‘Calling the Shots’ by Kara Kendrick
Series: Thunder Creek Series #2
Published: April 24, 2025
Genre: Romance, Sports Romance
Format: e-book
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Stars: ⭐⭐⭐
Synopsis
One fake kiss with the coach next door changes all the rules of the game.
Mack doesn’t give Prince Charming vibes. Sure, he’s tall, ruggedly handsome, and the high school football team’s defensive coordinator. But he’s my mom’s brooding next-door neighbor—a decade older than me and absolutely forbidden.
Friend-of-my-best friend’s-dad kind of forbidden.
When I’m ditched on a date and losing aura points by the second, I salvage my pride in front of my archenemy the only way I can — I pretend Mack’s my boyfriend. He plays along and seals our fake relationship with a kiss that sets my world on fire.
“Just one night” quickly spirals into secret rendezvous and heart-racing hookups. But then I discover the “blue collar” laid-back coach I’ve fallen for is hiding secrets of his own. I’m certain we’re doomed.
What I don’t count on?
My Thoughts
Calling the Shots by Kara Kendrick is my first book from this author. This book is also second in the Thunder Creek Series. As someone who didn’t read the first book in the series, I wasn’t lost at all at what happened before. She gave background to the people who did show up from book one but the focus for this book was Mack and Gracelyn.
I wanted to love these two, as it sounded like a couple I would love from start to finish. Let me start with the bad first. I get it, these two have a bunch of chemistry, and when you have chemistry like that, you do find it hard to keep your hands to yourself. But it was almost like they were having a spicy scene ALL THE TIME. I was almost half the way through the book, and they had four scenes already. Since they were just having the spice, they didn’t take time to talk, and when she went to meet his family, it was like she knew nothing about him, which she didn’t because they never talked. I will see it wasn’t his whole family that was against her. His dad did seem to be more on board with the relationship from the start compared to everyone else.
Now for the good. Gracelyn doesn’t have high confidence at times in the book. Being a petite curvy girl myself, I get where she comes from. Even tho you are an adult, those moments of low confidence slips in, and it doesn’t help that the mean girl she had in high school is still around in the town acting like the typical mean girl. What was nice was that Mack was there to tell her she is perfect just as she was, and she didn’t need to change.
The other moment I didn’t care for was at the football games. I get adding it into the story, but it was almost like the whole game was written, not just a few of the highlights. Here is one more good thing to even out the bad. There was no true third-act break-up up and that was very nice to see, and the way they got happily ever after was also great to see.
Given everything, I thought of Calling the Shots. I have to give this book three stars. It just wasn’t that great, and like I said, a good first half of it was just pure spice, and that is great, but that is something I didn’t think this book would have a lot of in the first half of the book. All of the spice gets this book to a Spice Level of three chili peppers. The second half has more depth to the book, but it was a bit too late for that.
Calling the shots is available wherever you get your books, and if you are a Kindle Unlimited member, this book is included in your membership.
I would like to thank Valentine PR & Literary Management for the ARC Copy of this book. Getting the ARC Copy did not influence my thoughts on the book as they are all my own.
