BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR . . . <P>Set in the highest ranks of the music industry's fame machine, Diamond Life is an intoxicating story of love, sex, ambition, money, betrayal, and the surprising realities of making it big. <P>Alex Maxwell's career as a journalist and celebrity ghost writer is taking off, despite the slightly embarrassing authorship of hip-hop super-groupie Cleo Wright's memoir. And while Alex's star is on the rise, it pales in comparison to her husband Birdie's multiplatinum debut and world tour. Slowly but surely, everything they swore would never happen begins to come true, like leaving Brooklyn for a mansion in suburban Jersey and letting a reality TV crew into their home. Birdie is confronted time and again by the sexy groupies who pursue famous rappers like heat-seeking missiles and he's forced to make some life-changing choices. <P>Meanwhile, aging rapper Z, in recovery from drug addiction, is too busy trying to repair his marriage to leave much time for his son Zander, newly signed to Z's label and struggling to maintain his appeal in the wake of a domestic violence scandal with his diva girlfriend Bunny. <P>Record label president Jake is trying to deal with the death of his wife, multiplatinum R&B artist Kipenzi Hill, by drowning his sorrows in alcohol and women. When he meets Lily, a beautiful, quiet waitress, he can't get her out of his head. But Lily has her own problems to handle and she wants nothing to do with the fame, drama, and baggage that Jake carries with him. <P>This juicy follow-up to Aliya S. King's <I>Platinum</I> is a scintillating roman à clef that takes readers behind the curtain once again for the real scoop on the biggest players in the hip-hop game—and the first ladies who hold them together.