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Cocky #1-2
Cocky & Ballsy: The Complete Package
This collected edition of the best-selling Cocky and Ballsy duology now also includes a bonus short story previously only available to newsletter subscribers!
Cocky:
“I’m having a little trouble coming up with the right words here, so I’ll be blunt. I want you to pretend to date me.”
Faking a relationship with an injured hockey player had never been on Eliot’s to-do list, but when he’s sent by his editor to interview the newly-out hockey legend Danny Harper, he gets a little more than he bargained for.
Eliot has been stuck writing a 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 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 resists it, 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 own career, can the two of them bring themselves to admit their real feelings and find their happy ending?
Ballsy:
When he arrives back in LA after ten years away, the last thing Sam expects is to end up being roped into pretending to be with the man he’d left behind for the sake of a magazine article. After a near-death experience that left him scarred and changed, all he wants to do is lick his wounds and live quietly for a while.
But how is he supposed to resist the pull of one last adventure with the love of his life?
Seeing Sam again is the last thing Ben needs. With his last chance to prove that Ballsy is a viable project on the line, he hasn’t got time for anything else.
All the same, he can’t bring himself to ignore Sam when he shows up unannounced. When the opportunity to spend the weekend undercover with him at a couples’ retreat comes up, he jumps at it, hoping that this will be the second chance he’s always secretly wanted.
As if facing their feelings for each other after so long wasn’t hard enough, Ben unexpectedly stumbles across the story that will save Ballsy while at the retreat. Will he still have time to repair his relationship with Sam? Or will both men’s doubts and fears get in the way of their happily ever after?
This collected edition features the complete duology of Cocky and Ballsy, as well as a bonus scene, but is otherwise identical to the previously published stand-alone editions. If you've got them, you don't need this one! (Though you're welcome to pick it up!)
Cocky:
“I’m having a little trouble coming up with the right words here, so I’ll be blunt. I want you to pretend to date me.”
Faking a relationship with an injured hockey player had never been on Eliot’s to-do list, but when he’s sent by his editor to interview the newly-out hockey legend Danny Harper, he gets a little more than he bargained for.
Eliot has been stuck writing a 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 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 resists it, 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 own career, can the two of them bring themselves to admit their real feelings and find their happy ending?
Ballsy:
When he arrives back in LA after ten years away, the last thing Sam expects is to end up being roped into pretending to be with the man he’d left behind for the sake of a magazine article. After a near-death experience that left him scarred and changed, all he wants to do is lick his wounds and live quietly for a while.
But how is he supposed to resist the pull of one last adventure with the love of his life?
Seeing Sam again is the last thing Ben needs. With his last chance to prove that Ballsy is a viable project on the line, he hasn’t got time for anything else.
All the same, he can’t bring himself to ignore Sam when he shows up unannounced. When the opportunity to spend the weekend undercover with him at a couples’ retreat comes up, he jumps at it, hoping that this will be the second chance he’s always secretly wanted.
As if facing their feelings for each other after so long wasn’t hard enough, Ben unexpectedly stumbles across the story that will save Ballsy while at the retreat. Will he still have time to repair his relationship with Sam? Or will both men’s doubts and fears get in the way of their happily ever after?
This collected edition features the complete duology of Cocky and Ballsy, as well as a bonus scene, but is otherwise identical to the previously published stand-alone editions. If you've got them, you don't need this one! (Though you're welcome to pick it up!)
437 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 15, 2018
34 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Sean Ashcroft
44 books460 followersSean Ashcroft likes rainy days, white hot chocolates (don't knock it 'til you've tried it!) and boys kissing in books. He currently resides in Australia, all the way down at the bottom of the mainland in a sleepy little seaside town.
He writes sweet, hot books about sweet, hot boys who absolutely deserve each other.
He writes sweet, hot books about sweet, hot boys who absolutely deserve each other.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
dnf
July 12, 2019DNF @ 15%
Vague credibility issues niggled at me, and both guys were prone to excessive rumination over minutiae. If it had been just one of them it would have served as characterization -- when it's both of them it comes across as a stylistic quirk the author isn't aware of, &/or can't control. It slowed the pace down to a crawl and I didn't enjoy it.
This was my second time trying Sean Ashcroft, and both have been DNFs, so in the future I'll pass. I couldn't resist giving it try, though, because of the title. "The Complete Package." *snicker*
Vague credibility issues niggled at me, and both guys were prone to excessive rumination over minutiae. If it had been just one of them it would have served as characterization -- when it's both of them it comes across as a stylistic quirk the author isn't aware of, &/or can't control. It slowed the pace down to a crawl and I didn't enjoy it.
This was my second time trying Sean Ashcroft, and both have been DNFs, so in the future I'll pass. I couldn't resist giving it try, though, because of the title. "The Complete Package." *snicker*
May 8, 2018
This duo of a book is the first books I have read by Author, Sean Ashcroft. If you enjoy MM romance you will like his books. I think Cocky moved at a faster rate far as a "book read" goes but i was not surprised because Eliot and Danny are both fairly young. (Well compared to myself anyways...) Danny being a hockey player..be still my heart, and Eliot a reporter, i just knew that this book would be one of those that moved and grooved and it did not disappoint me at all. Being a puck bunny (anat the old lady puck bunny) I loved how much the author included in the book, yet he also gave a true feeling of Eliot as someone who has no idea what a punk was from icing. Great book! Then the ability to move straight into Ballsy make the second book to much more enjoyable for me anyways. Ballsy moved at a slower, steady for me but that was not a bad thing at all. I liked the fact that Ben and Sam knew each other in the past and we already were aware of that from Cocky. The added mystery in this book is nice and I like the fact that we get to see a deeper depth to the men. These books have lots of heat but for me the friendship and love shown is something that i find missing in so many of the other books I have read lately. I will definitely be reading more books this author. Glad I found him. Not glad of the reason that caused me to.
April 29, 2018
Great 👍 stories!!
These two stories are most definitely the complete package. Four lonely men who find their happiness with the perfect partner.
Eliot and Danny began their journey with an assignment for the magazine Cocky that Eliot works for. Danny was nearing the end of his hockey career and had just come "out". Eliot wrote a charming article and the beginning of a beautiful and fulfilling relationship grew from there.
Ben and Sam had a great friendship ten years previously but uncertainty and fear of losing that friendship resulted in Sam leaving to travel the world substituting photography for love.
They reconnected to do a story on a couples retreat. With their greater maturity and a second chance at owning up to their true feelings for one another, they acknowledged their love and began their HEA.
Both stories were well written and the characters are memorable. Definitely a book(s) to be read again and again. Loved these guys! 😊
These two stories are most definitely the complete package. Four lonely men who find their happiness with the perfect partner.
Eliot and Danny began their journey with an assignment for the magazine Cocky that Eliot works for. Danny was nearing the end of his hockey career and had just come "out". Eliot wrote a charming article and the beginning of a beautiful and fulfilling relationship grew from there.
Ben and Sam had a great friendship ten years previously but uncertainty and fear of losing that friendship resulted in Sam leaving to travel the world substituting photography for love.
They reconnected to do a story on a couples retreat. With their greater maturity and a second chance at owning up to their true feelings for one another, they acknowledged their love and began their HEA.
Both stories were well written and the characters are memorable. Definitely a book(s) to be read again and again. Loved these guys! 😊
October 15, 2018
Twig and Berries
Sorry...couldn’t resist that play on these two titles from Sean Ashcroft. Although Sean’s voice may be bit stilted towards the sunshine and rainbows end of the spectrum (sort of the antithesis of, oh, say Maris Black)— we cant subsist on a diet of 100% anything, right? So if I must have my sugar this week, Cocksy and Ballsy will do me just fine and dandy. I’m also a former journalist so that angle drew me in as well. I’d love to have had both books longer, and intermingled with more missed cues, MC angst and some cloak-and-dagger danger thrown in for good measure (and a longer read)...but then it probably wouldn’t have been a true Sean Ashcroft product, and like I already said...as a fun, cute diversion, it is certainly all that and a bag of chips.
Sorry...couldn’t resist that play on these two titles from Sean Ashcroft. Although Sean’s voice may be bit stilted towards the sunshine and rainbows end of the spectrum (sort of the antithesis of, oh, say Maris Black)— we cant subsist on a diet of 100% anything, right? So if I must have my sugar this week, Cocksy and Ballsy will do me just fine and dandy. I’m also a former journalist so that angle drew me in as well. I’d love to have had both books longer, and intermingled with more missed cues, MC angst and some cloak-and-dagger danger thrown in for good measure (and a longer read)...but then it probably wouldn’t have been a true Sean Ashcroft product, and like I already said...as a fun, cute diversion, it is certainly all that and a bag of chips.
May 27, 2018
Two interrelated stories
In Cocky, we are introduced to the younger couple, Eliot and Danny. In Ballsy, Elliot's editor/boss/mentor Ben has a reunion with Sam, the one that got away. Characters from the first flow sweetly into the second. Both end with HEAs.
Both stories develop around the need for communication in furthering a relationship. For me, the journalism aspect as the bedrock was a plus.
I received these stories as an ebook in return for an honest review.
In Cocky, we are introduced to the younger couple, Eliot and Danny. In Ballsy, Elliot's editor/boss/mentor Ben has a reunion with Sam, the one that got away. Characters from the first flow sweetly into the second. Both end with HEAs.
Both stories develop around the need for communication in furthering a relationship. For me, the journalism aspect as the bedrock was a plus.
I received these stories as an ebook in return for an honest review.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews