Lovers & Players

by Jackie Collins

Book Overview

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. Jackie Collins is back--in her most deliciously scandalous novel yet. And she's giving her readers a revealing look into the private realms of her fabulously rich and sexy cast of characters. In "Lovers and Players," the Diamond family's power extends...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312341776
• ISBN13: 9780312341770
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 498 Pages
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.2" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

Wild and Over the Top

One of Jackie's most interesting books. If you like escapism, you will love this wild and over the top story. The billionaire father Red Diamond dies and his three sons, Max, Chris and Jett are called back home for the reading of the will. Jett is the most interesting son who has mixed feelings about his father's death, because he is finally sober after years of disappointing himself and his family by his boozing and drugging lifestyle. If you need to take your mind off your everyday life and problems, this book will do the trick. I highly recommend it for pure escapism.

What's Not to Love?

Jackie Collins is at her best with this book! I loved it. It's got all the glamour, glitz and mayhem that Jackie Collins is so great at writing. With three gorgeous, interesting brothers, an ogre of a father, and a slew of characters that make the lives of the rich and famous look insane, top it off with murder and betrayal and I couldn't put it down. I also recommend anything by Catherine Coulter, Iris Johansen, and Sandra Brown. Michele Scott: author of "Murder Uncorked."

RIFE WITH ROMANCE, REVENGE, AND ROGUES

Audiobook listeners will be hard pressed to choose between the Abridged and Unabridged editions of Jackie Collins's latest foray into the lives of the A-List's high and flighty as both releases are extremely well read. Clear, distinct, positive, compelling, Isabel Keating's voice captured a Tony Award for her star turn as Judy Garland in The Boy From Oz, and that same voice reels listeners in and captures them with her opening description of male model Jett Diamond, he of the incredible good looks and insouciant manner. She is featured on the Unabridged version. For those who like an ensemble cast reading, here's a top one for you. Jackie Collins joins three actors to deliver the abridged edition of Lovers & Players. Among the cast are Sydney Poitier, who brings a host of screen experience to her reading (she's especially affecting in scenes involving Liberty, who dreams of being a top pop singer), Jack Scalia, whom many will remember from the TV adaptations of Collins's Lady Boss and Hollywood Wives, and last but not in the least bit least is Scott Sowers, an accomplished audiobook reader with stage and screen credits to boot. Fans of Jackie Collins well know what they're in for with her 24th book, and they can't wait! There's romance, revenge and dirty rotten scoundrels. Red Diamond, a selfish, bitter billionaire calls his three sons together. That's quite a shock for Jett who is working in Italy and has had no contact with his father or his half-brothers in three years. Nonetheless, he leaves his temporary Italian inamorata and boards a plane. Max is successful in real estate, and third bro Chris is an attorney in La-la-land. Each has been fighting his own private battle, and a confrontation with their manipulative father is all they need. Toss in Red's black housekeeper, a bi-racial daughter and a swarthy music mogul who is after her plus a quickie between Jett and Max's current fiancé, and you know you're in Collins territory. There's a lot more scandal than sparkle in the Diamond family, and Jackie Collins holds nothing back. - Gail Cooke

Collins at her best

LOVERS & PLAYERS should be the official publicity tagline for all Jackie Collins novels past, present and future. Her characters are quintessential lovers and players --- bed hopping, pill-popping tycoons, models and heiresses who engage in scandalous love affairs and illicit business deals --- and we love it. In a live television interview in Atlanta in February 2006, Collins said, "I'm passionate about writing. I love what I do." It shows. Collins has written 24 books, with over 400 million copies in print in forty different languages. Although her books are fiction, she "writes about the world she sees around her...I write about places I go." What a captivating life, or shall I say social circle, that Collins has built around herself, privy to Hollywood stars and starlets, marriages and divorces, studs and bitches. Collins's writing style leaves little to the imagination. In fact we love her graphic and juicy details. LOVERS & PLAYERS is not as explicit as some of her previous novels and everlasting love is elusive, but Collins's indulgent wild flings and racy bachelor and bachelorette party scenes are much more her style. Only in a salacious Jackie Collins novel does a virgin New York heiress indulge in a night of unbridled passion with a sexy man she picks up in a Manhattan nightclub at her bachelorette party --- only to find out that he is her fiancé's younger brother just arrived from Italy. "He had the look, the sexy bad-boy look that women always seemed to go for." How could Amy Scott-Simon resist? This is why I love Collins's novels so much. The heroines make bold moves, they have millions to rely on, and they go after the man they want. We get to know the Diamond dynasty patriarch and media mogul Red Diamond intimately, "for when it came to sex, he was insatiable, preying on any woman he could." His predatory nature, with a little help from Viagra, led him to "conquer, marry and destroy" three wives, a singer, Lady Bentley and a harem of prostitutes. Each wife bore him a son, whom he ruthlessly undermines personally and professionally. Each son hates his father, but "when Red Diamond calls, everybody runs." Red Diamond summons his sons to his Manhattan brownstone for a mysterious meeting. Despite being raised by a "mean and cruel tyrant," the three very successful and, of course, lethally handsome brothers reunite and become a closely knit trio as they each battle Red's control over their history, addictions, love lives and high-stakes business deals. Tangled sheets, Russian prostitutes, Vegas gangsters and a raucous bachelor party, complete with pole dancing, lap dances and so much more, is at the heart of this family dynasty's troubles. As if Collins didn't have enough scandal involving the Diamond brothers --- Max, the real estate tycoon engaged to an heiress; Chris, the powerful L.A. entertainment lawyer with a gambling debt in Vegas; and Jett, the hot male model working and playing in Milan --- she tangles the sheets pro

Her best book ever!

I love it! There is the usual assortment of Sex, Drugs, Money, Crime, Blackmail....This novel about Sex, family and relationships is her best ever. The beautiful and perky young heiress Amy Scott-Simon is engaged to marry Max Diamond, a powerful real estate tycoon (and much older than Amy). A one-night stand with Max's handsome young half-brother Jett at her bachelorette party will haunt her for some time....Then there is Chris Diamond, an entertainment lawyer, in town to meet with his brothers and Red Diamond, the boys' oddball billionaire father. Working as Red Diamond's housekeeper is the beautiful one time singer Diahann. Her cute nineteen-year-old daughter Liberty follows her own dreams of being a singer, and hip-hop mogul Damon P. Donnell pursues her (Yes, He's married). Mariska, Max's Russian ex-wife, a woman with many secrets.. secrets that ultimately lead to tragedy. I can't say more. I'm sad that now I have to wait so long for another book from Jackie Collins