Alli Frank Libros

In this funny and inspiring novel from the authors of The Better Half, a mess of a heroine is desperate to resolve her past so she can finally rediscover who she was always meant to be. Antonia "Toni" Arroyo's protective mother has outdated notions for her daughter's life: employ her natural beauty and marry young. But Toni has wholly different aspirations. A promising inventor and budding entrepreneur, she fights to keep her passions alive as a financially strapped mother of twins with a job in airport transportation services that has her going in circles. One treasured frequent passenger is elderly traveler Sylvia Eisenberg, Toni's sage but unofficial adviser and cheerleader. When Toni meets Sylvia's grandson, Ash, a striking venture capitalist, luck just might bend her way. With a game-changing new business endeavor in development, Toni hustles an opportunity to pitch her idea on TV's Innovation Nation. Toni's unexpected challenger? Her very own recently resurfaced, self-aggrandizing not-quite-ex-husband. As Toni's interrupted past collides with her tenuous future, she is more determined than ever to follow through on her delayed dreams. Toni's been clinging to "maybe" for so long--it's finally time for "absolutely."

From comedy writing duo Alli Frank and Asha Youmans comes The Better Half, a sidesplitting spin on reaching the pinnacle of life, only to stare down a slippery slope on the other side. After a difficult five years, at age forty-three, Nina Morgan Clarke's time has finally arrived. With an ex-husband relocated across the country, her father bouncing back after the loss of his beloved wife, and her daughter, Xandra, thriving at boarding school, Nina is stepping into her dream job as a trifecta: a first-generation, Black female head of the storied Royal-Hawkins School. To mark the moment, Nina and her best friend, Marisol, take a long-overdue girl's trip to celebrate the second half of Nina's life--which is shaping up to be the best part of her life. As Nina's school year gets underway, all seems to be progressing as planned. Before long, wunder-hire Jared Jones, two hundred pounds of Harvard-educated ego, relentlessly pushes Nina to her ethical limits. Soon after, dutiful Xandra accuses one of her teachers of misconduct. And most alarming, the repercussions of her trip with Marisol force Nina into a life-altering choice. Time is of the essence, and Nina must decide if she will embrace a future she never could have predicted.

The Devil Wears Prada meets Class Mom in this delicious novel of love, money, and misbehaving parents. One of The Daily Skimm's Reads Pick for May 2020 One of Good Housekeeping's 20 Best New Fiction Books of 2020 Good Morning America Mother's Day in Quarantine Books to Buy One of New York Post's Best Books of the Week in May 2020 PopSugars Most Exciting Books for May 2020 One of SheReads Most Anticipated Books of 2020 "Delightful . . . Hilarious, cringe-worthy, and all too relevant. I ate this book up like a box of candy; you will too." --Tara Conklin, author of The Last Romantics All's fair in love and kindergarten admissions. At thirty-nine, Josie Bordelon's modeling career as the "it" black beauty of the '90s is far behind her. Now director of admissions at San Francisco's most sought after private school, she's chic, single, and determined to keep her seventeen-year-old daughter, Etta, from making the same mistakes she did. But Etta has plans of her own--and their beloved matriarch, Aunt Viv, has Etta's back. If only Josie could manage Etta's future as well as she manages the shenanigans of the over-anxious, over-eager parents at school--or her best friend's attempts to coax Josie out of her sex sabbatical and back onto the dating scene. As admissions season heats up, Josie discovers that when it comes to matters of the heart--and the office--the biggest surprises lie closest to home.