Cocky Bastard

By: Penelope Ward, Vi Keeland

Narrated by: Michelle Ferguson, Aaron Abano

Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

From New York Times best sellers Penelope Ward and Vi Keeland comes a sexy new standalone novel.

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.

Author's note: Cocky Bastard is a full-length standalone novel. Due to strong language and sexual content, this audiobook is not intended for listeners under the age of 18.

©2015 Penelope Ward and Vi Keeland (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Simply stated, save your money.

I decided to listen to this audio while I was driving home from visiting my daughter. It was a 3.5-hour drive, so I was looking forward to listening to an audiobook. Simply stated, save your money. There were so many issues with the audio, I cannot list them all here. But I will give a few.

1.) The narrators had a difficult time with the dialogue. I think this might be a case of when an audio is not a good option for a book. Too much dialogue forced these narrators to have too many voice and inflection changes that it became seriously annoying!

⦁The female narrator had a lilt at the end of her sentences which made her sound like she was whining. Throw in other character voices and an Australian accent, and I wanted to throw my iPhone out the window.
⦁The male narrator had a naturally deep voice, so when he raised his voice and slowed down his tempo to "sound like a woman" he sounded more like a preteen boy, or demented man, I haven't yet decided which.

2.) When I got home, I was exhausted and thought I would read the book along with the audio --- so basically I just followed along. This was a BIG mistake. What I found were numerous inconsistencies from the audio to the book.

⦁Audio says Chance's sister is 22 years old. The book reads she's 28.
⦁Audio says his sister "looked like a woman now". The book reads "she looked like a mum."

I wish I could say this was all there was, but that's not the case. Eventually, I turned off the audio and just read the book. I found I enjoyed it much more that way.

Promising start

I enjoyed the first part of this book very much. The second part not so much. I like a little groveling but it was way too much. In addition, the male narrator destroyed any chance of me enjoying the last part. It was BAD. When performing the main male character, he sounded like he was on a coke high due to the innapropiate voice inflections ALL. THE. TIME. When narrating female voices it was even worse. The female narrator was ok. Both her female and male voices worked for me.

Male narrator killed the book for me

This story was so sweet and had twists that I didn't expect. However the male narrator was horrible for this character. His acting was extremely over the top. I don't think his narration style is good for romance. The female narrator was fine.

Loved the first half, but...

Any additional comments?

Some spoilers below.


I really enjoyed the first half of this book. The second half I found very frustrating. I loved groveling. I crave groveling in books after the hero did something upsetting. However, this went a little overboard and too long. I became very frustrated with the heroine in this book in the second part.. I wanted Chance to grovel. What he did to Aubrey by just leaving was cruel. Chance did not tell Aubrey why he had to leave without a goodbye. He knew that his leaving would hurt. However, once Chance explained why he left and his reasoning I did understand in some ways, I was upset that Aubrey continued to stay with Richard. Then I was really annoyed that she told Chance that she loved Richard. I understand that Aubrey thought that Chance was gone so she moved on, but once Chance explained his reason for leaving, she should have distanced herself from Richard. I don't even want to know if she was having sex with Richard at that point either.I am not sure if spending an entire audible credit for this book was worth it.

With regards to my 3 star rating for this book, I wanted to clarify that the actually writing style was 5 stars. I did not feel the writing was wordy or that the story was flooded with inner dialogue. My rating has more to do with the heroine's actions in the second part of the story.

I will continue to read more books by Penelope Ward and Vi Keeland. I was just a little disappointed that the characters in this book spent more time not as a couple then as a couple.Michelle Ferguson who did Aubrey's voice did a great job. Aaron Abano did an okay job. He sounded too old to be Chance in my opinion.
The goat was the best secondary character ever!!!

2 different stories & bad male narrator

I found the male narrator distracting for the entire book. His voice sounded much older then the age the character was supposed to be. The female narrator was much better and I actually preferred her male voice to the actual male narrator. I also didn't enjoy the second half of the story. What a disappointment. The idea was interesting and the reasons behind the drama were noble but the execution just kind of ruined the whole story and just left me feeling sad and frustrated for these characters. I usually will listen to a book twice before I write a review but I just couldn't endure this one again. This is the first book I've listened to from this writing duo and I will try again.

It was okay

The first half was pretty good. Then the second half came around and eh it went down hill... Really it felt like a teenager wrote it.

Couldn't finish it!

The female reader was good but the male reader for the second half was so bad I couldn't finish it!

Story started out good....

the story started out good ...but once the 2nd part of the book began and the male.narrator started ....it went downhill quick! the male narrator, Aaron Abano, is horrible! at least for this type of book. Michelle Ferguson was very good and the author should have kept only her throughout the book! Also, the editor or producer should be fired. for letting the audible book be released with a narrator who paused and inflected at all the WRONG spots! needless to say I returned this book!

Good Story if you can get past the male narrator

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes, it was a great story line. Love the characters. Just did care for Aaron Abano. He didn't have the correct accent. And he doesn't know how to act. It was cringe worthy at best

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Aaron Abano was horrible in this. Michelle Ferguson did a much better job and wished she did the whole book

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

yes.

Started out promising but second half was boring

The plot was ok, adding an abandoned goat to the mix added was cute and funny. The bumps along the way and Chance’s efforts to win Aubrey back were fine but moved at a snails pace. I finally used the speed and skipped thru the middle of some scenes. Except for the last 5 minutes the whole second half can be “skimmed”.; also female narrator Michelle was pretty good but the male narrator Aaron was terrible. He sounded like senior Michael Caine - not some soccer star in his late 20s or early 30’s. This is not worth the time let alone the credit and surprisingly bad given the author’s other works.

A really enjoyable story

(Spoiler alert) Firstly I must say I loved this audio book the story and idea was great !! However performances make or break a audiobook that was definitely true in this case. I loved Michelle Ferguson's voice and performance she matched my idea of Aubry perfectly and her change if voice for Chance was perfect too., I liked Aaron Abano's performance but his voice didn't match my idea of Chance at all which made listening to the 2nd half of the book really difficult. I soldiered on because I loved the story and wanted to know what happened the HEA was worth the wait😀💞

Great story shame about the male narrator

Loved this story made me laugh out loud the only problem was the male narrator he really was not chance !!! I wish it had been someone else If it hadn't been for the story i would have stopped listening

enjoyable

lovely storyline. good narration. a well written book with good humour in places. really enjoyed listening. can recommend

A tale of 2 halves

I loved the first half of the book told with Aubrey’s point of view. Both the narrator and the story were brilliant.
The second half of the book is told from Chance’s POV, I found it so frustrating to listen to. I have had audible books with the narrator Aaron Abano before and loved listening to him, this book however was not good casting. He made Chance sound like an annoying whiny bastard not a cocky bastard. Did not enjoy the second part of the book at all. Had to skip most of it as it dragged out too much

Not as bad as other reviews suggest

The reviews I read made me cautious of this audio. Although at first the male narrators accent threw me off cause it wasn’t 100% Australia there were occasions where American twang came in which was in line with the character. Once I accepted this as normal and chance’s accent I really got into it. If ur only used to listening to audio book with American accent it’s always weird when a different one come in. Despite being British the first time I heard a genuine British accent I was really freaked by it. So my advice is buy this audio and accept when the male narrator comes on it will initially sound weird that’s cause ur not used to aussy accent on audio books, but once you lear to go with the flow ull have a wail of a time.

Not the best.

I normally get excited to have time to listen or make time. This book was not like that. The story overall was good but the narrators voices just were not my cup of tea.

Great

Wow I thought this story was just great the voices were wonderful too so funny in places and so heart wrenching in others loved the goat lol x