Love in a Carry-On Bag

Can a long distance love affair really survive?

Erica Shaw spends her week babysitting the country s bestselling authors for one of the top publishing companies in New York City. But on Friday nights she escapes to D.C., where her sexy-lipped musician boyfriend, Warren Prince, works and performs. Their connection is fierce, and the couple promises to never miss a weekend together. But when real life walks in an overbearing father, an alcoholic mother, office politics, and a lucrative job contract the couple starts unraveling at the seam. Tempers flare, violence breaks, while new lovers eagerly wait in the wings to claim both of them.

Drenched in the perils of passion and the sweet-sounds of jazz, Johnson dives deep into the world of ambition and the stumbling blocks of family. Clever, fast-paced and sexy, Love in a Carry-On Bag is a modern day love story that marks the healing power of forgiveness and begs the question, how much baggage is really too heavy to carry.

2012 USA Best Book Award for African-American Fiction
2013 Phillis Wheatley Award for Best Fiction
2013 OOSA Best Book Award for Fiction
Black Expressions Book Club Alternate selection for May 2012