Nevada Duncan is the heir to the Duncan and Zuniga crime family fortunes, but before he can take the mantle of power, he has to be educated about the family business. So, after the death of his girlfriend, he enrolls in his father’s alma mater, Chi’s Finishing School. Chi’s is the world’s most elite school for the children of underworld figures. On Nevada’s first day of school, he hooks up with a group of misfits from around the world who quickly become his new best friends. However, Nevada is unaware of the deadly adventure that awaits him with a sinister new enemy who is lurking in the shadows. Accustomed to relying on his family and his own superior intelligence, Nevada will soon learn the importance of friendship when the threats are aimed directly at him and he’s the only Duncan around. Welcome to the world of Chi’s Finishing School. Ride along with Carl Weber and C. N. Phillips for this fresh, enthralling spin-off to the Family Business series.

Heir to the Duncan and Zuniga crime family fortunes, Nevada Duncan must attend the world's most elite school for the children of underworld figures, where he learns the importance of friendship as an enemy who wants what Nevada has lurks in the shadows.

New York Times bestselling author Carl Weber and Essence bestseller La Jill Hunt return with a story of love, betrayal and racism in the next addition to the wildly popular Family Business series. From the time he was a boy in Georgia, LC Duncan, patriarch and leader of the Duncan clan, has battled racism. Even now that he and his family are truly successful, the racism can still be in-your-face. Maybe it’s the political climate or perhaps it’s just bad timing, but LC and the rest of the Duncans are being challenged by the ultimate power-hungry racist, Sheriff KD Shrugs. Nevada Duncan is at that age when girls and sex are always on his mind. His handsome face and superior intellect attract Kia, the beautiful “Blasian” call girl who tempts him into running away to a place where the Duncans are definitely not wanted—El Paso, Texas, the home of KD Shrugs. What is the worst thing that can happen to a handsome, rich millennial? Rio Duncan would say it’s mistaken identity after being beat down in a nightclub by someone who thinks he’s Roman Johnson, a stickup kid who happens to be Rio’s doppelganger. What happens next will open up the biggest can of worms the Duncans have ever had to deal with. Get ready for another roller coaster ride with the Duncan family.

Daryl Graham has just moved into a Jamaica, Queens, apartment building and his neighbors, both male and female alike, can't stop talking about him. From his extreme attractiveness to his undeniable swag, Daryl is the man every woman wants and every man wants to be. Connie, an unhappy wife, turns to Daryl for help losing weight, hoping to fix her marriage. But when Daryl starts making Connie feel beautiful again, she questions whether her marriage is worth saving. Benny, a spoiled teenager raised by a single father, looks up to Daryl. When an unexpected event occurs, Benny is left questioning everything he's ever known to be true. Krystal, Daryl's first love, wants to make things work with her current boyfriend. Yet having Daryl back in her life sends her happy home spiraling out of control.And Avery, Connie's husband, doesn't care about anything or anyone when a financial opportunity comes his way-that is, until he notices how much time his wife is spending with their new neighbor. Everything seems to be going well, until someone is murdered, and everyone becomes a prime suspect. "Weber packs his latest urban soap opera with all seven deadly sins . . . [To] err is not only human, but a whole lot more fun to read." -- Publishers Weekly "Contains lots of the drama and tight writing style that has made him a New York Times bestselling author, and more importantly, all the surprises and shocks readers won't see coming." -- Examiner.com

By day, the Duncans are an upstanding family who run a thriving car dealership in Queens. By night, they live a dangerous secret life! Carl Weber and Eric Pete deliver a thrilling underworld drama in The Family Business. L.C. Duncan, patriarch of the family, is at the age when he’s starting to think about retirement in sunny Florida. But the recession is taking a bite out of the business and, worrying more, he has to decide which of his children should take over. When his workaholic son Orlando gets the nod, Orlando’s siblings—including the favorite son Vegas, conniving daughter London, glamorous party girl Paris and flamboyant nightclub owner Rio—are up in arms. But so are the Zunigas, a rival family whose fragile business alliance with the Duncans may explode at any moment. When Vegas suddenly breaks away from the family, London’s lawyer husband, Harris, makes a play for the company and all hell breaks loose. Selling cars, it turns out, is only a small part of the Duncans’ family business. Each member of the family has a secret expertise to reveal. And now, under siege from the Mafia, Mexican drug cartels and the Zunigas, the Duncans will have to stick together—or die separately!

Desiree Johnson hasn't been home to Idlewild, Michigan, in over seventeen years, but she and her son Tyree rush there when she receives news about her father. Tyson Blackwell is taken aback by her return. Their summer relationship was once powerful, but he succumbed to family pressure and let Desiree go. Now that she's back, he vows it will not happen again--despite the presence of a wife in his life.

Includes an excerpt from The family business, now a television series on BET.

LC Duncan, patriarch and leader of the Duncan clan, is alive and well after being shot by a mysterious gunman. His near-death experience has caused him and his wife, Chippy, to decide that it's time to return to Waycross, Georgia, for a long overdue family reunion. But wherever the Duncans go, trouble follows, and this time it comes in the form of longtime Duncan enemy Vinnie Dash and Orlando Duncan's baby momma, Ruby. They are back to seek revenge on the Duncan family as they continue to deny Orlando the opportunity to meet his only child. -- adapted from jacket.

Ride along with Carl Weber and C. N. Phillips for this fresh, enthralling spin‑off to the Family Business series as the heir to a crime family finds himself targeted by an enemy. He’ll need more than his family by blood to save him… Nevada Duncan is the heir to the Duncan and Zuniga crime family fortunes, but before he can take the mantle of power, he has to be educated about the family business. So, after the death of his girlfriend, he enrolls in his father’s alma mater, Chi’s Finishing School. Chi’s is the world’s most elite school for the children of underworld figures. On Nevada’s first day of school, he hooks up with a group of misfits from around the world who quickly become his new best friends. However, Nevada is unaware of the deadly adventure that awaits him with a sinister new enemy who is lurking in the shadows. Accustomed to relying on his family and his own superior intelligence, Nevada will soon learn the importance of friendship when the threats are aimed directly at him and he’s the only Duncan around. Welcome to the world of Chi’s Finishing School. Ride along with Carl Weber and C. N. Phillips for this fresh, enthralling spin-off to the Family Business series.

In the wake of the tragedy and destruction that came with Hurricane Katrina in 2005, public schools in New Orleans became part of an almost unthinkable experiment—eliminating the traditional public education system and completely replacing it with charter schools and school choice. Fifteen years later, the results have been remarkable, and the complex lessons learned should alter the way we think about American education. New Orleans became the first US city ever to adopt a school system based on the principles of markets and economics. When the state took over all of the city’s public schools, it turned them over to non-profit charter school managers accountable under performance-based contracts. Students were no longer obligated to attend a specific school based upon their address, allowing families to act like consumers and choose schools in any neighborhood. The teacher union contract, tenure, and certification rules were eliminated, giving schools autonomy and control to hire and fire as they pleased. In Charter School City, Douglas N. Harris provides an inside look at how and why these reform decisions were made and offers many surprising findings from one of the most extensive and rigorous evaluations of a district school reform ever conducted. Through close examination of the results, Harris finds that this unprecedented experiment was a noteworthy success on almost every measurable student outcome. But, as Harris shows, New Orleans was uniquely situated for these reforms to work well and that this market-based reform still required some specific and active roles for government. Letting free markets rule on their own without government involvement will not generate the kinds of changes their advocates suggest. Combining the evidence from New Orleans with that from other cities, Harris draws out the broader lessons of this unprecedented reform effort. At a time when charter school debates are more based on ideology than data, this book is a powerful, evidence-based, and in-depth look at how we can rethink the roles for governments, markets, and nonprofit organizations in education to ensure that America’s schools fulfill their potential for all students.