The Power Trip
At this point in her career, Jackie Collins is as much a brand as an author. Readers come to her books expecting sex, glamour, and a glimpse into the lifestyles of the rich and famous, and that’s precisely what her newest delivers. Collins introduces a half-dozen couples she scarcely needs to develop as characters—a Russian oligarch, his supermodel girlfriend, and a George Clooney doppelgänger  with his arm-candy-of-the-month are familiar types ripped straight from the pages of People magazine. Yes, they’re a shallow, pampered lot, which is what makes them so much fun, though a few, most notably Luca, the gay Latino singing sensation, demonstrate surprising sensitivity. The tenuously connected group gathers for a cruise on a luxury yacht, a pretext that allows for much display of gorgeous bikinied  bodies and provides the perfect claustrophobic setting to either bring lovers closer together or drive them apart. To this romantic intrigue, Collins adds a hijacking plot so that the final act reads like an action movie, complete with high-speed boat chases and Somali pirates. Classic Collins at her best.      HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: With some 500 million books sold, blockbuster-queen Collins will add another best-seller to her list of 29 as this hot novel is touted via an enormous national multimedia blitz and author appearances. --Patty Wetli