Carl Weber Books in Order

Where to Start Reading Carl Weber

For readers new to Carl Weber's high-stakes, scandalous, and romance-filled urban fiction, deciding where to start can feel overwhelming. Weber's bibliography is expansive, but two main entry points stand out depending on your preferred flavor of drama:

• For Crime and Family Empires: Start with The Family Business (2012). This is Weber's flagship saga, following the wealthy, powerful, and secretive Duncan family in Queens. It is easily his most popular work and has been adapted into a successful television series.
• For Relationship and Church Drama: Start with The Preacher's Son (2005), the first entry in his fan-favorite Church series. It offers a perfect introduction to his signature style of community-based secrets, moral conflicts, and romantic tension.
• For Classic Relationship Drama: If you want to see where Weber started, begin with his debut novel, Lookin' For Luv (2000), which launched his first series focused on modern romance and friendships.

The Family Business Series: Publication vs. Chronological Order

The Family Business series is Carl Weber's most famous and complex project. The books follow the Duncan family, who run a luxury car dealership by day and control a powerful criminal syndicate by night. Readers often debate the best order to tackle this series, as Weber has released prequels and spin-offs alongside the main sequence.

The Chronological Order Path

Reading chronologically lets you experience the history of the Duncan family from the very beginning. This order places the prequels and origin stories first, showing how the family built their empire before the events of the main series:

1. Grand Opening (2015)
2. Grand Opening 2 (2017)
3. To Paris with Love (2013)
4. No More Mr. Nice Guy (2016)
5. The Family Business (2012)
6. The Family Business 2 (2013)
7. The Family Business 3 (2014)
8. The Family Business 4 (2018)
9. The Family Business 5 (2020)
10. Trouble in Rio (2019)
11. The Education of Nevada Duncan (2021)
12. The Family Business 6 (2023)
13. Family Business 7 (2024)

The Publication Order Path (Recommended)

While the chronological order is excellent for re-reads, we recommend that first-time readers stick to the **Publication Order**. Starting with the original 2012 novel allows you to get to know the characters as they were originally introduced, preserving the mystery and tension of their secrets before diving into their backstory.

1. The Family Business (2012)
2. The Family Business 2 (2013)
3. To Paris with Love (2013)
4. The Family Business 3 (2014)
5. Grand Opening (2015)
6. No More Mr. Nice Guy (2016)
7. Grand Opening 2 (2017)
8. The Family Business 4 (2018)
9. Trouble in Rio (2019)
10. The Family Business 5 (2020)
11. The Education of Nevada Duncan (2021)
12. The Family Business 6 (2023)
13. Family Business 7 (2024)

The Church Series and The Choir Director

Carl Weber's Church series focuses on the scandalous lives, secrets, and redemptions of members of a church community. The series is highly dramatic and should be read in publication order:

1. The Preacher's Son (2005)
2. So You Call Yourself A Man (2005)
3. The First Lady (2007)
4. Up to No Good (2009)

Directly related to this universe is The Choir Director series, which also takes place in a scandal-ridden church environment. While it is a distinct series, readers who enjoy the Church books will want to follow up with these two novels:

1. The Choir Director (2011)
2. The Choir Director 2 (2014)

Lookin' For Luv & Soulmates Dissipate Series

Weber's earliest series set the standard for modern African American urban romance. The Lookin' For Luv books focus on the complex dating lives, friendships, and infidelities of friends in New York:

1. Lookin' For Luv (2000)
2. Married Men (2001)
3. Baby Momma Drama (2003)
4. Player Haters (2004)

Additionally, Carl Weber is associated with the Soulmates Dissipate series, which is primarily written by Mary B. Morrison. Weber co-authored the seventh book in this series, bridging their writing styles and universes:

1. Soulmates Dissipate (2000)
2. Never Again Once More (2002)
3. He's Just a Friend (2003)
4. Somebody's Gotta Be on Top (2004)
5. Nothing Has Ever Felt Like This (2005)
6. When Somebody Loves You Back (2006)
7. She Ain't the One (2006) - Co-authored by Carl Weber and Mary B. Morrison
8. Darius Jones (2010)

Big Girls Book Club & Influence Series

The Big Girls Book Club series centers on the lives, friendships, and struggles of full-figured women supporting each other through relationship ups and downs. It is a warm, dramatic, and beloved series:

1. Something on the Side (2008)
2. Big Girls Do Cry (2010)
3. Torn Between Two Lovers (2010)

For those looking for legal drama and mystery, the Influence series follows the power struggles of a prominent family-run law firm, which was also adapted into a film:

1. Influence (2018)
2. Death on the Beach (2020)

Carl Weber's Kingpins & Full Figured Anthologies

Carl Weber has played a massive role as a publisher and editor in the urban fiction space, creating franchise universes where multiple authors collaborate. The Kingpins series features stories set in different cities across America, tracking the rise of local drug lords. The books are interconnected but can largely be read in any order, though reading by publication date is recommended:

• Miami (2015)
• The Dirty South (2015)
• Philadelphia (2015)
• Cleveland (2016)
• Oklahoma City (2016)
• Chicago (2016)
• St. Louis (2016)
• ATL (2016)
• Charlotte (2016)
• Dallas (2018)
• Los Angeles (2018)
• The Bronx (2018)
• Jamaica (2018)
• Houston (2018)
• Detroit (2019)
• The Girls of South Beach (2021)
• Raleigh-Durham (2021)
• Snitch (2021)
• West Coast (2023)

Weber also curates the Full Figured series (comprising volumes 1 to 18 released between 2011 and 2023), which are anthologies focusing on plus-sized heroines, co-written with various urban fiction authors.

What to Know Before You Start

Carl Weber's novels are famous for their fast pacing, multiple points of view, and soap-opera style cliffhangers. Many of his projects are collaborative, featuring co-authors like Eric Pete, Treasure Hernandez, and La Jill Hunt. While his series operate in separate universes, they share a consistent tone of melodrama, street-smart survival, and romantic tension. If you enjoy one series, you will likely find the same fast-paced, addictive quality throughout his entire catalog.