabble or Xbox 360 or Wii. They went to the movies, parks, took bike rides and exchanged various gifts; she gave him a few outfits and he gave her a diamond-encrusted heart-shaped pendant. And that was only the beginning. They had just come from playing laser tag and were sitting in his car in front of her mother's house when Fame asked her: "Move in with me?" Desember answered with a question of her own: "Why me?" "Because," he said, looking into her eyes, "I know I can trust you, and I think I may be in love with you." Adding, "Both are rare for me, because I trust only a few and love even fewer." Desember was feeling Fame as much as he was feeling her, maybe more-if that was possible. And she was ready to get out of the house with her idiot ste