Lovers & Players

Book excerpt: Jackie Collins is back—in this deliciously scandalous novel, Lovers & Players. And she's giving her readers a revealing look into the private realms of her fabulously rich and sexy cast of characters. Dangerous sex, family secrets, irresistible power, mega money and two murders equal one reckless week in New York. Lovers and Players takes you on a high-powered trip from Park Avenue to Brooklyn. In Lovers and Players, the Diamond family's power extends from coast to coast. Max—a real estate tycoon; Chris—a Hollywood lawyer; and Jett—a young, handsome ex-druggie, now a successful model in Italy, must finally come face to face with their tyrannical father, Red, who has been controlling their world for as long as they can remember. Working as Red's housekeeper is Diahann, a beautiful black ex-singer. Her stunning bi-racial nineteen-year-old daughter, Liberty—a waitress who is a would-be singer herself—does not approve of her mother working as a housekeeper. Liberty has dreams of her own and while she pursues them, Damon P. Donnell, married hip-hop mogul supreme, pursues her. Amy Scott-Simon, a beguilingly pretty young New York heiress, in engaged to marry Max Diamond. At her bachelorette party she runs into Jett, Max's younger brother. Jet has no idea who Amy is. She also doesn't realize who he is. A one-night fling leads to major complications. As the lives of these characters intertwine, power, money, fame and love are the ties that bind—emotionally and otherwise—in this highly charged love story about family relationships and deadly choices.