Sorry, this site requires JavaScript enabled.
Head of Zeus
Carmen and Grace
Carmen and Grace by Melissa Coss Aquino

A female Latinx Godfather drama about two cousins lured into the underground drug trade and the inextricable ties that bind them, as one woman seeks power and the other seeks a way out...

Carmen and Grace have been inseparable since they were little girls – more like sisters than cousins, survivors of a childhood marked by neglect and addiction. For too long, all they had was each other.

That is, until Doña Durka swept into their lives and changed everything, taking Grace into her home and playing an outsize role in Carmen's upbringing too. But Durka is more than a beneficent force in their Bronx neighborhood. She's also the leader of an underground drug empire, a larger-than-life matriarch who understands the importance of taking what power she can in a world too often ruled by violent men.

So when Durka dies suddenly, Carmen and Grace's lives are thrown into chaos. Grace has been primed to take over and has grand plans to expand the business, but Carmen is ready to move on – from Durka's shadow, and from always looking over her shoulder in fear.

As tough and tender as its main characters, Carmen and Grace is a devastatingly wise and intimate story about the bonds of female friendship, ambition, and found family.

Head of Zeus, an Apollo book * Fiction
13 Apr 2023 * 400pp * £8.99 * 9781837931194
Author

Melissa Coss Aquino

Melissa Coss Aquino
Melissa Coss Aquino is a Puerto Rican writer from the Bronx. She received her MFA from the City College of New York, CUNY, and her Ph.D. from the Graduate Center, CUNY in English. She currently works as an Associate Professor in the English department at Bronx Community College, CUNY. She is a proud VONA, AROHO, and Hedgebrook alumna. This is her first novel.
OTHER BOOKS YOU MIGHT LIKE
Tim
An Indecent Obsession
The Fundamentals of Caring
Something Quite Beautiful
The Game
A Christmas Wish
No Greater Love - Box Set
The Ten Pound Ticket
Little Sisters
Praxis
The Cloning of Joanna May
The Rules of Life
Darcy's Utopia
Life Force
Splitting
The Shrapnel Academy
Worst Fears
Leader Of The Band
Moon Over Minneapolis
Polaris
Wicked Women
Fay Weldon Omnibus
The Ted Dreams
Three-and-a-Half Heartbeats
The Royal We
Little Miracle
The Perfect Marriage
Imogen's Baby
Miss Potterton's Birthday Tea
Secrets We Keep
The Other Wives Club
Just the Two of Us
A Life Without You
The Prophet
In White Ink
The Christmas Café
Bosnian Chronicle
Second Chance Café
The Conductor
The Sentinel