Bad Girlz

Shannon Holmes, the bestselling author of B-More Careful, delivers a wild adventure on the streets of the Badlands, one of the toughest and poorest communities in Philadelphia.Bad Girlz takes listeners into the mysterious and often dangerous lives of young women who turn to the streets and strip clubs as a means of survival. These are girls who, along the way, suffer bad breaks and find themselves ripe for exploitation by men and women who pretend to be their saviors.Tender and Goldie are taken under wing by Kat, a veteran stripper who enjoys the life and the risks she must take to stay in the mix of the sex trade. Both of these young and beautiful girls end up in dire straits and are in need of Kat's help for the same reasons, they lack the love and support that most of us expect from our home and our community. Where they live, illegal money is often the only money to be made, and the difference between the law and the outlaw is tough to discern.Holmes tells a page-turning story of sex, money, and murder in the name of survival and reveals the many ways in which good girls-as they try to get by in desperate situations-become Bad Girlz.

Tonya Morris, a.k.a. "Tender," is back, and this time the ride is wilder than ever. Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere else. Coming of age in the Badlands of north Philadelphia-one of the toughest and poorest communities in the country-Tonya Morris has had to make some desperate and, at times, ruthless moves in her bid to survive. When she stepped into the unforgiving business of stripping, she found herself caught up in a world of sex-filled nights, dirty money, backstabbing cohorts, and murder. She left that world behind to become a hairstylist. However, after she is blacklisted from salons across Philadelphia and evicted by her shady landlord, Tonya finds herself back in the stripping business-except this time, she promises herself things are going to end differently. Tonya teams up with her best friend, Na'eema, to organize underground sex parties, and it's not long before they have a team of beautiful girls and are rubbing elbows with athletes, rappers, and celebrities. Then Tonya's ex-lover and now music industry superstar, Q, steps onto the scene, and everything takes a dramatic new twist. Because it's not just Q who is back in her life. His murderous baby mama, Niecey, is fresh out of jail and ready to raise hell, and she's got Tonya in her sights. In the meantime, Tonya's past has risen like a beast, threatening to tear away all her newfound success. But Tonya isn't going down without a fight.