I’m Cat McKay, and I’m in desperate need of a man. My farm manager deserted me six weeks before our grand opening that will help put my family’s business on the map. Now I need to find a replacement because I’m not about to be the reason we fail. Unfortunately, Caden Landry— whose arrogance, evasions, and good looks rub me the wrong way—is my only option on a list of zero candidates. So, as much …
So, as much as it pains me to admit it, I need him to step in and save the day. Yeah, I hate it too.
I’m Caden Landry, and I have a self-destructive streak a mile wide.
One thing is clear I need to stay the hell away from my new boss, Cat McKay. Not an easy task, considering she’s the kind of woman I find irresistible. But I’m tired of running, tired of living paycheck to paycheck with nothing but a flatbed to my name. I’m determined this time I’m going to get my life together.
So, I’m not about to screw a golden opportunity because I can’t keep my hands off the woman in charge. This time, self-preservation will prevail.
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Great haters to lovers read. Cat doesn’t have another option but to hire Caden as a new farm manager. The really arrogant cowboys who wake in her feelings that she buried long ago. After running from attraction and saying no to each other that this is all a mistake attraction explodes. But Cade’s past comes haunting him and destroyed everything. Both Cade and Cat are great characters. It is so good to see how Cade developed in a better person and want to be for Cat and just love her. I didn’t like Cat’s only flaw was her fear but in the end, she is strong enough to overcome it.
I volunteered to review an ARC of this book for NetGalley
This story is fraught with tension and heat right from page 1. Both Cat and Caden have lost their way to their life goals. Cat works with her family in their farm-to-table business but what she does leaves her unfulfilled. Caden loves the art of cultivation but is worried his past mistakes and self-destructive streak will ruin his chance to work with the McKay family. While I liked both characters and could certainly understand their turmoil, I eventually got tired of Cat’s mixed messages to Caden. Cat’s saying of “No, don’t” but really it was “Just take me” got frustrating for me. Then she would get upset when Caden wouldn’t act on the attraction. Kudos to Caden for respecting Cat’s verbal wishes despite the sizzling attraction between the two of them. Thank goodness Cat’s talk with her Uncle Beau made her realize a change in attitude was needed. Overall, an enjoyable, steamy read.
I received a free copy from Netgalley. This is my unbiased review.
I should have known better than to think I could read just a little of Jennifer Dawson’s newest book. I mean, I’ve read all her other stuff and none of them have been easy to put down. Why did I think this would be any different? What’s a little lost sleep anyway?
I loved this book because while it follows the same theme that works so well for Jennifer – strong alpha man butting heads with an equally strong stubborn heroine – she also put a twist into her main characters. Cat is strong and has been holding herself together through sheer stubbornness. But she’s been faking it to everyone, including her brothers. Out of all of Jennifer’s heroines she feels the most vulnerable to me, with her confidence and sense of self worn away by abandonment, her dreams subsumed and marginalised by her brothers’ passions. In their drive to rescue the family homestead, her brothers have overlooked Cat and it takes Caden to notice it.
Caden, on the other hand, begins like your typical macho asshole but very quickly his point of view chapters reveal that while, yes, he can be a bastard, he’s actually quite a restrained one. In fact, despite his own description of himself as self-destructive, he’s actually quite thoughtful throughout the book and the burden of blame for who takes the steps toward the ill-advised relationship between Cat and Caden can be shared equally between them. Moreso than Jackson was in his own book, Caden manages to have excellent insight into Cat’s mind and the 11th hour crisis that drives the two apart is not entirely of his own making, and he goes about fixing it with gusto and great commitment and courage. He was not clueless like Jackson was about how to fix the problem.
Like the rest of Jennifer’s stories. this is character driven and well focused. The tension through the book just keeps you turning pages, wanting to know in exactly what spectacular fashion the attraction between the two will blow up. Another great success for me and I look forward to Wyatt and Hope’s story which is teased here! What kind of bastard will Jennifer make out of Wyatt and how will he and the workaholic Hope clash and spark?
Loved the writing style and story!!
New author to me, but loved her writing style. Strong woman who comes into her own! Loved this story!! It was also interesting that my favorite parts had nothing to do with Caden and were where Cat started to shine and flourish!
“I want to be happy more than I want to be right.” Good motto for life!
Cat takes an instant dislike to Caden, but she is in desperate need of a farm manager and he checks all of those boxes. To add to her disdain – her brothers take an instant liking to him and he is very confident in his work and what he brings to the table.
It was an interesting set of dynamics as one brother runs the distillery business and one brother is opening up a new restaurant on the property, yet Cat feels like she is second fiddle to both their operations. She’s discontent and Caden just helps that grow…or helps her see the light.
They are explosive together, but it was a slow burn at first which was an interesting dynamic as well. We get glimpses of Caden “running” from his past, so there is bound to be issues afoot.
Seeing Cat come into her own woman was a glorious sight to behold and it was thanks in no small part to Caden. I absolutely loved these two together. Even when things got rocky – you were pulling for them to make it.
While this is my first read of hers – it won’t be my last. Book 1 is already in my hands and I can’t wait for Book 3 to see the last sibling fall!!
I voluntarily requested and read an advance reader copy.
This is the second book in the Bastard Series. This Series is interconnected with the Undone Series, and has intertwined characters. Arrogant Bastard is an enemies-to-lovers, and slow burn romance. You can read it as a standalone, but I recommend you to read the first book in the Series, Cold Hearted Bastard, Jackson and Gwen’s story. I loved it! Cat and Caden’s story is well written, sweet, fun, sexy, complex, and intriguing. The characters are well developed. Caden is handsome, arrogant, sexy, dominant, commanding, demanding, secretive, and intriguing. He is such a complex and intense character! Cat is a lovely character. She is smart, independent, and caring. They share an instant attraction, and an undeniable and sizzling hot chemistry. Their relationship is complicated, but they are perfect together. The storyline is intriguing, filled with secrets, and twists and turns. I liked to have dual POV. I love the family bonds in this Series. The supporting characters are great, and they have an important part in this story. The ending is beautiful, romantic, sexy, and perfect. I need more! Looking forward to read the next book in the Series.
There is something so flawless about a flawed character. Dawson dares to lift off the blinders and expose the imperfections for what they are. Arrogant Bastard forces two people to face the nicks in their armor as they put real emotion on display. Camden and Cat are a match made up of heartache that tumbles into love. Turbulence becomes a stepping stone to an entrancing journey.
Arrogant Bastard by Jennifer Dawson is book Two in the Bastard Series. This is the story of Caden Landry and Cat McKay. I have not read the previous book, so for me this was a standalone book.
Cat and Caden come together when Cat is in need of help with her family business Caden enters the pictures a the manger of the farm. Of course the but heads because they are both so different but in the end they may just want the same thing. Enjoyed this book.
I’ve been waiting for the second book in the Bastard series and now it’s finally here!
This is the story of Cat McKay – sister of Jackson McKay, the hero of Cold Hearted Bastard – and Caden Landry, her new employee.
Yes, it is as good as it sounds!
Caden needs a new job and Cat needs a farm manager. As he is very good at what he does, it is a so-called win-win situation.
It doesn’t take long until the chemistry between flares up and makes it very hard for them to stay away from each other.
Even though they try!
When someone from Caden’s past turns up, everything’s about to be destroyed. Will Caden at Cat find their happily ever-after anyway?
Jennifer Dawson is my absolute favourite author. She knows how to develop characters and how to keep the reader glued to the book until the very end!
I love reading Jennifer’s books and this one was no different. She has a way of sucking you in from the beginning and this story captured me from the very beginning. The chemistry between these two characters is off the chart sizzling and no matter how much they try to stay away from each other they just can’t.
I love Cat and Caden together!!
Caden had some bad luck in the past. Now he wants this job to work and stick. Cat is always doing what she can for the family but is it what she wants.
These two together explode from the first.
SIZZLING! This love story burns right off the pages.
I have been a Jennifer Dawson fan from way back. I see her name on the cover of a book and I buy. I don’t have to read what it’s about. Doesn’t matter. I just know it is going to be good. Arrogant Bastard, the second in her Bastard series, is not just good. It’s spectacular!
The heat from the main characters, Cat McKay and Caden Landry, spark from their first meeting. She is running her family ranch with her two brothers; he is running from his past. Both are lost. Both are desperate. Little do they realize that they are really running toward each other.
Arrogant Bastard is the continuation of the family storyline started in the previous book, but you do need to have read that to understand what is happening. Familiar characters are reintroduced as Cat and Caden learn to trust each other and themselves and fall in love.
I highly recommend this book. Buy it! You will not be disappointed! I certainly wasn’t. I was provided an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review which appears here. I ended up buying it to add to my collection too. What can I say? I am a Jennifer Dawson groupie.
The Arrogant Bastard by Jennifer Dawson a feisty four-star read. This is number two in the series, but they can be read as stand-alone, I didn’t feel lost at all when reading this one, but I can guess who the first novel was about. I honestly don’t know if I would go out of my way to read the first one, but I may pick it up at some point, as I like the writing its just not what I am feeling at the moment. It has great ideas and plot lines, but I feel like I read so many similar stories a couple of months ago that I got bogged down, I should have read the description and cover closer so I hold my hands up to that. It had some lovely characters in the family and even some of the visitors, and I enjoyed one visitor in particular as it added something extra to the story. Overall I enjoyed getting to know Caden and Cat.
This is Cat’s story, the second McKay family member, and it is every bit as good as Jackson’s was. Cat and Caden are explosive together and the sex is off the charts but he has secrets and she is unhappy but doesn’t know why. I thought at first it was a little slow, but that was really a reflection of their relationship and as problems evolved and Cat and Cade’s relationship deepened it all imploded. Watching Cat and Caden find both themselves and each other was amazing but it wasn’t all smooth saving and I found myself with tears in my eyes several times. An excellent second book in the series and now Wyatt’s book?
I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN!
I love how Jennifer Dawson’s developing this family right before our eyes! It’s not just HOT it’s VERY HOT!!
But there’s so much more! She details people’s struggles, flaws, strengths, character and more. She does not disappoint! This is a family you want to get to know. To be part of their lives. Know each of their stories! And that’s what Jennifer gives to us in The Bastard Series.
If you’ve ever been inexplicably draw to someone, you understand. Had electricity in your touch. The need to be near them, see them, hear them, then you understand. If being part of the other persons happiness is what completes you, then you understand. It’s raw, and completely relatable. If you haven’t I’m sorry.
Cat and Caden have this in spades! But there’s the past. No one can run from it. Good and bad. We’ve all made mistakes. But do we want to change? Be better? Learn from our mistakes or keep running from them?
“…What you don’t understand is that in the end, we’re all just a bunch of flawed fuckers stumbling our way through life, doing the best we can.”
And if we can make each other better people, happier, then why wouldn’t we want to take the chance!
Like Thomas Jefferson says,
“With great risk comes great reward”!