Cocky Bastard (Penelope Ward & Vi Keeland)

He was someone who belonged in my wildest fantasies instead of a rest stop in the middle of Nebraska.

A sexy, cocky, Australian named Chance was the last person I expected to run into on my cross-country drive.

When my car broke down, we made a deal. Next thing I knew, we were traveling together, spending sexually-tense nights in hotels and taking unplanned detours.

My ordinary road trip turned into the adventure of a lifetime. It was all fun and games until things got intense.

I wanted him, but Chance wouldn’t make a move. I thought he wanted me too, but something was holding him back.

I wasn’t supposed to fall for the cocky bastard, especially when I knew we’d be going our separate ways.

All good things must come to an end, right?

Except our ending was one I didn’t see coming.

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I think I’m trying to go through all the Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward’s books, because they just make me feel good. I started this one on a whim, and once again it made me laugh out loud and completely forget the world while listening to it, so YAY. Because the writing is great, the collaboration between these two authors produce fantastic books.

The book has an unique distribution, where it’s divided in two parts. Part one is told through Aubrey’s POV, and is set 2 years before part 2, which is told through Chance’s POV. It made a lot of sense to divide the book like this. Part 1 is all about the road trip, and Aubrey and Chance getting to know each other and falling in love, and while we know that Chance is keeping a secret and holding back, we don’t know why until part 2. Part 2 is all about grovelling and Chance trying to win Aubrey back.

I loved part one, which is narrated by Michelle Ferguson and she did an amazing job. But I had a lot of issues with the second part of the book and I blame that entirely on the narrator, Aaron Abano. The actor didn’t quite manage in this book, he overdid his accent, and he overdid his tone of voice, in a way that it sounded like he was shouting all the freaking time. It was a bit exhausting.

But back to the story. I liked both characters a lot. In part one Aubrey learns how to admit the things she really loves and start living by her own standards and not other people’s. I loved her growth and to see her becoming more confident and sure of herself. But I couldn’t help feeling that a little bit of that was lost in the second part of the book, unfortunately.

I did like Chance and his undying determination. He was a riot. He was also just a tiny bit too determined, but he knew what he wanted and he fought for it, no matter the price. Good for him.

While I liked all the road trip and all the groveling later, I didn’t like some other minor things. Like, I think that the 2 years gap was a bit excessive… I seriously doubt that in the real world it would have come to that. Then I truly hated that Aubrey kept stringing two guys along at the same time… I understand that she had a boyfriend, Dick – the Princess Fucker, and was happy before Chance showed up. But she kept her boyfriend, even when she was unsure about Chance and giving him a chance at the same time. That felt wrong to me.

But even with some issues and a bad narrator, this book still made me laugh out loud and was super entertaining. I mean, there’s a goat who faints each time it gets scared!!! Give it a read 😉 .