Books published by publisher Black Rose Writing

“Her keen observations are those of a Jewish teen coming of age.... This novel too has its dark edges, as Simon explores complexities of friendship and family.” —The New York Jewish Week“A thought-provoking and beautifully written book that will challenge how its readers think about how an individual weaves the tapestry of her family’s collective memory.” —Rabbi Deborah Miller, Books and BlintzesIn the summer of 1955, nine-year-old Amanda Gerber tearfully leaves her best friend, Francine, and their adventurous life on her block in Brooklyn’s Flatbush. She joins her cantankerous family on the long, hot drive to her grandmother’s home in the Catskill Mountains among the city’s Jews who flock to countless hotels and bungalow colonies in the heyday of the Borscht Belt. In the idyllic mountains, Amanda becomes ensconced in the tumult of her extended family and their friends, often seeking solace in the woods with her beloved cousin Laura.Through the following summers, interspersed with the heightened drama of her emotionally charged city life, Mandy faces severe tests to her survival mechanisms, including the pain of loss, abuse, and betrayal, while family secrets threaten to disrupt her life even further. A novel-in-stories, Floating in the Neversink is a testament to the power of survival, friendship, and love.

"A charming and engaging fantasy with characters readers will love and a strong positive message." –Kirkus ReviewsTORO - A story that evokes beloved films such as ‘Babe’ and ‘Ratatouille’Alicía Catalina Cortés is a fast and fiery Spanish cow who desperately wants to run with the bulls in Pamplona—but since she’s a cow, tradition forbids her to partake in the fiesta of San Fermín. Through her journey, Alicía learns that to be noble and brave, she must follow her dream and her heart, even if it means defying tradition.Toro is set in the colorful backdrop of Pamplona, Spain during the fiesta of San Fermín and the running of the bulls, famed as one of the most exhilarating, dangerous, and spectacular events around the world.

"Wasted Pretty is a beautiful, touching novel that I wish I had when I was all of the things Alice Burton was: a fierce, strong teenager learning how to navigate her changing body, developing heart, and powerful mind." –Mayim Bialik, Big Bang Theory, Blossom, and founder of Grok NationDuring junior year of high school, star student and stellar lacrosse player Alice Burton grew four inches, and, thanks to her mom’s experimental health food products, shed twenty pounds. Alice has mixed feelings about her surprising transformation.On the plus side: Chris Thompson, the hot college guy she has a crush on, talks to her.On the minus side: Her dad's creepy friend, professional athlete Karl Bell, lets his eyes, and his hugs, linger too long.After a disturbing encounter in a dark hallway, Alice realizes the response some men have to her new body isn’t just disgusting, it’s dangerous. Her life is further complicated by her parents’ crumbling finances and the family’s entanglement with Karl.Set in Pittsburgh in 1992, Wasted Pretty is about a girl determined to protect her body, her future, and her heart.

“…delivers a fast-paced, energetic tale resonating with today’s most troubling and important issues.” –KIRKUS REVIEWSAzza Amari, a headstrong, hijab-wearing international student flees her dangerous life in the Paris ghetto to enroll at staid Northwestern Ohio State College. As the twentysomething refugee navigates her way among the commuter school’s working-class environs in tiny Fremont, Ohio, Azza comes into the orbit of 17-year-old Kip Beckelhymer, a precocious, history-obsessed senior trying to win back the love of Birdie Hudgins, his mercurial high-school sweetheart.Together, Kip and Azza discover an extraordinary kinship. All the while, the conservative hamlet—and especially Birdie—struggles to come to grips with what seems like the whole of the Islamic world has intruded into their workaday lives. Things come to a head when Kip and Azza find themselves on an unusual treasure hunt. Their whimsical search takes on deadly serious overtones as the strange duo inadvertently finds themselves peeling back the corrosive layers of cowardice and hate that linger just below the surface of their society in the Heartland.

“… a riveting fictional story exploring the dark subject of child incestuous abuse that plagues families at all levels of society.” –Authors ReadingIn public, Jim Handler is a well-respected, small-town hero, and homicide detective who solved the case of the Will’s Creek Massacre. But at home, in the shadows, Jim’s childhood demons come alive to feast upon his family in the form of sexual, physical, and mental abuse.But his three teenage children have had enough. They have devised a plan for redemption.Empowered by the legal system’s lack of accountability, a judge who offers a quiet and meager plea deal to save face, Jim feels enabled to do whatever he wants to his family. With no one to keep Jim in check, this cycle of sexual and physical abuse is rampant. It is up to Nikki, Tyler, and Ally to end the evil that is devouring the Handler family.

“… a riveting fictional story exploring the dark subject of child incestuous abuse that plagues families at all levels of society.” –Authors ReadingIn public, Jim Handler is a well-respected, small-town hero, and homicide detective who solved the case of the Will’s Creek Massacre. But at home, in the shadows, Jim’s childhood demons come alive to feast upon his family in the form of sexual, physical, and mental abuse.But his three teenage children have had enough. They have devised a plan for redemption.Empowered by the legal system’s lack of accountability, a judge who offers a quiet and meager plea deal to save face, Jim feels enabled to do whatever he wants to his family. With no one to keep Jim in check, this cycle of sexual and physical abuse is rampant. It is up to Nikki, Tyler, and Ally to end the evil that is devouring the Handler family.

“Somewhere between Huck Finn and Locke Lamora...” –Forrest Aguirre, author of Heraclix and PompIn a hilly backwoods world where the sword and ax rule, over-sized youth Ford Barlow is on the verge of making a life-changing mistake. Though good at heart, the horrors of battle have warped his immature mind and a lack of love has isolated him. His morality balances upon the edge of a knife. Tragedy forces Ford from his home and clan, thrusting him into the arms of a band of boy thieves. Adventures abound in a woodland hideaway, where Ford seems to have found a new home and new people to call his own. However, companionship, magical forest beings and fairies’ loot are not enough to distract him from the burden of guilt weighing him down. When the violent life presses in on him once more, Ford must decide between good and evil, life and death.

Maxy Awards "Book of the Year" 2019Pencraft Awards "Best Fiction Book of 2019"“Witty, occasionally crass, and an unqualified delight.” –KIRKUS REVIEWSIs it too much to ask that a managed care facility refund a year’s advance payment when your grandfather dies before he can move in? Frank Johnson doesn’t think so, which is why the thirty-three-year-old now lives in a nursing home, locked in a chess match feud with management that doesn’t occupy nearly enough of his time.When foster kid Elroy is thrust into his life, Frank decides to turn this forced relationship to his advantage – launching a string of absurd decisions, inappropriate behaviors and unexpected glimpses of tenderness that ultimately turn a New Jersey suburb upside down. A laugh-out-loud celebration of bad choices for good causes, Managed Care is an offbeat story about three misfits on the social fringes of suburbia and their ridiculous campaign to introduce an unfiltered version of intimacy to their stale, impersonal community. Because, according to Frank, it’s probably what Jesus would have wanted.

Sixteen-year-old Christopher 'Moria' Unus lives in two realities: the humdrum existence of his tower-block home and high school career and the fantasy universe of the Dreamnet — a collection of worlds built within a vast organic quantum computer network, where much of the population now spends its collective time constructing their own versions of life, and where a battle for control over this vast new dream frontier is taking place.But when Christopher's best friend and Dreamnet hacktivist Sarah Furgol stumbles upon an experimental military code to power her own Dreamnet creations, they unleash an unthinkable terror, transforming the dream into a nightmare, one that takes the form of Christopher's estranged father.Faced with the reality of losing Sarah to this unstoppable artificial intelligence, Christopher must choose between joining the sworn enemies of Dreamnet freedom or watching everything they’ve fought for be destroyed by The Nightmare Machine.