Playboy Pilot by Vi Keeland & Penelope Ward

Narrated by Andi Arndt & Sebastian York

I was attracted to this audiobook by the narrating duo as well as the blurb. Playboy Pilot is my first book from either (or both) Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward and, while it didn’t totally work for me, I expect it won’t be my last.

Captain Carter Clynes (aka “Triple C” or “Trip”) is an airline pilot. For years he has flown the friendly skies and become more than just friendly with pretty much any willing female flight attendant or traveller. He’s gorgeous, charming, confident and good in bed. He’s also not looking for any strings.

Until, that is, he meets Kendall Sparks in a bar at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport.

24-year-old Kendall spends most of the book being a poor little rich girl. She grew up the extremely wealthy daughter of a Texas ranching family but is facing an important decision. Her grandfather, a raving misogynist, has left her millions and millions of dollars in a trust which she will only be able to access if she produces a male child before she’s 25 (and names him for her dear old grandad no less). She’s not really ready for a child but she has a plan involving artificial insemination and adoption by German gay dads. She’s not entirely sure she can go through with it though. But her choice is either to go through with the plan or walk away from the money. She’s never really worked and it’s clear she’s lived a life of extreme privilege. Sure, her mother is an alcoholic and the rest of her family are dead but her life really isn’t that hard. I found it difficult to feel sorry for her. I kept thinking “get a job!”.

When Carter and Kendall meet in the bar, Kendall is deciding where to spend a 10-day holiday during which she will make her decision. As events unfold, she ends up spending those 10 days with Carter all over the globe.

Just when the future is looking rosy for Carter and Kendall however, fate throw them a curveball and it is quite a long time (actual time but not listening time thankfully) before they find their way to a HEA.

I was pleased that by the end of the book Kendall had progressed from a privileged and spoiled rich girl. She was always presented as being very nice and kind but it bothered me that she had so much but was complaining about her life. There are so many people who would step into her shoes in a heartbeat. (I know, I know, she’s not real. But still.) The book is something of a fairy tale but Kendall does learn to stand on her own two feet and that helped my discomfort. I liked her all the way through but I wondered at times whether I should.

Carter is a bit of a cocky jerk at the beginning. However, it becomes clear over the course of the story that his manwhore ways hide a troubled soul with a heart of gold. Yes, it’s a cliché but I was prepared to go with it – for the most part. Sometimes it made my teeth ache with the sweetness of it all.

I did have to suspend my disbelief quite a bit. For example, I happen to know that Kendall’s plan involving artificial insemination wasn’t quite as straightforward as presented. That’s just not how these things work. Also, I felt it was unlikely that Carter’s flight schedule would be so random. It seems to me that most airline staff have regular routes but Carter’s was not like that. He also sang to his passengers – he’s a Beatles fan – and I thought this was unlikely as well. It was cute of course but realistic? Not so much.

Carter’s attraction to using Beatles songs to articulate his emotions was fun – and perhaps means I’m showing my age. The Beatles were before my time (mostly) but I do know many of their songs in a way that the current generation likely does not.

Carter and Kendall don’t immediately fall into bed which helped me to buy the romance and I did believe in that – something which means the book’s content falls in the win column overall.

The narration was very good. I’ve said recently that I’ve listened to so much Andi Arndt and Sebastian York narrations lately that I was worried I’d run out of things to say.

Here, I can say that I have a couple of niggles with Mr. York’s performance. Nothing dire mind you. He tended to pronounce Kendall’s name as “Kindle” which threw me a bit. I think it might just be his accent though (in Australia, people from Melbourne tend to pronounce E’s like A’s and vice versa; something that Adelaideans don’t do for example – she says superiorly).

At one point in the listen, Mr. York is called upon to do a strong Texan accent for Kendall. It didn’t go well. I think he was trying for a caricature accent but it sounded like he was clenching a toothpick between his teeth and it did not work for me.

Later in the book he delivered an Australian accent. This wasn’t all bad actually. It wasn’t fabulous but there were parts of it that actually sounded Aussie (protip: Aussie is pronounced “Ozzy” not “Ossy”) and I was prepared to give it a pass. Other than that however, Mr. York performed with his usual aplomb, delivering emotion, tension and humour with impeccable timing.

Andi Arndt also gave a great performance. I can’t really criticise anything in it actually. (Then again, she wasn’t called upon to do Australian or particularly Texan accents so maybe I’d think differently had that occurred.) Like her counterpart, Ms. Arndt is able to perform the emotional range required in the story with a great degree of skill and her timing is also very good. After a recent listen, I’ve come to appreciate the importance of good timing in general and these two are consistently good in this area.

I ended up enjoying Playboy Pilot but I would say that the plot has to be taken with a grain of salt. Don’t think about it too much however and it’s a fun, sexy listen.

Kaetrin

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Narration: B+

Book Content: B-

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence Rating: Minimal

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Playboy Pilot was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for a review.

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