The Playground of the Gods Cathy Cash Spellman

The Playground of the Gods

Author: Cathy Cash Spellman

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Publication Date: 01 January, 1995

ISBN: 9780446517010

Pages: 82

Subjects: Action and adventure, General, Suspense

Available as: , Trade Cloth, 978-0-446-51701-0 Trade Paper, 978-0-9834087-9-6 Trade Paper, 978-0-595-16147-8

Description:

"Only one place on earth can serve the needs and fantasies of Thoros Gagarian, one of the world's richest and most powerful men. That place is Mora Utu - the Playground of the Gods - a green jewel in the placid, blue expanse of the South Pacific, the most luxurious and seductive private preserve anywhere on the planet." "Only one challenge can rouse the appetites of Thoros's five closest friends: men of wealth, accomplishment, and power. That challenge is to join Thoros in celebrating the completion of Mora Utu in a week of sex and sunshine. Each guest is required to bring a trophy woman beautiful enough to grace the island and the men's beds." "But the women - who have not been forewarned - do not consider themselves toys. They have no intention of playing the pawns in a rich man's game. And when one of them becomes the victim of sudden, rapacious male violence, they leave the men for the jungle and band together to teach them a lesson they'll never forget."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

PW Publishers Weekly

Review Source: Publishers Weekly

Review Date: 1995-11-06

On a remote, idyllic South Pacific island, the war between the sexes takes on new heat in Cash-Spellman's (An Excess of Love) latest novel of romantic suspense. Billionaire Thoros Gagarian invites five of his equally wealthy, arrogant and macho friends to vacation with him on Mora Utu, the magnificent island he has bought, having expelled the last remnants of the native population. Unknown to him, his friends and the six women invited as ``trophies'' for a week of sybaritic pleasure and sex in the sun, the departing natives have cursed the island, and Mora Utu will demand a sacrifice. When mob boss Tony Capuletti rapes Swedish model Marika, the men try to buy silence with a big check. The furious women leave the compound, but not before dismantling the airplane that is their only means of returning to civilization. Living in the wild, and counseled by Gagarian's Yaqui Indian servant, Nelida, the women bond, discover feminine empowerment and become ``a tribe now, a sisterhood.'' Some of the men, too, find new areas of sensitivity and vulnerability in themselves. A series of perilous misadventures for both sexes culminates in two violent deaths and much physical debilitation. Ultimately, the sexes are forced to take shelter together as a murderous typhoon slams down on the island. Cash-Spellman orchestrates a fast-moving plot with panache, weaving in plenty of explicit sex, action-packed adventure and even some credible characterization. She errs in making Nelida and her husband, Emilio, agents of mystical spirits; they talk to dolphins and make such statements as: ``She is on Death's schedule, but she has not yet been collected.'' (There is explicit acknowledgement of Clarissa Pinkola Estes's Women Who Run with the Wolves and other mystical writings.) Women readers probably will overlook this posturing, however, and enjoy the tale as engaging commercial fiction. Major ad/promo. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved