Tuesday marked the third release during this Bandicoot Cove Experience, a feature on the Blog beween August 25th and and September 21st with Previews, ARC-reviews and Guestposts from the authors Vivian Arend, Lexxie Couper and Jess Dee. It was the release day of Lexxie Couper's TROPICAL SIN, a hot and emotional addition to the series, with a rock star who found a place in my heart! Click HERE for my review of TROPICAL SIN.

Today Lexxie tells us a little about the island where the resort is located and the myth of it's origin.

Coming up next:

• Preview of ISLAND IDYLL byJess Dee – Friday September 16th
• Review of ISLAND IDYLL – Monday September 19th
• Jess Dee’s Guestpost – Wednesday September 21st

Please help me give Lexxie a warm welcome and enjoy the myth of Bilby Island!

A Canadian, a South African and an Aussie walk into a luxurious island resort…

So far, Viv has told you why the Bandicoot Cove anthology is different and you’ve had the chance to discover the characters of Paradise Found (and met some of the characters from Tropical Sin and Island Idyll), but I’d like to tell you about the island itself.

Like the Bandicoot Cove anthology, Bilby Island is unlike any island you’ve experienced before. It truly is magical, you see.

All three of us could see the island in the mist surrounding it way back in 2010 when we began the journey together but it wasn’t until we “stood” on its previously untouched white sandy beaches that the magic began to seep into my consciousness. The original inhabitants of Australia speak of a spiritual time and place called the Dreamtime. The Dreamtime is as wonderful and surreal and evocative as it sounds, a place of unquantifiable beauty and mystery. A place where beings of unfathomable power and endless time create everything and everything creates unfathomable beings. Bilby Island is one such “everything”. Even now, the Dreamtime teaches those that are willing to listen the true soul of this country, its spirituality and the ways of life.

The story of Bilby Island’s birth in the Dreamtime is as romantic (and sad) as they come…

Once an empty bilby lay sleeping in the sweet green grass of a stolen burrow. The scent of the burrow spoke of patient longing and gentle hope and the bilby—tired after an eternity seeking his home—could not resist such a scent. He lay on the grass, its coolness soothing his weary paws, and drew into his body the life of the burrow.

As he slept, the burrow whispered to him of its creator, a sprite lost to the hungry sea serpent. The sea serpent—a giant being that devoured all it rolled over—had spied the sprite and wanted her gentle hope for itself. With the force of a single stroke from its powerful body, the sea serpent swept the lonely sprite into the sea and she was gone. When the bilby woke from his slumber, he knew the sprite was the home he had been seeking for all existence. She was his heart and his heart was lost to the waves.

The bilby, knowing she waited for him to find her in the sea serpent’s depths, walked from the land of his creation and swam out into the sea serpent’s prison. The bilby swam and swam, waiting for his heart to tell him when his home was near. When the water was at its cleanest and the sky at its bluest, the bilby knew he had found her.

But the sea serpent would not release the sprite, taunting the bilby with whispers of her voice calling him, teasing him with the caress of her kisses on his body as he swam. Such was the bilby’s love for his sprite however, that the bilby made a deal with the sea serpent. For his true heart’s freedom, the bilby would take her place. The sea serpent agreed and the sprite was released to the waves. The bilby watched her be carried away by the sea serpent’s wake, unable to follow.

But the sprite could not exist without the bilby and she returned to him, defying the sea serpent and hiding her kisses in a million perfect beads of glass she draped over the bilby’s form. Hiding her caresses and tears in the gentle stroke of every wave that lapped against the bilby’s body. Whispering her love in the breeze that ruffled through the bilby’s fur…until the whispered words formed trees and leaves and grass. The bilby heard it all, felt it all, lived it all and knew his heart was with him.

And it came to be that the passion and the love of the bilby and the sprite became the island, an island of ancient magic and timeless romance. It is said that those that walk on Bilby Island’s pristine sands, those that breathe its pure air, take into their souls the endless love and timeless passion of the bilby and his sprite and, if they listen, will find their heart and their home while there.

Bilby Island truly is magic…and Bandicoot Cove is the perfect place to lose yourself to it.

(*Please note: Bilby Island is a fictitious island…but who’s to say if it existed, the above tale is not how it would have come to be? *wink*)

Four stories, one setting, friends and lovers—Bandicoot Cove.

Tropical Sin, by Lexxie Couper

It takes more than a rock star to rock your world. Sometimes you need a friend.

McKenzie Wood is Australia’s star gossip mag journalist, and she’s just spied the story of a lifetime: rumor-shrouded rock star, Nick Blackthorne—who thinks he’s incognito at Bandicoot Cove resort. The word is Nick’s a sex addict about to come out of the closet, and who better to lure Nick out than her BFF, Aiden Rogers—a pulse-poundingly gorgeous firefighter who is always there when she needs him, no matter the challenge.

Aiden admits it’s pretty damned pathetic that he can rush into burning buildings, but not have the guts to tell McKenzie he’s in love with her. No way can he tell his best friend he’d like to do some seriously sinful things to her, especially since she’s never shown one iota of sexual interest.

Nick looks forward to some “unfamous” downtime in his home country. He’s surprised to find his creative muse stirred—more like brought to rigid attention—by a couple so sexy that all he can think about is the three of them. Together.

Three bodies move together as one, and the music becomes a smoldering beat that rivals the island’s heat. When the truth inevitably comes out, the heat might be enough to save three souls…or end up just another sinner’s lament.

Warning: One plus one plus one equals OMG sex, are-you-freaking-kidding-me orgasms and some serious mind-blowing climaxes.

Buy links: Samhain | Amazon |Barnes & Noble

Vivian Arend | Lexxie Couper | Jess Dee | Bandicoot Cove
Paradise Found | Tropical Sin | Island Idyll | Exotic Indulgence