Uptown »

Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant met while working as models. Virginia went on to become editor in chief for Maxima, a fashion and lifestyle magazine for plus-size women, and Donna was the magazine's managing editor. They moved on together to become novelists. Virginia lives in New Jersey. Donna and her husband live in Brooklyn.

ENTER THE WORLD OF UPTOWN

Uptown . . . where money rules

Uptown . . . where ambition trumps tradition

Uptown . . . where politics come before everything

Uptown . . . where a family’s secrets will bring them together—or down

After twenty years away, Avery Lyons returns to New York when her mother and uncle suffer a serious car accident. The tragedy brings the family together, but Avery is not happy about the impromptu reunion. She no longer recognizes the Harlem of her childhood, but the same old family dynamics and secrets are all too familiar . . .

Heir to a real estate empire, Dwight is willing to do anything to realize his aging and demanding father’s dream: Dixon Plaza, a luxury high-rise development on Central Park North that will change the face of Harlem forever. There’s only one thing in his way: his cousin Avery has inherited a share of the property. She’s more than willing to sell until a reporter uncovers the truth behind the rumored shady dealings . . .

In Uptown a prominent Harlem family is strained to the breaking point by the high-stakes world of the Manhattan real estate industry, and one woman searches for her identity and the will to forgive. Steamy, provocative, and sexy, Uptown is a turbulent and triumphant read.

Publishers Weekly

DeBerry and Grant (Exposures) continue both their ongoing love affair with Harlem and the story of the Dixon real estate empire in this smart and compelling tale of how selfishness and avarice can destroy a family’s work and reputation. Dwight Dixon takes the reins from his elderly father, “King” Dixon, moving the family real estate holdings to the big-time New York stage with the development of Dixon Plaza on Central Park North, a controversial development aimed at transforming Harlem. But problems abound: defective Chinese drywall, cheap fixtures and myriad changes to the project. Then Dwight’s cousin, Avery Lyons, returns to tend to the affairs of her dead mother and an uneasy and disturbing past is revealed that causes the empire to crumble. DeBerry and Grant capture timely and increasingly universal themes with this dramatic, epic and often tragic story of triumph and failure. New York and Harlem come alive and the occasional stereotypical characters and a few contrived situations are minor quibbles with a novel that is both relevant and entertaining (Mar.)