A brand-new erotic anthology about losing your inhibitions in paradise?from ?the next queen of steamy romance.?( USA Today bestselling author Julianne MacLean)
Welcome to the ?O Spa,? an exclusive island resort where legend has it that a magical elixir can turn every woman?s wildest fantasy into a delicious reality.
Danielle, Lauren, and Abby have come to this secluded island paradise for a fling, not realizing the spa has a rehabilitation center for injured soldiers? or that their boldest desires are about to be realized.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cathryn Fox is a wife, mom, sister, daughter, aunt and friend. She loves dogs, sunny weather, anything chocolate (she never says no to a brownie) pizza and red wine. Cathryn lives in beautiful Nova Scotia with her husband, who is convinced he can turn her into a mixed martial arts fan. When not writing, Cathryn can be found Skyping with her son living in Seattle (could he have moved any farther away?) shopping with her daughter in the city, watching a big action flick with her husband, or hanging out and laughing with friends.
4 ½ stars – Contemporary Romance/Erotica Anthology
Three lushly exotic, wickedly erotic tales of pure, vivid fantasy come to life.....
While reading Sun Stroked, there were moments when I swore I could almost feel the sun on my skin, the sand beneath my toes, and the wind in my face and hear the water lapping against the rocks and surf and the chime of exotic birds off in the distance. I actually found myself singing “Escape: The Pina Colada Song”, and of course wishing I was sipping on a refreshing pina colada myself as I read it! This was a total impulse buy/read, and I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed all three delightfully sexy, albeit short, stories.
Danielle, Lauren, and Abby are three best friends from Chicago who go to the secluded, exclusive ‘O Spa’ (which supposedly stands for oasis, not orgasm...yeah right) on an exotic, private island in the middle of the South Pacific for two weeks in hopes of having short-term flings and fulfilling their deepest, darkest desires and wildest fantasies. Of course, little do they know, the paradise resort also serves as a recovery retreat and rehabilitation center for injured soldiers...sinfully sexy soldiers to be precise...oh yummy!
THE SENSUAL SOAK Danielle ‘Dani’ Carrigan might be a take charge kind of gal, but she yearns to be dominated in the bedroom; so it’s a good thing sexy hard-core military commander/weapons expert Ethan Sharpe recognizes her submissive nature and knows just how to push her limits and deliver the ultimate pleasure. This was a verrry steamy, light BDSM tale featuring creative use of a tree and some vines. I think this was my favorite out of the three stories.
THE PLEASURE POOL Lauren Sampson is a sweet, good-natured person who’s tired of men judging her solely for her body and looks, and she longs for someone to see her for who she really is and to unleash her sexual wild side. Captain Ryan Thomas is an expert military tracker, but an explosion has left him visually impaired and adrift. With his other senses heightened, can he be the one to finally recognize what’s beneath the surface and touch her heart? Oh yeah, and some wild Tarzan and Jane role play might be fun too!
THE SUNSET SAUNA Abby Benton just wants some R&R with her friends before she goes home and follows her plan to get engaged to her dud of a boyfriend because she thinks intense passion only exists in her erotic romance novels. She harbors voyeuristic and exhibitionist fantasies that she never expects to play out. Sniper Cody Lannon is determined to live his life in solitude and never lets anyone get too close. He’s used to living his life through the eye of his scope, but he’s unprepared for the feelings that are stirred up when he spies on Abby. It’s a very erotic story, and their public displays are smokin’ hot!
This was a very entertaining anthology with three sweet, fun, and delectably erotic fantasy filled stories that offer a little bit for all tastes (including some light bondage, Domination/submission, role playing, voyeurism, and exhibitionism) with great characters and nice HEAs. My only complaints are that I wanted lots more of it and wished I had read it on a tropical island paradise while some sexy soldiers massaged my feet and hand-fed me fruit! 4.5 stars!
Reviewed for queuemyreview... book release November '08
I picked up Sun Stroked by Cathryn Fox yesterday namely because it was a gray, rainy, dreary day in Seattle, and the cover of the book looked warm and tropical. After I finished reading, I have to admit; I did feel a bit warm and tropical myself! This is a very fun, lighthearted, steamy romance with three great happily ever afters. This story is about three women who go on vacation to a lush island paradise to escape from their daily lives, and if the brochure is correct- fulfill their wildest fantasies!
In the first story “The Sensual Soak” Danielle, an interior decorator, arrives on the island, only to be attacked by a giant water snake (okay, maybe not giant, but two feet is still pretty big) and almost drown! Ethan rescues her, the most darkly handsome man she has ever seen, with a brooding personality and a dominant streak a mile wide. Can Danielle bring some light back into Ethan’s eyes, while Ethan fulfills Danielle’s fantasies??
In “The Pleasure Pool” Lauren is a very beautiful woman that men drool over all the time. Why would she need to come to a fantasy island? She’s looking for someone who will see her for who she really is on the inside, smart, caring, thoughtful… not just a pretty face. When she meets Military man Ryan, she’s instantly attracted to him because he hardly glanced at her when they met. Lauren finds out Ryan is sight impaired due to a military accident. Has she finally found the man that can love her for all the right reasons?
“The Sunset Sauna” is about Abby Benton. Abby’s friends brought her to this island because she is about to get engaged and they don’t think her boyfriend is right for her. Abby wants passion in her life. She wants what the women all have in the steamy romance novels she reads. While she is out exploring the island, she runs into military sniper Cody who happens to be the most passionate and intense person she’s ever met. Is Cody the one to light the fire in Abby? Will she go back and marry her stuffy boyfriend, or find happiness with Cody?
Sun Stroked was pure entertainment. The stories had very predictable happy endings, however it was fun to suspend belief for a short time. The writing was well done, and I thought Cathryn Fox did a great job making all the characters likeable. Sometimes that can be hard to do with six different main characters. I really loved “The Sensual Soak” the best, and I thought it was the most thorough and complete of all the stories, however I enjoyed reading all of them. I would highly recommend Sun Stroked by Cathryn Fox as a great way to escape for an afternoon. Heck, you might even feel like you went on a tropical getaway yourself!
Three very sexy stories. There is something for everybody, a little light bondage, role playing, voyeurism and exhibitionism. It's about three girlfriends who take a vacation at Spa O , an island resort. The resort is also a rehabilitation center for wounded soldiers.
THE SENSUAL SOAK Danielle fantasises are about being controlled in the bedroom. Ethan is a weapons specialist who is on the island recovering from a leg injury. Once Danielle convinces him that he is more than up to fulfill her fantasy he holds nothing back. This was a very sexy and fun story. There was no pain or humiliation, just good old bedroom fun.
THE PLEASURE POOL Lauren is tired of men only wanting her for her body. She is looking for someone who is interested in the woman she is. Ryan was injured during a grenade blast and he is partially blind. He encounters Lauren one night while she is roaming alone in the dschungel. They proceed to play the R-rated version of Tarzan and Jane. Very steamy.
THE SUNSET SAUNA Abby is planning to get engaged to a very boring man. She does not believe that passion exists. She is into voyeurism and exhibitionism. Cody is a sniper. He has a hard time communicating with people. He spends his time watching people through his scope. He gets a surprise when he watches Abby and catches her mastrubating. When Abby and Cody run into each other they get turned on by watching another couple make love and start doing the same things to each other. Their public, erotic sex games are hot.
This is one anthology where I enjoyed all three stories.
A smokin' hot and steamy anthology with two great stories and the middle one a bit wobbly, but still worth the (short) time it took to read. I only wish the individual stories were a little longer.
Three short stories seriously lacking in the character development department, but what they lack there is made up in the smoking hot sex scenes.
Enjoyable read if mindless sex is what you are in the mood for. All three stories have happy endings. I think if the author would've tried hard, she might have had a nice little series of full length books on her hands.
This book was easy to read, it required no thought and little time to devote toward it, assuming you have time to actually read it, which I did not have a lot of, hence the number of days it actually took me to read it!
I did not learn anything from this book, I did not find that I had any personal growth from the experience and I enjoyed every minute of it! No regrets, no guilt, just pure, unadulterated pleasure!
One little note: Mr. Malik is Psycho!!!!! He's the owner of the resort in this book... and I think he is just a little too creepy the way he "just so happens" to pop in everywhere the "action" is!
Warning! Explicit language and sexual details! But that's the point of this book.
Maybe 3.25 stars for "Sun Stroked" by Cathryn Fox, the sexual sparks were there but the rest of the story kind of fizzled for me. Could be because it was a three story anthology that ran less than 275 pages...seemed to be so quick.
Three friends go to a secluded island spa for a well-deserved vacation from their business. They don't realize that the spa is also used by injured soldiers. There's also a magical elixir that promises to grant the drinker their most desired fantasy. Each of the women manage to get tangled up with the recovering soldier that can grant their fondest wish...love.
This is a fast pace romance that gets straight to the point. Three friends go to an island where their deepest desires are to be granted.
Each story in this anthology dives into the electric chemistry between the couples. The men in these stories are military men who were hurt while in the field and sent to the island to recover. However none of them were expecting to find love in their recovery.
A great read that gets the heart pounding and you fanning yourself over the imitate scenes.
This is a fun read that is fast paced about three friend who go to this spa to have their fantasies come to reality. It is three books in one with lots of hot sex and a story line that was more for the background. Which is fun as it was a great book. Exactly what I expected based on the blurb.
I'll be honest and say that when I ordered this book, I wasn't sure if I was going to get that into it. I enjoy reading steamy romances, but thought this might be other than what I typically enjoy. But, loving Cathryn Fox's books, I decided to take a chance. I'm so happy I did. This trio of books was light, fun and steamy. Each book in and of itself is a quick read and could be read as a standalone. That being said, it's great these books come as a set because I wouldn't want to read just one. After meeting all of the characters, albeit briefly for some of them, in The Sensual Soak, I couldn't wait to read the next two stories, The Pleasure Pool and The Sunset Sauna, respectively. Overall, this was an excellent read. I've read many of Fox's books now and she's yet to let me down. I'm excited to discover more of her work!
The first story, The Sensual Soak, I really enjoyed. It had D/s elements, which were very nice to me, and very hot. The attraction was perhaps a little fast, but it worked, it was believable. I liked both of the characters, their small progression, and how they ended up at the end.
The last story, The Sunset Sauna, was alright. It was a little kinky, which was hot, and I did like the characters, at least mostly. This one was more mediocre of the three, but enjoyable.
The second story, The Pleasure Pool, I didn’t enjoy very much. I wanted to like it, the characters were good at the beginning. But their progression and their attraction just wasn’t very believable to me, and it seemed much too fast.
The three stories all have the same setup, move at the same pace, and ended pretty much the same (happily). They were (mostly) fun stories, the sex was pretty nice. They were all skin-deep, though, with very little depth. Backstories were given to give reasoning for their actions, but it didn’t help flesh out the characters, at least not to me.
I wanted to enjoy this book, and I really did like the first one, but the second one was a big miss, and by the time I got to the third, I was a little tired of the repetitive setup. I do want to pick up another of Fox’s books when I get the chance though, give her another go.
A lot of hot sex scenes, but not for readers who want some story and character development other than the erotic.
STORY BRIEF: Three female friends from Chicago fly to a private island in the Pacific to a spa for erotic pleasures. The spa also has a rehabilitation center for injured soldiers. The three women meet and end up with three injured soldiers. The book is divided into three sections. Each section tells the story of one of the couples, how they met, became intimate and fell in love. One of the soldiers has an injured leg, another has lost some of his vision and the third, a sniper, has lost touch with his emotions.
REVIEWER’S OPINION: If someone is looking for a lot of hot sex scenes, this should do it. For me, I prefer a little more character development, more cleverness and interesting conversation. In other words, I like erotica which has other things with it. This is strictly erotica, and it’s ok for that purpose. It’s not a waste of money. Note for some readers: there is some light bondage and rear door activity.
DATA: Story length: 274 pages. Sexual language: strong/erotic. Number of sex scenes: 13. Length of sex scenes: 0.5 to 13.7 pages. Total number of sex scene pages: 72. Setting: current day private island in the Pacific. Copyright: 2008. Genre: erotic contemporary romance.
Adoro las historias de Cathryn!!! En este caso, Placer bajo el sol es una historia que cautiva por cómo están construidos los personajes. Las tres amigas, Danielle, Lauren y Abby llegan a una isla paradicíaca para tener una vacaciones en las que piensan conseguir todo lo que desean. Los tres amigos, Ethan, Ryan y Cody son tres militares que han sufrido mucho y que están en la isla para recuperarse y lograr descubrir que es lo que desean. Cuando todos se cruzan las chispas de pasión aparecen de forma inevitable, y cada pareja, con la infaltable ayuda de Malik -el dueño de la isla-, logran descubrir sus deseos más profundos y llevarlos a cabo. Muy recomendable
Good book -- I expected more. The three ladies have come to this resort all wanting different things and it was disappointing that after the story of the first one the second was almost a repeat, the third had a little variation but not much. She was well praised and maybe my expectations were too high. I will need to find another of her books to read and compare. Right now, not something I would rush out and buy.
Sun Stroked is a great fast read for anyone looking for some fun and excitement! Three friends go on a vacation to an island resort that is rumoured to have special powers. Follow each gal on their seductive adventure and find a glimour of hope that your wildest fantasies can come true! Great vacation read!
If you'd like to imagine yourself in paradise with the perfect man, you need to treat yourself to a trip to this perfect resort. Sometimes it's not about the location, but when these women arrive, they find everything their hearts desire.