Players by Robbi Sommers is the story of Ruby and Markie and their many other love interests. The book itself plays out quite a bit like that hit TV show we all watched and swooned over. The characters are truly relatable and Sommers is unafraid to air all their dirty laundry out for us to gawk at. Truly an enjoyable erotica novel, Ruby and Markie are a couple you root for and hate at the same time. The story follows their past together and their present as seperate entities, which can become a little confusing, but overall Sommers does a pretty decent job of guiding you through the back and forth of their thoughts, particualrly Ruby’s as she is the main character. Ruby, although no wholly inexperienced, is along for a rough ride with Markie, who prides herself on being a ladies’ woman. Ruby has her trists with other women as well, especially Valerie, a wealthy and sensual woman Ruby meets in passing.
Many other women come in and out of Ruby and Markie’s lives, but Sommers is hardly shy about the true affection Ruby has for Markie. Ruby is the kind of charcter you hate to relate to. She is flawed and hung up on an old fling – something all of us have dealt with once in a while. Within the first few pages I found myself already connected to her, but as she cleans out her closet and digs through her clothes indecively she comes across a letter she had written to Markie in anger and then I wished I hadn’t seen as much of her in myself as I had. Truly she is more relatable than any character I’d come across in quite a while.
Ruby calls Markie, “the only woman who had ever gotten in close enough to tear my heart to shreds” and that alone explains most of their relationship. Markie is a business executive with an attitude to match her job. She’s highly sexual and not shy about it in the least – the kind of woman some wish they were. She’s wealthy and is certainly the main “player” of the group, but as Ruby comes in and out of her life we begin to see that she is more than a player – although little more. She considers herself a “lover extraordinaire” and it certainly seems she was. Markie is set on playing Ruby because she recognizes Ruby herself as a player. Ruby knows that she’s in trouble as soon as she feels herself falling for Markie, but through lovers like Valerie, who spoils her senseless, Loren, Jean and Susan, we see different aspect of Ruby and even in Markie’s other love interests, Lara and Sandra, Markie takes a different tone.
Sommer’s juggles the lives of these women and their love interests with daring and heartfelt emotional text and with erotica that keeps your heart racing. I’ll leave the rest for you to find out. It’s definitely worth the read and Sommers makes sure you can’t put the book down. It will be by my nightside table for quite a while.
