I received a copy of this title to read and review for Wicked Reads 
 3 Stars 
 In the second installment in the Birmingham Rebels series, the reader finally gets to sink their teeth into Tyler, the out and proud bisexual on the team. Two newcomers are added to the cast of characters, both in interesting circumstances- Randi & Brian. 
 Brian and Ty go way back eight years ago, as the intern was Ty's personal coach, bringing the best out of him while sharing Brian's ex-wife. Their relationship is complex, tension filled, and intriguing. Now Brian is back to coach Tyler for the Rebels, and the past is drawn into the present. 
 While this is a menage series, I need to state I felt none of these characters really meshed as a threesome. After reading 3 books in this series, this is the first time I felt the girl in the story didn't fit. If Randi had been removed from the story altogether, Calling the Play had the makings of an irresistible MM Football Romance I would have gobbled right up and 5-starred upon completion. 
 Brian and Ty were good, but not with Randi. Randi was too sexual with Ty and too emotional and connected to Brian, so there was no equality to the story, as if Randi would settle if she only was able to be with Brian, feeding into Ty's insecurities that he's only good to be a party boy, whereas Brian and Ty would be perfectly fine without Randi. 
 Within three days, they were saying ILYs, and prior to that inner-monologue-ing about how they needed the others to survive life. It was too soon, not knowing anything about the other, while two of them had a strong history filled with actually being in-love with one another. 
 Even if I felt Randi too immature for this novel and Brian and Ty, I wanted the best for her. The best for Randi would have been a different novel with different partners, all starting from scratch. I would have enjoyed her characterization then, with a different profession. 
 Randi is a police detective, and to be honest, the characterization didn't work for me. She's a curvy spitfire, with a family backstory that was intriguing and endearing. She was too immature for my tastes, and I didn't enjoy reading her narration whatsoever. Insecure with commitment issues, it fit the characterization of her family background. However, she was too immature to be a a police detective. 
 At one point, Randi called herself an uneducated cop. This confused me, as she had to have trained for her job. Of course she wouldn't need a med degree, just the same as a doctor wouldn't need to go to the police academy. To become a detective, you earn it. With her age and gender, she would've had to work even harder than her fellow male cops. She would've had to prove herself every day on the job because she's a woman. As a cop and the only sister of a lot of brothers, her brash attitude and foul mouth, the keeping up with 'the boys' made sense, but the immaturity and off-the-rails attitude did not. No one would want a loose cannon at their back, especially with the rampant misogyny on most polices forces- alpha males in the extreme. The facets of Randi's personality contradicted her profession. her over-the-top, no filter, sexuality in a male-dominated field would have had her fired or thought to have earned her way to detective on her knees. 
 To be able to be in a relationship, you have to be mature, added to the fact it's a polyamorous relationship. No one this immature would last in any relationship, let alone one where you had to deal with two others in your life. 
 If Randi hadn't been a police detective, but a bartender or something equally sassy and foul-mouthed and sexual, I could have overlooked my issues. But every time Randi was called a detective, it became more difficult to fall into the story. I would be enjoying Brian & Ty's scenes they shared together, then Randi's narration/dialogue would dampen it. 
 This installment just didn't work with me. Brian and Ty heated up the pages, but the addition of Randi in the scenes made it feel forced and awkward, too instantaneous. There wasn't any romance, no intimacy, just sex, and it felt forced the entire time. Inner monologue and dialogue about loving one another is not the same as showing it unfold for the readers. To be honest, I thought Randi's insecurities were spot-on. With her attitude, her immaturity, she was incapable of anything but being a one-night-stand. She needed to grow up, and be demoted at work, because I feared for the safety of her fellow detectives, the crimes she was solving, and the citizens on the street. 
 I still recommend Samantha Kane for all your menage reads, and look forward to more in this series. I just couldn't connect with the heroine, or rapid speed of the forced 'emotional' connection- it just didn't work for me.