Cocky

Cocky Series, Book 1

By: Sean Ashcroft

Narrated by: Joel Leslie

Faking a relationship with an injured hockey player had never been on Eliot's to-do list. When he's sent by his editor at Cocky to interview the newly out hockey legend Danny Harper, though, he gets a little more than he bargained for.

Eliot has been stuck writing a men's fashion and grooming column that no one reads since he started at Cocky - a men's lifestyle magazine - a year ago. Desperate to prove himself, he takes the assignment to interview Harper, even though he couldn't necessarily hold a hockey stick the right way up in an emergency.

Danny turns out to be nothing like he expected - a lonely man who's missed out on a lot by being in the closet rather than the overconfident jock Eliot expects him to be. As much as he doesn't want to be, Eliot finds himself drawn to the other man.

When Danny proposes they fake a relationship to improve his image, Eliot jumps at the chance - not only does he need the money, but his curiosity about Danny demands to be satisfied.

With Danny struggling to get through the season on a busted knee and Eliot digging up the story that could make his career, can the two of them admit their real feelings and find their happy ending?

Contains mature themes.

©2017 Sean Ashcroft (P)2017 Tantor

Trust

I loved this book. So sweet! The trust and loyalty even when things are blowing up around them was refreshing.

There is a certain charm, & Leslie isn't too much.

I am an admitted hard sell for hockey stories. There are so many gay hockey stories that I cringe every time I spot another. This is an admission not easily made considering one of my all time favorites is Sarina Bowen's Understatement Of The Year, a hockey romance that spends as much time on the ice as it does on the romance. Ashcroft creates in Elliot as very workable and mostly likable guy to navigate the whole fake relationship schtick. Danny is fine, but a bit more predictable.

I have always had a bit of a love-hate with Joel Leslie. Love the diction and the ability to slip into British accents, hate that he is so often frantic in his delivery - think of the How To Bang A Billionaire his constant shrieking the name "Caspian" - it became a thing of post read nightmares. However, he is (slightly) more measured in this book and while I will not go so far as to say it was great - that Boston accent is a train wreck, I can say that it was paced in a way that allowed me to appreciate the warmth of these characters.

Knowing that magazines overall are mostly dead with very tiny margins, it is mostly fashion based periodicals that still survive, so smart choice on Ashcroft's part there. This is blissfully without a rift causing communication issue which will always earn points from me. The story moves at a nice pace and makes for a pleasant listen. Highly recommended.

A cute story

This was better than I expected . This was story was cute and a touch of hotness. Give it a try.

Cocky: Cocky Series Book 1

OMG this audio book was absolutely positively amazing. I would highly recommend this audio book

Short, snappy romp!

These two are so cute. Danny is oblivious and Eliot is a little flirt. It's a pretty standard fake date for reasons, but we both are super attracted from the start. Which is an excellent formula. Eliot being a reporter was pretty fun. It introduced a new angle to the hockey romance than you typically see. But it was still just a fun romp of a romance between these two!

This was fairly low angst which was a nice change of pace from what I've been reading lately. I won't say no angst, we still had some in there. But it was dealt with fairly quickly. At least when it comes to relationship angst. Career and medical angst were there in spades, but because the relationship angst was fairly low it didn't stress me out so badly.

It helped that the audiobook was like 5 hours long. What a short, snappy little book. You gotta love a book that you can listen to during an 8 hour work day!

Entertaining

Interesting premise enhanced by good performance and focus on the issue of how to be gay in professional sports given the homophobia

Just good

I like the characters. The story was sweet. Lose angst which was nice for a change. Predictable ending. Danny’s voice was a dumb jock voice and very nasally.

Surprised

Finding love in a person you would never consider and against all odds finding you’re true soulmate is just a but of a description of this book. Loved it!

Excellent

Story line was beautiful and made you wanting to listen to the end. thank you

Ok read

Descent enough story. Really slow moving.
HORRIBLE narration. Narrator voice terrible for this story and so was the way he read this story.