By Your Side

Name: By Your Side
Author: Jessica A.

125 pages

Shad “Shotta” Washington figured out early that distracting himself keeps his overwhelming feelings at bay. Music, his family, his gang–focusing on any and everything but himself keeps his careful, aloof façade intact, and has even landed him fame and fortune with a burgeoning rap career. He’s soaring higher than he ever thought possible, even as ghosts haunt him at every turn–at least until a devastating and particularly personal loss sends him tumbling toward the edge.

Macy Davenport has a habit of failing upward. She’s made a life of following the plot, saying yes to any opportunity that presents itself and rolling with the punches, always ending wiser and more fruitful than when she started. This time, though, following the plot goes awry, leaving her single, pregnant, and with a record. Trying to figure out her next move, she crosses paths with Shotta, her favorite rapper, who’s recent struggles have him taking a break from the limelight.

Two people at a crossroads in their respective lives strike up a friendship that will have them questioning everything they thought they knew about themselves. Macy’s friendship with Shad has the blogs labeling her as his baby mama, and he’s not denying it. In fact, every time he calls her child his, every time inserts himself a little more into her life, every time he levels his piercing glare at her, she finds herself one step closer to what she’d never thought she’d do: fall in love.

Meanwhile, past actions of his gang Foe Dub start to bear consequences that threaten to take away the last family Shad has left. Even with the distraction of bonding with Macy and her unborn child, revealed secrets and overwhelming grief pull Shad into a hole he’s not sure he can get out of.

Old friends become enemies and old enemies become allies as Shad fights to tie up the loose ends of his past, while holding onto a budding future with Macy. But nothing will matter if he loses the fight against his own mental.

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