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Mahogany: Book One
Mahogany Mills-Morris has been tethered to Duke since they were teenagers. On paper, they’ve built a a marriage, a home, four beautiful children. But behind closed doors, Mahogany is unraveling, bound by history, babies, and the kind of love that’s easier to hold onto than to walk away from. The warmth is gone. Her laughter is quieter. And every day feels like a version of a life she no longer recognizes.
Five years ago, for a brief and stolen moment, she felt something else—something electric and alive—in the arms of a stranger at Pandora’s. She never saw him again. But the memory lingers like perfume on the skin. Not because of him, but because of what he made her wanted, chosen, seen.
She’s spent years searching for that feeling in all the wrong places—through quiet betrayals and hollow choices of her own. But every time, the emptiness echoes louder. And Duke… Duke has secrets of his own—one so heavy, it threatens to collapse everything beneath it.
Mahogany dreams of leaving, of finding herself outside the walls of what they’ve built. But she’s afraid. Afraid of the unknown. Afraid that a life without Duke might be worse than the one she’s already surviving. And afraid that if she chooses herself… she might lose everything.
This isn’t just a story about infidelity or heartbreak—it’s about a woman reckoning with who she is, what she’s worth, and whether the love she’s clung to is still the love that can save her.
Five years ago, for a brief and stolen moment, she felt something else—something electric and alive—in the arms of a stranger at Pandora’s. She never saw him again. But the memory lingers like perfume on the skin. Not because of him, but because of what he made her wanted, chosen, seen.
She’s spent years searching for that feeling in all the wrong places—through quiet betrayals and hollow choices of her own. But every time, the emptiness echoes louder. And Duke… Duke has secrets of his own—one so heavy, it threatens to collapse everything beneath it.
Mahogany dreams of leaving, of finding herself outside the walls of what they’ve built. But she’s afraid. Afraid of the unknown. Afraid that a life without Duke might be worse than the one she’s already surviving. And afraid that if she chooses herself… she might lose everything.
This isn’t just a story about infidelity or heartbreak—it’s about a woman reckoning with who she is, what she’s worth, and whether the love she’s clung to is still the love that can save her.
168 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 12, 2025
About the author
Miss Candice
122 books796 followersFor as long as Miss Candice could remember, writing has been her passion. In the beginning, she wrote poetry. Later on in life, when she was about thirteen years old, she was introduced to fanfiction.
The Coldest Winter Ever was the first urban fiction book she read. It wast then when she took Fanfiction to another level. She perfected her writing skills, and began to write Urban fanfiction. At first, writing was something she did in her spare time. Something that was therapeutic to her. Never in a million years, did she think she would become a published author, although it has always been a dream of hers.
Now, at the age of twenty-eight, she's penned over ten bestselling novels with many more to come.
In addition to writing, She's also CEO and founder of Miss Candice Presents.
http://www.authormisscandice.com
The Coldest Winter Ever was the first urban fiction book she read. It wast then when she took Fanfiction to another level. She perfected her writing skills, and began to write Urban fanfiction. At first, writing was something she did in her spare time. Something that was therapeutic to her. Never in a million years, did she think she would become a published author, although it has always been a dream of hers.
Now, at the age of twenty-eight, she's penned over ten bestselling novels with many more to come.
In addition to writing, She's also CEO and founder of Miss Candice Presents.
http://www.authormisscandice.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 93 reviews
June 23, 2025
Mahogany and Duke have been together for 19 years, married for 15 years, and he’s cheated every single one of those 15 years. Although she’s in dire need of a divorce, she doesn’t want one because Mahogany loves her husband and when Duke promised the last time was the last time, she foolishly believed him. Again. But, when the last time really wasn’t the last time (again), Mahogany has finally had enough with the blatant disrespect. So, while he’s out laid up with his current side piece, she beats her face, puts on her freakum dress, drops the kids off with her parents, and finally puts that invite to Pandora she was gifted by one of her clients to use. And, oh, did she put it to use. For the next five years (yes you read that right), Mahogany gets her lick back with multiple men in multiple ways you can only imagine at the exclusive sex club. But, is it really gettin’ your lick back when he doesn’t know?!!!
Duke can feel his Mahogany pullin’ away from him. Things haven’t been the same between them for years and he knows the fault lies with him and his cheating. But, when she catches him texting his newest side heaux and they argue about it, it’s somethin’ about the finality in that “oh, okay” from Mahogany that puts fear in his heart. Duke senses his wife has entered her when a woman’s fed up era and he’s deathly afraid he’s about to be served with divorce papers. So, Duke finally finds some act right and puts a pin in his cheating. As promised he’s been faithful for the last two years but, too much damage has been done and no matter how much he tries, he can’t get back what he f*cked up. This was such a good book! When I tell y’all Duke took Mahogany through it, Duke took Mahogany through it! These two are just coasting in their marriage and strugglin’ to get back to a place of trust but, Duke has lied and broken Mahogany’s heart one time too many for there to ever be trust between them again. She loves her husband but, she hates his azz too and no amount of therapy and marriage counseling can help Mahogany and Duke. They're already teetering on a very fine line and that little bomb that was dropped on him is going to push Mahogany over the edge and right into a divorce attorney’s office. If marriage in distress is your jam, add this book to your TBR expeditiously.
Duke can feel his Mahogany pullin’ away from him. Things haven’t been the same between them for years and he knows the fault lies with him and his cheating. But, when she catches him texting his newest side heaux and they argue about it, it’s somethin’ about the finality in that “oh, okay” from Mahogany that puts fear in his heart. Duke senses his wife has entered her when a woman’s fed up era and he’s deathly afraid he’s about to be served with divorce papers. So, Duke finally finds some act right and puts a pin in his cheating. As promised he’s been faithful for the last two years but, too much damage has been done and no matter how much he tries, he can’t get back what he f*cked up. This was such a good book! When I tell y’all Duke took Mahogany through it, Duke took Mahogany through it! These two are just coasting in their marriage and strugglin’ to get back to a place of trust but, Duke has lied and broken Mahogany’s heart one time too many for there to ever be trust between them again. She loves her husband but, she hates his azz too and no amount of therapy and marriage counseling can help Mahogany and Duke. They're already teetering on a very fine line and that little bomb that was dropped on him is going to push Mahogany over the edge and right into a divorce attorney’s office. If marriage in distress is your jam, add this book to your TBR expeditiously.
July 4, 2025
10 out of 10! Would definitely recommend! 🥰🥰🥰🥰 I sure hope Mahogany finds her common sense in book two.
June 26, 2025
Messy Love
Whew this was good. I was locked in you hear me.
Mahogany was a wife scorned. She had been with her husband Duke for almost 20 years and he had cheated for most of them. He was absolutely in love with her, but clearly being a childish selfish af fk 🥷🏾 was his TOP priority. So, when the reality of his actions hit him like a mack truck and he felt his wife pulling away he realized just how blessed his life was. For the past 2 years he had been on the straight and narrow, like he should earn a prize for honoring his vows but okay, but their marriage was estranged. Mahogany was detached, how could she not be. They married super young, mind you they are only 34 and 35 as they were teenage parents, but the WAY he KEPT looking for outside validation, despite the genuine connection he had with his wife was beyond me.
Five years ago, Mahogany was on her get back ish. She took that invitation to Pandora's an exclusive sex club and decided to make sure Duke was no longer her only 🤭 While the good sis didn't actually act on it that night, she felt a heavy connection with an unknown man she couldn't shake. The way he protected her in that moment would be something she carried with her for the next five years, hoping to experience it again. Mahogany does eventually get her lick back and sexually she experiences some highs, but unfortunately she still feels empty emotionally. She is in therapy, half azzing it if you will, but she's there trying to work through her ish. Eventually her and Duke go to marriage counseling and whew it's a lot.
Just when Duke feels like he is taking some steps forward, his past comes back loud and with a vengeance. Mahogany feels it and she starts pulling even further away. Their lives are about to change forever and his b#&ch azz is trying to avoid the inevitable. Meanwhile back at the ranch, Mahogany's office, the book closes with the messiest scene waiting to unfold and I want all of the smoke. Next book me ASAP please and thanks.
Whew this was good. I was locked in you hear me.
Mahogany was a wife scorned. She had been with her husband Duke for almost 20 years and he had cheated for most of them. He was absolutely in love with her, but clearly being a childish selfish af fk 🥷🏾 was his TOP priority. So, when the reality of his actions hit him like a mack truck and he felt his wife pulling away he realized just how blessed his life was. For the past 2 years he had been on the straight and narrow, like he should earn a prize for honoring his vows but okay, but their marriage was estranged. Mahogany was detached, how could she not be. They married super young, mind you they are only 34 and 35 as they were teenage parents, but the WAY he KEPT looking for outside validation, despite the genuine connection he had with his wife was beyond me.
Five years ago, Mahogany was on her get back ish. She took that invitation to Pandora's an exclusive sex club and decided to make sure Duke was no longer her only 🤭 While the good sis didn't actually act on it that night, she felt a heavy connection with an unknown man she couldn't shake. The way he protected her in that moment would be something she carried with her for the next five years, hoping to experience it again. Mahogany does eventually get her lick back and sexually she experiences some highs, but unfortunately she still feels empty emotionally. She is in therapy, half azzing it if you will, but she's there trying to work through her ish. Eventually her and Duke go to marriage counseling and whew it's a lot.
Just when Duke feels like he is taking some steps forward, his past comes back loud and with a vengeance. Mahogany feels it and she starts pulling even further away. Their lives are about to change forever and his b#&ch azz is trying to avoid the inevitable. Meanwhile back at the ranch, Mahogany's office, the book closes with the messiest scene waiting to unfold and I want all of the smoke. Next book me ASAP please and thanks.
June 22, 2025
3/3.5 stars Phenomenal writing, maddening heroine
Miss Candice can write a book down no question. The plot and pacing kept me hooked, but whew…this one tested my patience.
The headache:
*Duke:Certified menace. No notes—just rage.
Nene:The “dutiful, Bible-thumped big sister” act got old quick. Sis was bobbing and weaving every shred of accountability. I’m not blaming her for Duke’s serial cheating, but if you stay through multiple affairs, my sympathy meter flat-lines.
She spends pages mourning her broken spirit yet won’t tell her therapist, won’t confide in her ride-or-die sisters just vibes and victimhood. Every time someone calls her out, she two-steps around the truth like Chris Brown, then drags us back into another “woe is me” inner monologue. Enough, girl.
Bottom line: Stellar storytelling wrapped around a protagonist who had me yelling at my Kindle. If you love messy drama and can stomach a heroine who refuses to get out of her own way, you’ll eat this up. If not hydrate, stretch, and prepare to side-eye.
Miss Candice can write a book down no question. The plot and pacing kept me hooked, but whew…this one tested my patience.
The headache:
*Duke:Certified menace. No notes—just rage.
Nene:The “dutiful, Bible-thumped big sister” act got old quick. Sis was bobbing and weaving every shred of accountability. I’m not blaming her for Duke’s serial cheating, but if you stay through multiple affairs, my sympathy meter flat-lines.
She spends pages mourning her broken spirit yet won’t tell her therapist, won’t confide in her ride-or-die sisters just vibes and victimhood. Every time someone calls her out, she two-steps around the truth like Chris Brown, then drags us back into another “woe is me” inner monologue. Enough, girl.
Bottom line: Stellar storytelling wrapped around a protagonist who had me yelling at my Kindle. If you love messy drama and can stomach a heroine who refuses to get out of her own way, you’ll eat this up. If not hydrate, stretch, and prepare to side-eye.
August 8, 2025
Too Repetitive
I like the Soul Ties series overall but Mahogany was a little too repetitive. This wasn’t even a long book and about half of it could have been cut. The same points were made over and over. The ending was also too predictable and while it’s meant to be a cliffhanger, it didn’t feel that way since I already knew it was coming.
I like the Soul Ties series overall but Mahogany was a little too repetitive. This wasn’t even a long book and about half of it could have been cut. The same points were made over and over. The ending was also too predictable and while it’s meant to be a cliffhanger, it didn’t feel that way since I already knew it was coming.
June 27, 2025
4/5
— My girl Mahogany has been through it, thanks to that husband Duke of hers. Broken trust, betrayal, infidelity, emotional abuse.. over a stretch of 15 years. Mahogany attempted her get back for 5 years but didn’t feel any better. Duke is on the straight and narrow for the past 2 years since he felt his wife pulling away.
— Just when they thought they were going in the right direction, the past comes back to bite you — I’m excited to see where this goes… I hope in Mahogany’s (aka my favor, if you know you know)!
— My girl Mahogany has been through it, thanks to that husband Duke of hers. Broken trust, betrayal, infidelity, emotional abuse.. over a stretch of 15 years. Mahogany attempted her get back for 5 years but didn’t feel any better. Duke is on the straight and narrow for the past 2 years since he felt his wife pulling away.
— Just when they thought they were going in the right direction, the past comes back to bite you — I’m excited to see where this goes… I hope in Mahogany’s (aka my favor, if you know you know)!
June 15, 2025
Angst driven story.
March 27, 2026
This book was everything & I had no expectations. I immediately started book 2.
September 21, 2026
I wanted to know what was going on with Mahogany since book one. I am really enjoying her story. Excited to read part two.
June 20, 2025
Duality
Ummm this read was exasperating 🤨🤦🏾♀️😮💨‼️ Yea, I realize Miss Candice forewarned readers this book & the character Mahogany had unresolved resentments. However, Mahogany & Duke as a married couple also had an emotionally toxic history. Irregardless, no one can project their indiscretions, regrets and or unfulfilled dreams onto a spouse just to be liberated, vindicated or when applicable, absolved from their guilty consciousness. Mahogany was/is a tormented soul. She vacillated between the public façade of a resolute business woman for her family, friends & employees verses the reality of the disgruntled teenager trapped in an adult body. Consequently, Mahogany is/was not the mogul or warrior she projects yet she stills rebuffs against professional therapy & personal accountability🥴🤦🏾♀️‼️Thereafter, “Mahogany: Book 1 - Soul Ties series Book 4” was just a mediocre read. Unfortunately, the numerous grammatical, phonetical, misspelled & sentence structured errors contributed to the rating of 3.0 ⭐️’s. Nevertheless, hopefully book 2 puts Mahogany’s credibility & integrity were her carnal imagination & mouth’s has been 🤭🧐🫣‼️Because duality of life’s choices just resurfaced…Oooh, B2 just might be a better reading experience 🤔😳🧨‼️
Ummm this read was exasperating 🤨🤦🏾♀️😮💨‼️ Yea, I realize Miss Candice forewarned readers this book & the character Mahogany had unresolved resentments. However, Mahogany & Duke as a married couple also had an emotionally toxic history. Irregardless, no one can project their indiscretions, regrets and or unfulfilled dreams onto a spouse just to be liberated, vindicated or when applicable, absolved from their guilty consciousness. Mahogany was/is a tormented soul. She vacillated between the public façade of a resolute business woman for her family, friends & employees verses the reality of the disgruntled teenager trapped in an adult body. Consequently, Mahogany is/was not the mogul or warrior she projects yet she stills rebuffs against professional therapy & personal accountability🥴🤦🏾♀️‼️Thereafter, “Mahogany: Book 1 - Soul Ties series Book 4” was just a mediocre read. Unfortunately, the numerous grammatical, phonetical, misspelled & sentence structured errors contributed to the rating of 3.0 ⭐️’s. Nevertheless, hopefully book 2 puts Mahogany’s credibility & integrity were her carnal imagination & mouth’s has been 🤭🧐🫣‼️Because duality of life’s choices just resurfaced…Oooh, B2 just might be a better reading experience 🤔😳🧨‼️
July 9, 2025
WOW!!
Whew, I am definitely invested in what's next to come for Mahogany. I loved how the author gives us the back story of Mahogany's life and how she has been coping. I definitely felt for her. Wanted her to just release what she has been feeling throughout the years and finally becoming free. I have no words for Duke. It's too good to be true with that ending. What are the odds of her mystery man being revealed on the most important day she was anticipating. Can't wait for the next book.
Whew, I am definitely invested in what's next to come for Mahogany. I loved how the author gives us the back story of Mahogany's life and how she has been coping. I definitely felt for her. Wanted her to just release what she has been feeling throughout the years and finally becoming free. I have no words for Duke. It's too good to be true with that ending. What are the odds of her mystery man being revealed on the most important day she was anticipating. Can't wait for the next book.
June 21, 2025
Great read!!!
Oh my goodness! This has been the best but worst of the series. I have passed so many tears in this one. Relationships aren't always cookie cutter. Oooooo weeee.....so heavy...yet so light. Y'all just read the damn book.
Oh my goodness! This has been the best but worst of the series. I have passed so many tears in this one. Relationships aren't always cookie cutter. Oooooo weeee.....so heavy...yet so light. Y'all just read the damn book.
June 14, 2025
My girl Mahogany is going through it, but I am so glad to be reading her story and can’t wait for part 2.
June 8, 2026
This book was so damn good and audiobook is even better!
June 14, 2025
miss candice doesn’t disappoint
Whewww I can’t even explain how this book pulls at all feels. Miss Candice does a beautiful job capturing the raw emotions of a woman who is not happy in her marriage and the internal war she has with herself, she wants more but fear is MF! This book will take you on a ride. Miss Candice writes from a place of passion and realness and it’s raw you sympathize, you get angry, you want to scream at the characters but that’s because it’s so damn good. This book is ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I have to add this to my top reads of the year. I can’t wait for part 2 because that cliffhanger wheww chile.
Whewww I can’t even explain how this book pulls at all feels. Miss Candice does a beautiful job capturing the raw emotions of a woman who is not happy in her marriage and the internal war she has with herself, she wants more but fear is MF! This book will take you on a ride. Miss Candice writes from a place of passion and realness and it’s raw you sympathize, you get angry, you want to scream at the characters but that’s because it’s so damn good. This book is ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I have to add this to my top reads of the year. I can’t wait for part 2 because that cliffhanger wheww chile.
May 19, 2026
🥃 Book Review: Mahogany — Book One "Nineteen Years of Beautiful Wreckage"
Author: Miss Candice Genre: Urban Fiction / African American Contemporary / Marriage in Crisis Tropes: Infidelity, Fed Up Wife Era, Secret Revenge Arc, Mystery Man, Toxic Love, Marriage Counseling That Comes Five Seasons Too Late Format: Purchased Copy — Kindle Edition (168 pages) Series: Soul Ties Universe — Book 4 / Mahogany Book 1 Drink Pairing: Pomegranate Negroni Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ (Pandora's is back. Act accordingly.) Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ (3.5/5) — "Rich, Complex, and a Little Bitter — Just Like the Marriage"
🥃 The Pour
Miss Candice did not come to play with this one.
She came to drag us — slowly, deliberately, with the kind of patient tension that makes you set your Kindle down just to catch your breath — through nineteen years of a marriage that should have been beautiful and became something else entirely.
Mahogany Mills-Morris is 34 years old. She has a husband, four children, a business, and a life that looks like everything from the outside. From the inside, it is a masterclass in endurance. Duke — her husband, the father of her children, the man she has loved since they were teenagers — has cheated on her for fifteen of the fifteen years they've been married.
Fifteen. Of. Fifteen.
And Mahogany is still there.
Not because she's weak. Not because she doesn't know better. But because loving someone for nineteen years doesn't just switch off, even when it should. Even when he has given her every reason in the world to walk out that door and never look back.
Until one night, five years ago, when a Pandora's invitation showed up in her life and Mahogany Mills-Morris put on her freakum dress and decided to stop surviving.
Oh.
🥃 A Full Glass of Complicated
Let me introduce you to Mahogany properly, because she deserves that.
She is a woman I understood immediately and wanted to shake gently approximately every fifteen pages. She is brilliant — runs her own business, holds her household, maintains the facade of a woman who has it together — and she is absolutely, completely, thoroughly in her own way. She knows what Duke has done. She knows what she deserves. She knows that the warmth left their marriage a long time ago and she's been lying in a cold bed pretending it's still summer. And she stays. And she goes to Pandora's to feel something. And she feels empty afterward. And she stays some more.
I felt for her in my bones. Because that is real. That is the particular specific exhaustion of loving someone past the point where the love makes sense anymore. Miss Candice wrote Mahogany's interiority with a kind of honesty that uncomfortable — which means she got it right.
Now. Duke.
Duke is the kind of man who loves his wife completely and genuinely and also cannot seem to stop destroying what he loves. He is not a cartoon villain. That's what makes it worse. He is a man who knows what he has, who has never stopped loving Mahogany, and who kept looking for something outside of her anyway — for years, repeatedly, while she stood in place holding everything together. The past two years, he's been faithful. He can feel her pulling away and it has finally, finally knocked some sense into him.
Too little. So very much too late.
And then there's the mystery man from Pandora's — the one who never touched her but protected her in a way that imprinted itself on her for five whole years. She's been searching for that feeling ever since. The electric, seen, chosen feeling she got from one charged encounter with a stranger.
The ending.
Oh, the ending.
🥃 What I Savored
The premise is airtight — Miss Candice gave us a woman at the end of her rope with nineteen years of history behind her, and that weight is felt on every page. The stakes are real. The heartbreak is real. I was invested from page one.
Mahogany's quiet exhaustion — The way this book captures what it feels like to love someone who keeps breaking you — not the loud drama of it, but the quiet, daily, grinding weight of it — is something. There were passages that made me put the book down and just sit for a moment.
The Pandora's thread — Pulling this universe together with that one electric encounter at the club five years ago was a smart, delicious choice. The mystery man angle is genuinely intriguing and I am absolutely staying for Book 2 to find out who he is. Especially given that ending.
Duke's reckoning beginning — I don't want redemption for Duke. I want him to have to stand fully in what he did, every consequence of it, without a shortcut. This book sets that up beautifully.
That cliffhanger — Once again, Miss Candice chooses violence right at the end. And once again, I will be reading the next book the moment it exists.
🥃 What Needed More Aging
The repetition tested me — At 168 pages, this book should be tight. And there are stretches where it is not. Mahogany circles the same emotional territory — the betrayal, the emptiness, the why-do-I-stay — multiple times without each loop adding new dimension. I needed the laps to build on each other, not restate the same grief in slightly different phrasing. This barrel needed editing before bottling.
Mahogany in therapy but not in therapy — She's there. She's sitting across from a professional who could genuinely help her. And she is absolutely, deliberately, infuriatingly not telling the truth in that chair. I understand why psychologically — the shame of it, the pride of it, the way women hold their own pain hostage because they've held everything else together for so long. But watching it happen across multiple sessions without any movement forward wore on me.
I needed more Mahogany outside of Duke — Who is she when she isn't defined by this marriage? The businesswoman, the mother, the woman who felt alive for one night at Pandora's — I got glimpses and I needed more. Give me the full woman, not just the wounded wife.
168 pages for this much history is a short pour — Nineteen years of marriage, four children, fifteen years of infidelity, a five-year secret, and a universe-connecting mystery man. This story has so much in it. I needed more pages to let it breathe properly.
🥃 The Finish
Mahogany: Book One is a bold, messy, emotionally complicated introduction to a woman I'm not done with yet.
This is not a comfort read. It is not a fantasy. It is a book about the specific particular heartbreak of a woman who chose love and kept choosing it long after love stopped choosing her back — and what happens when she finally, finally starts choosing herself instead.
Miss Candice writes Mahogany's pain without flinching, and I respect the craft of that deeply even when the execution left me wanting tighter construction. The bones of this story are excellent. The foundation is solid. And that ending — with the mystery man and the moment and all the smoke that is about to rise — has me fully committed to Book 2.
I won't be rereading this one. But I closed it immediately and went looking for what comes next, which tells you everything you need to know.
Worth the pour. The full glass is still coming.
🥃 The Drink Pairing
Pomegranate Negroni
Because Mahogany is sophisticated and beautiful and deeply, specifically bitter — and the sweetness she deserves is still hiding underneath everything that's gone wrong.
Gin (Hendrick's) — 1 oz
Campari — 1 oz
Sweet vermouth — 1 oz
Fresh pomegranate juice — ½ oz
Large ice cube — 1
Orange peel — for garnish
Lazzaroni Amaretto cherry — 1 (because she deserves the best thing in the glass)
Method: Combine gin, Campari, vermouth, and pomegranate juice in a mixing glass with ice. Stir — do not shake, Mahogany does not shake — for 30 seconds until perfectly chilled and diluted. Strain over a large ice cube in a rocks glass. Express the orange peel over the top, run it around the rim, drop it in. Crown with a cherry.
It's gorgeous. It's complex. It's bitter in ways that linger. And the sweetness — when you finally find it — makes you wish you'd gotten there sooner.
Recommended for fans of marriage-in-crisis fiction, women who are done being done wrong, and anyone who has ever loved someone past all reasonable logic and understood every moment of it anyway.
Author: Miss Candice Genre: Urban Fiction / African American Contemporary / Marriage in Crisis Tropes: Infidelity, Fed Up Wife Era, Secret Revenge Arc, Mystery Man, Toxic Love, Marriage Counseling That Comes Five Seasons Too Late Format: Purchased Copy — Kindle Edition (168 pages) Series: Soul Ties Universe — Book 4 / Mahogany Book 1 Drink Pairing: Pomegranate Negroni Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ (Pandora's is back. Act accordingly.) Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ (3.5/5) — "Rich, Complex, and a Little Bitter — Just Like the Marriage"
🥃 The Pour
Miss Candice did not come to play with this one.
She came to drag us — slowly, deliberately, with the kind of patient tension that makes you set your Kindle down just to catch your breath — through nineteen years of a marriage that should have been beautiful and became something else entirely.
Mahogany Mills-Morris is 34 years old. She has a husband, four children, a business, and a life that looks like everything from the outside. From the inside, it is a masterclass in endurance. Duke — her husband, the father of her children, the man she has loved since they were teenagers — has cheated on her for fifteen of the fifteen years they've been married.
Fifteen. Of. Fifteen.
And Mahogany is still there.
Not because she's weak. Not because she doesn't know better. But because loving someone for nineteen years doesn't just switch off, even when it should. Even when he has given her every reason in the world to walk out that door and never look back.
Until one night, five years ago, when a Pandora's invitation showed up in her life and Mahogany Mills-Morris put on her freakum dress and decided to stop surviving.
Oh.
🥃 A Full Glass of Complicated
Let me introduce you to Mahogany properly, because she deserves that.
She is a woman I understood immediately and wanted to shake gently approximately every fifteen pages. She is brilliant — runs her own business, holds her household, maintains the facade of a woman who has it together — and she is absolutely, completely, thoroughly in her own way. She knows what Duke has done. She knows what she deserves. She knows that the warmth left their marriage a long time ago and she's been lying in a cold bed pretending it's still summer. And she stays. And she goes to Pandora's to feel something. And she feels empty afterward. And she stays some more.
I felt for her in my bones. Because that is real. That is the particular specific exhaustion of loving someone past the point where the love makes sense anymore. Miss Candice wrote Mahogany's interiority with a kind of honesty that uncomfortable — which means she got it right.
Now. Duke.
Duke is the kind of man who loves his wife completely and genuinely and also cannot seem to stop destroying what he loves. He is not a cartoon villain. That's what makes it worse. He is a man who knows what he has, who has never stopped loving Mahogany, and who kept looking for something outside of her anyway — for years, repeatedly, while she stood in place holding everything together. The past two years, he's been faithful. He can feel her pulling away and it has finally, finally knocked some sense into him.
Too little. So very much too late.
And then there's the mystery man from Pandora's — the one who never touched her but protected her in a way that imprinted itself on her for five whole years. She's been searching for that feeling ever since. The electric, seen, chosen feeling she got from one charged encounter with a stranger.
The ending.
Oh, the ending.
🥃 What I Savored
The premise is airtight — Miss Candice gave us a woman at the end of her rope with nineteen years of history behind her, and that weight is felt on every page. The stakes are real. The heartbreak is real. I was invested from page one.
Mahogany's quiet exhaustion — The way this book captures what it feels like to love someone who keeps breaking you — not the loud drama of it, but the quiet, daily, grinding weight of it — is something. There were passages that made me put the book down and just sit for a moment.
The Pandora's thread — Pulling this universe together with that one electric encounter at the club five years ago was a smart, delicious choice. The mystery man angle is genuinely intriguing and I am absolutely staying for Book 2 to find out who he is. Especially given that ending.
Duke's reckoning beginning — I don't want redemption for Duke. I want him to have to stand fully in what he did, every consequence of it, without a shortcut. This book sets that up beautifully.
That cliffhanger — Once again, Miss Candice chooses violence right at the end. And once again, I will be reading the next book the moment it exists.
🥃 What Needed More Aging
The repetition tested me — At 168 pages, this book should be tight. And there are stretches where it is not. Mahogany circles the same emotional territory — the betrayal, the emptiness, the why-do-I-stay — multiple times without each loop adding new dimension. I needed the laps to build on each other, not restate the same grief in slightly different phrasing. This barrel needed editing before bottling.
Mahogany in therapy but not in therapy — She's there. She's sitting across from a professional who could genuinely help her. And she is absolutely, deliberately, infuriatingly not telling the truth in that chair. I understand why psychologically — the shame of it, the pride of it, the way women hold their own pain hostage because they've held everything else together for so long. But watching it happen across multiple sessions without any movement forward wore on me.
I needed more Mahogany outside of Duke — Who is she when she isn't defined by this marriage? The businesswoman, the mother, the woman who felt alive for one night at Pandora's — I got glimpses and I needed more. Give me the full woman, not just the wounded wife.
168 pages for this much history is a short pour — Nineteen years of marriage, four children, fifteen years of infidelity, a five-year secret, and a universe-connecting mystery man. This story has so much in it. I needed more pages to let it breathe properly.
🥃 The Finish
Mahogany: Book One is a bold, messy, emotionally complicated introduction to a woman I'm not done with yet.
This is not a comfort read. It is not a fantasy. It is a book about the specific particular heartbreak of a woman who chose love and kept choosing it long after love stopped choosing her back — and what happens when she finally, finally starts choosing herself instead.
Miss Candice writes Mahogany's pain without flinching, and I respect the craft of that deeply even when the execution left me wanting tighter construction. The bones of this story are excellent. The foundation is solid. And that ending — with the mystery man and the moment and all the smoke that is about to rise — has me fully committed to Book 2.
I won't be rereading this one. But I closed it immediately and went looking for what comes next, which tells you everything you need to know.
Worth the pour. The full glass is still coming.
🥃 The Drink Pairing
Pomegranate Negroni
Because Mahogany is sophisticated and beautiful and deeply, specifically bitter — and the sweetness she deserves is still hiding underneath everything that's gone wrong.
Gin (Hendrick's) — 1 oz
Campari — 1 oz
Sweet vermouth — 1 oz
Fresh pomegranate juice — ½ oz
Large ice cube — 1
Orange peel — for garnish
Lazzaroni Amaretto cherry — 1 (because she deserves the best thing in the glass)
Method: Combine gin, Campari, vermouth, and pomegranate juice in a mixing glass with ice. Stir — do not shake, Mahogany does not shake — for 30 seconds until perfectly chilled and diluted. Strain over a large ice cube in a rocks glass. Express the orange peel over the top, run it around the rim, drop it in. Crown with a cherry.
It's gorgeous. It's complex. It's bitter in ways that linger. And the sweetness — when you finally find it — makes you wish you'd gotten there sooner.
Recommended for fans of marriage-in-crisis fiction, women who are done being done wrong, and anyone who has ever loved someone past all reasonable logic and understood every moment of it anyway.
August 7, 2025
Beautiful cover.
Mahogany was a mess.
Mahogany's marriage was a mess.
Duke was a disrespectful mess doing to little too late in an attempt to save his marriage.
Where were the "Soul Ties"? Were the Ties the reasons Ducati and Mahogany couldn't/wouldn't walk away from each other despite of how toxic their situation?
This book was a mess, and I struggled to understand the value in it. Sis got her lick back and some! Frankly, she is hurting and just needs to let go and walk away. She willingly chose to stay in a situation that no longer served her and is just punishing him and herself.
Mahogany was a mess.
Mahogany's marriage was a mess.
Duke was a disrespectful mess doing to little too late in an attempt to save his marriage.
Where were the "Soul Ties"? Were the Ties the reasons Ducati and Mahogany couldn't/wouldn't walk away from each other despite of how toxic their situation?
This book was a mess, and I struggled to understand the value in it. Sis got her lick back and some! Frankly, she is hurting and just needs to let go and walk away. She willingly chose to stay in a situation that no longer served her and is just punishing him and herself.
April 14, 2026
Too much whining for me
This only gets 3 stars because I like the author. However, this is more of the same as Saint Baptist II. Reading like a diary of all of her regrets in life. And quite frankly, just a bunch of whining. The entire book she vilified her husband for all of his cheating. But she leveled up on the cheating making her just like her husband. It was giving self righteous. And while I didn’t DNF this book, I choose not to move forward with the rest of them.
This only gets 3 stars because I like the author. However, this is more of the same as Saint Baptist II. Reading like a diary of all of her regrets in life. And quite frankly, just a bunch of whining. The entire book she vilified her husband for all of his cheating. But she leveled up on the cheating making her just like her husband. It was giving self righteous. And while I didn’t DNF this book, I choose not to move forward with the rest of them.
July 22, 2026
🎧 Mahogany is very relatable and was facing real issues that women go through
November 4, 2025
Playing the Game of Get Back
I truly don’t know how to feel about how things unfolded with Duke and Mahogany!!!…
My heart broke for Mahogany & then it turned to anger!!!…Maybe because I saw pieces of me in her story, maybe because sometimes we deny ourselves the peace and happiness that is lost when we have been hurt and suffer in silence because we don’t want others to know that we are crumbling!!!…
As much as I supported her in her journey to try and put her marriage back together, the more I felt she was wasting time when her heart and mind wasn’t in it!!!…She’s seeking therapy, but what program is she working if she’s still in denial!!!…
She has endured a lot, accepted a lot and smiles when all she wanted to do was cry, but yet she has put herself in a position to be just like the man, her husband, Duke!!!…A cheater!!!…No matter how you wrap it, seal it or talk about it, she is no different!!!…
It’s crazy how just the thought of him cheating again sent everything in a spiral and she didn’t want to hear anything!!!…Now, the fact they both have secrets now is either going to continue the spiral for them both c or they will decide to amicably decide to split or work it out!!!…
Now that Armani suit has showed up after all these years, what will Mahogany do is the question!!!…
I truly don’t know how to feel about how things unfolded with Duke and Mahogany!!!…
My heart broke for Mahogany & then it turned to anger!!!…Maybe because I saw pieces of me in her story, maybe because sometimes we deny ourselves the peace and happiness that is lost when we have been hurt and suffer in silence because we don’t want others to know that we are crumbling!!!…
As much as I supported her in her journey to try and put her marriage back together, the more I felt she was wasting time when her heart and mind wasn’t in it!!!…She’s seeking therapy, but what program is she working if she’s still in denial!!!…
She has endured a lot, accepted a lot and smiles when all she wanted to do was cry, but yet she has put herself in a position to be just like the man, her husband, Duke!!!…A cheater!!!…No matter how you wrap it, seal it or talk about it, she is no different!!!…
It’s crazy how just the thought of him cheating again sent everything in a spiral and she didn’t want to hear anything!!!…Now, the fact they both have secrets now is either going to continue the spiral for them both c or they will decide to amicably decide to split or work it out!!!…
Now that Armani suit has showed up after all these years, what will Mahogany do is the question!!!…
August 27, 2026
The saying “when she no longer cares, be worried” was Duke Morris. The last time he cheated- she didn’t care and he decided that it was time to get it together. Unfortunately she longer cares. Her ultimate get back was her membership at Pandora’s S** Club. On her first encounter there- she meets a man but they don’t get to engage. She tries to find him at the club for the next 5 years. In that meantime she continues to get that back blown out at Pandora’s everytime Duke cheats.
Mahogany is drowning in life. Her marriage is a failure and she is just existing. I feel so bad for Mahogany because she is me currently (drowning in life) while from the outside looking in- she seems perfect! Children are fine and career is thriving.
Mahogany is willing to give it one more try with therapy but she honestly isn’t ready. Therapist Nikki called both Mahogany and Duke out on their mess! I like her!
Everything comes to a head when Duke’s last fling before he straighten up is involved in an accident and he is called from the hospital that his daughter is in ICU! The daughter he had no idea about! It wrecks him so bad- that he’s given Mahogany PTSD and flashbacks of him cheating. Duke is so worried that he’s going to lose Mahogany that’s he’s spiraling.
Baby the book ends on a cliffhanger when Mr. Armani Suit walks into her business.
Mahogany is drowning in life. Her marriage is a failure and she is just existing. I feel so bad for Mahogany because she is me currently (drowning in life) while from the outside looking in- she seems perfect! Children are fine and career is thriving.
Mahogany is willing to give it one more try with therapy but she honestly isn’t ready. Therapist Nikki called both Mahogany and Duke out on their mess! I like her!
Everything comes to a head when Duke’s last fling before he straighten up is involved in an accident and he is called from the hospital that his daughter is in ICU! The daughter he had no idea about! It wrecks him so bad- that he’s given Mahogany PTSD and flashbacks of him cheating. Duke is so worried that he’s going to lose Mahogany that’s he’s spiraling.
Baby the book ends on a cliffhanger when Mr. Armani Suit walks into her business.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 16, 2025
I’m so hooked! BEST book in the series!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️|🌶️🌶️🌶️
I’m am so at a loss for words. It was so very beautifully written with the best cliffhanger. I honestly thought I was going to more emotional reading this like I was soul ties (btw I am not an emotional reader) but I was not. I was so amped up throughout the whole story! Mahogany feelings throughout the store is so valid! I am also so grateful we got her husband Ducati (Duke) POV too because it made the story even more interesting. I’m so invested on how they are navigating their marriage throughout all hardships. Part one is more than a solid foundation. It’s the start of a revelation and I’m sure so many readers will be able to resonate with Mahogany.
Also can we talk about the therapist Chanté!? She was so real and raw. I absolutely loved her and it made it even better that it’s my name. *Moma I made it! lol
I highly RECOMMEND! You also do not need to read the other books in the series to read this one but for an even better reading experience you can! 💖
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️|🌶️🌶️🌶️
I’m am so at a loss for words. It was so very beautifully written with the best cliffhanger. I honestly thought I was going to more emotional reading this like I was soul ties (btw I am not an emotional reader) but I was not. I was so amped up throughout the whole story! Mahogany feelings throughout the store is so valid! I am also so grateful we got her husband Ducati (Duke) POV too because it made the story even more interesting. I’m so invested on how they are navigating their marriage throughout all hardships. Part one is more than a solid foundation. It’s the start of a revelation and I’m sure so many readers will be able to resonate with Mahogany.
Also can we talk about the therapist Chanté!? She was so real and raw. I absolutely loved her and it made it even better that it’s my name. *Moma I made it! lol
I highly RECOMMEND! You also do not need to read the other books in the series to read this one but for an even better reading experience you can! 💖
January 15, 2026
Could a book touch every part of your being and pin it to paper? Mahogany did exactly that.
This story is an emotional roller coaster that dives deep into the realities of marriage—especially marrying young—and the quiet, often painful fight to rediscover yourself while still trying to hold everything together. It explores what it means to be a woman balancing motherhood, loyalty, loneliness, infidelity, and the crushing weight of choosing between who you are and who you’re expected to be.
Miss Candice captures the kind of isolation and emotional hunger that only single married mothers—or women who feel unseen inside their own lives—can truly understand. Every page felt raw, honest, and uncomfortably real. The love, the regret, the longing, the fear… all of it hits hard and lingers long after you turn the page.
And that cliffhanger? Whew. Absolutely brutal in the best way.
I’m already diving into Book 2 because I need to know what happens next
This story is an emotional roller coaster that dives deep into the realities of marriage—especially marrying young—and the quiet, often painful fight to rediscover yourself while still trying to hold everything together. It explores what it means to be a woman balancing motherhood, loyalty, loneliness, infidelity, and the crushing weight of choosing between who you are and who you’re expected to be.
Miss Candice captures the kind of isolation and emotional hunger that only single married mothers—or women who feel unseen inside their own lives—can truly understand. Every page felt raw, honest, and uncomfortably real. The love, the regret, the longing, the fear… all of it hits hard and lingers long after you turn the page.
And that cliffhanger? Whew. Absolutely brutal in the best way.
I’m already diving into Book 2 because I need to know what happens next
June 24, 2026
Mahogany got on every single goddamn nerve I had.
Her therapist had been telling her to leave Duke for years. She wouldn't do it. The man cheated most of their 18 year marriage, had an oops baby from one of his side pieces and she was STILL holding on to the longevity of their relationship. Girl.
Meanwhile a stranger at Pandora's had been living rent free in her head for five years. Then he walked into her office as a new client. Crescent Carter was relentless, knew she was married and absolutely did not care. He tore that thang up in her office and she told him it could never happen again. She knew that was a lie. So did he.
The drama that unfolded across these three books had me all the way through it. The surprise visitor. The late night office session Duke walked in on. I feared for everybody's life.
I loved this series, especially the ending.
My only wish was that Crescent had connected the dots back to the night they first met at Pandora's. A must read.
Her therapist had been telling her to leave Duke for years. She wouldn't do it. The man cheated most of their 18 year marriage, had an oops baby from one of his side pieces and she was STILL holding on to the longevity of their relationship. Girl.
Meanwhile a stranger at Pandora's had been living rent free in her head for five years. Then he walked into her office as a new client. Crescent Carter was relentless, knew she was married and absolutely did not care. He tore that thang up in her office and she told him it could never happen again. She knew that was a lie. So did he.
The drama that unfolded across these three books had me all the way through it. The surprise visitor. The late night office session Duke walked in on. I feared for everybody's life.
I loved this series, especially the ending.
My only wish was that Crescent had connected the dots back to the night they first met at Pandora's. A must read.
September 30, 2025
5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Book 4 Mahogany Part 1 has me all in my feelings. I'm trying to figure out where to start.
Mahogany is dealing with so much pain. I think a lot of her pain comes from regret over the decisions she has made in her life—being in situations she wasn’t ready for or allowing others to be her voice. Throughout this story, we see Mahogany mention how she wishes she could go back to her teens and do everything differently.
Mahogany doesn’t want to talk about the happy moments but about why she’s here. But Mahogany is dealing with fear—fear of the unknown, fear of what people will say, fear of being seen. She is hiding behind a mask. Makes sense, aka Pandora.
Duke…what can I say? This guy is so selfish and needs to listen. A lot of times, women are telling you what we need, but he’s not actively listening. His decisions in their relationship are shameful.
I’m ready for Part 2 of Mahogany. Addicted to the Soul Ties series.
To Miss Candice—thank you for writing such a heartfelt and real story.
Book 4 Mahogany Part 1 has me all in my feelings. I'm trying to figure out where to start.
Mahogany is dealing with so much pain. I think a lot of her pain comes from regret over the decisions she has made in her life—being in situations she wasn’t ready for or allowing others to be her voice. Throughout this story, we see Mahogany mention how she wishes she could go back to her teens and do everything differently.
Mahogany doesn’t want to talk about the happy moments but about why she’s here. But Mahogany is dealing with fear—fear of the unknown, fear of what people will say, fear of being seen. She is hiding behind a mask. Makes sense, aka Pandora.
Duke…what can I say? This guy is so selfish and needs to listen. A lot of times, women are telling you what we need, but he’s not actively listening. His decisions in their relationship are shameful.
I’m ready for Part 2 of Mahogany. Addicted to the Soul Ties series.
To Miss Candice—thank you for writing such a heartfelt and real story.
June 22, 2025
Very heavy
This book, wow I want to know how bits and pieces of my marriage showed up in this book, whew heavy heavy heavy. This book brought back memories and so many. The book is great, wonderful, emotional and sad. But the saddest part, the saddest part is so many of us are Mahogany, Sienna and Naoki. Thank you Miss'Candice for showing us a way through it, a way out of and what it could look like after it. I'm happy I can say my ex-husband, that I was able to get out. Miss Candice, I've told you this via FB, you are an amazing writer/ story teller, you are an empath and a scribe, we feel your words because you write with emotion. Thank you and please continue.
This book, wow I want to know how bits and pieces of my marriage showed up in this book, whew heavy heavy heavy. This book brought back memories and so many. The book is great, wonderful, emotional and sad. But the saddest part, the saddest part is so many of us are Mahogany, Sienna and Naoki. Thank you Miss'Candice for showing us a way through it, a way out of and what it could look like after it. I'm happy I can say my ex-husband, that I was able to get out. Miss Candice, I've told you this via FB, you are an amazing writer/ story teller, you are an empath and a scribe, we feel your words because you write with emotion. Thank you and please continue.
November 11, 2025
I have fallen in love with this series. I wanted to read Soul Ties because I kept seeing it posted on black booktok. I couldn't just stop there because the story kept pulling me in 🥰.
Who do you become once you have taken on so much prematurely? Do you stay the person you once dreamed of at the tender age of fifteen or do you become a different woman due to the life stresses of a woman?
Mahogany's story resonates with many women. You feel so empty after pouring so much into others. Looking up one day to realize you never chose yourself in any situation. No matter what people say, life situations change the way you see the outcome of what you thought you wanted.
Who do you become once you have taken on so much prematurely? Do you stay the person you once dreamed of at the tender age of fifteen or do you become a different woman due to the life stresses of a woman?
Mahogany's story resonates with many women. You feel so empty after pouring so much into others. Looking up one day to realize you never chose yourself in any situation. No matter what people say, life situations change the way you see the outcome of what you thought you wanted.
August 29, 2026
I’m giving 5 stars, 5 stars, 5 stars to this entire series. To be fair, by the end of the first book, I already knew I was going to give the rest of the series 5 stars too.
I’ve reread Soul Ties so many times, but I never felt like I was ready to finally read Mahogany. I honestly feel like this was the perfect time for me to pick it up, and so far, it has absolutely delivered.
I’m going to save my full review and all my thoughts for the third book because I feel like that’s where I’ll be able to properly talk about the entire story and how everything came together.
Miss Candice, take your flowers. 💐 You deserve them.
I’ve reread Soul Ties so many times, but I never felt like I was ready to finally read Mahogany. I honestly feel like this was the perfect time for me to pick it up, and so far, it has absolutely delivered.
I’m going to save my full review and all my thoughts for the third book because I feel like that’s where I’ll be able to properly talk about the entire story and how everything came together.
Miss Candice, take your flowers. 💐 You deserve them.
July 6, 2025
Mahogany
Ok when is part 2 coming out... I always loved the Soul Ties book because they are deep like crazy deep. Have you feeling like are you experiencing this with the person you love or would you ever experience this with your person. Mahogany is definitely a slow burn but definitely relatable because it really started with her getting pregnant young but continued when she found out about the cheating. The next part is sure going to be a Rollercoaster that I can't wait to be on!!
Ok when is part 2 coming out... I always loved the Soul Ties book because they are deep like crazy deep. Have you feeling like are you experiencing this with the person you love or would you ever experience this with your person. Mahogany is definitely a slow burn but definitely relatable because it really started with her getting pregnant young but continued when she found out about the cheating. The next part is sure going to be a Rollercoaster that I can't wait to be on!!
March 23, 2026
Ok finished book 1 & It a lot going on!
1. I’m trying to see if Diary, is Dukes daughter, even though he says she resembles Spark, so maybe it is. I feel bad that E passed away but she could have told him about the child, maybe she did when she called private. I believe that he is trying to hard, but I guess he need to try harder.
2. Mahogany is over it! I can’t believe she didn’t show for her birthday party, but hopefully it all works out. Looking forward to see how book 2 goes! Praying for restoration even if they stay together or not and just co parent, they need to heal!
1. I’m trying to see if Diary, is Dukes daughter, even though he says she resembles Spark, so maybe it is. I feel bad that E passed away but she could have told him about the child, maybe she did when she called private. I believe that he is trying to hard, but I guess he need to try harder.
2. Mahogany is over it! I can’t believe she didn’t show for her birthday party, but hopefully it all works out. Looking forward to see how book 2 goes! Praying for restoration even if they stay together or not and just co parent, they need to heal!
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