Unlikely Date

A Calloway Brothers Novel (Calloway Creek Series)

By: Samantha Christy

Narrated by: Wen Ross, Kirsten Leigh

Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Town playboy.
CEO extraordinaire.
Monumental prick.
And my blind date.

Tag Calloway is toxic. If you aren’t in his small inner circle of friends, you’re nothing.

An inconvenience at best.

And it’s just my luck that my first blind date—heck, my first date since "The Incident"—happens to be with him.

I’ve spent years hiding myself from men. From life. Wallowing in guilt and camouflaging my body.

I live for one reason. Gigi. The broken-condom accident who has become the singular light of my life.

Why did I let my friends talk me into this?

He’s the last person I should trust with my feelings. My body. My scars.

But when our night turns into something I never expected, common sense fails me, and I fall hard, knowing this time, it won’t be my body that suffers gruesome damage; it will be my heart.

©2022 Samantha Christy (P)2022 Samantha Christy

A long awaited love story

I love that Tag got his story. When we first got to meet him in Texas Roses, I was so hopeful he would come back. Not only did he come back, but he won the game! It's too hot to be a bedtime story but a fairytale all the same. One thing I have learned is to always cheer for the underdogs, and this book didn't let me down.

I was reading the book and didn't want to put it down. I had to leave for a work trip, so I got the audio version, so I didn't have to. I love how Kindle and Audible sync up with each other.

I love reading/ listening to Samantha Christy's books. This one, I did struggle with both narrators. At first, I thought it was because I had become accustomed to previous narrators, as it went on, It seemed like they were just reading a book. There wasn't a lot of extra feeling or passion behind the narration like in past books.

Fabulous Story & Narration🎧 Riveting & Emotional!

Samantha Christy penned another amazing romance novel, and I loved everything about it, from her wonderful writing style to the fabulous characters and storylines to the perfectly cast narrators who bring it all to life from the pages to your ears. This book not only grabbed my attention right from the start, but it tugged on my heartstrings the entire time, too. The characters are realistic, easy to relate to and connect with, they are easy to care about too. Maddie is a single mom doing the best she can to raise her daughter, Gigi, and she may be overprotective of her, but she has her reasons. She has been through a trauma and has the scars to show for it both inside and out. Her friend wants her to move on and get past her insecurities about her scars and convince her to go on a date made thru a hookup app. She was not expecting that date to be arrogant alpha hole Tag Calloway, a player and ladies’ man. Tag did not want to go on this date, but his friend set it up for him and wanted to appease them. Once he realized who his date was, he was going to bail, but something about her made him stay. The chemistry between these two is electric, but she held herself back and when he comes up with an idea to help her get over her insecurities, she does not immediately push him away. I loved how everything played out in this book, also loved the brilliant dialogue, from the meaningful and heartwarming words to the back-and-forth banter between the two leads. I adored Gigi too, such a sweet girl and wise beyond her years, easily able to give lessons to the adults. This beautifully plotted story has a perfect balance of drama, heartfelt emotions, a touch of angsts and some sizzling hot romance. Samantha Christy, thank you for another wonderful story and emotional rollercoaster ride.

🎧📚🎧 And for the fabulous narration, Wen Ross and Kirsten Leigh are talented narrators and versatile voice artists. They had a complete understanding of the characters they portrayed, gave each a voice that suited that character’s persona, sounding believable and just as I pictured the characters to sound. As Tag, Ross pulled it off as a cocky alpha hole and had no trouble showing his softer and caring side, Leigh played Maddie’s role with perfection, grasping her strength, as well as her vulnerabilities with ease, her Gigi was adorable too. They set the perfect tone for the story, they captured all the characters’ emotions and projected them into their performance and had you feeling every single one. These entertaining storytellers are a pleasure to listen to. Thank you for another wonderful listen.

Loved it

I can relate to this story in so many ways, it was great to hear it come to life! All the feels and the narrators were amazing.

Book 2 Is Better

I fell in love with book 2 however this one is great too. I can't wait for the rest of the series.

Irredeemable FBoys…CNF

Well, to be honest, I barely started before I switched to a Meghan Quinn book.

In Chapter 1, statement after statement, all we heard from the Calloway brothers was one demeaning comment about women after another.

Complete FBoys, living their best life, treating women as nothing more than living sex toys, dismissing any that they weren’t targeting as a next conquest and the “hero” expressed not only a dislike for, but a hatred of children. In one instance he tried to pass off a woman who gave him her number on a napkin to a brother, assuming she couldn’t tell one of them from another, before blatantly throwing the napkin away, within her view, when the brother dismissed her as his sloppy seconds.

Alpha attitude is one thing misogynistic BS on overload is another.

I couldn’t see anyway that guys THIS far gone could be redeemed by a one night stand with a single Mom. When I want to read Sci-Fi, I pick one of those stories instead.

Tag and Maddie

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

KU borrow and Audible purchase. Dual POV. Both narrators read well but to me Wen Ross always sounds like a game show host no matter what playback speed I choose. This is book 1 in the Calloway Brothers trilogy (although it seemingly has a second series title as well: The Brothers of Calloway Creek). While this is listed as a standalone in a trilogy it really isn't a standalone. In order to really follow Samantha Christy's stories you have to start with her first trilogy: The Mitchell Family, then continue reading all of her trilogies in publication order. There are so many overlapping characters who have their own book at this point you get a bit lost wondering how certain side characters relate to the main couple if you haven't read all of SC's previous work. I've read all of her work and found all of the guest appearances particularly annoying in this book. If all of the side characters and their little snippets were cut out it would dramatically decrease the page count in this story and give SC more space to actually write about Tag and Maddie. This book was also heavily focused on Gigi, and that took a lot away from the romance as well. Trigger warnings: the Calloway vs McQuaid rivalry is briefly explained; FMC has burn and skin graft scars; FMC ex died in a fire rescuing Gigi; Gigi wonders off in a store while Tag is babysitting her; custody fight over Gigi; Gigi is accidently knocked through a plate glass window, cut, and scarred; Tag is a smoker; Tag's sister drove drunk, had an accident, and is now an amputee; one of Tag's brothers' died and his identical twin is spiraling; Tag's parents cheated on each other; Tag's sister-in-law cheated on his brother, they're separated but not divorced; Maddie is the epitome of the term "helicopter mom."

Tag and Maddie agree to a blind date through an app. They live in the same small town and only know of each other. Tag runs a sports marketing firm and Maddie is a single mom running her grandmother's flower shop. Tag has a well earned player reputation and Maddie keeps to herself because of her burn scars. Most believe Tag is a wealthy playboy who will never settle down but, while he is a playboy, he's really just a poser trying to look wealthy to gain client trust to build his business. Tag is pretty much a complete jerk on their blind date who didn't like children but falls madly in love with Maddie within three weeks. While I believe anyone could quickly fall in love, I struggle to believe the complete 360 life change that Tag did. In the end they are engaged planning to move in together. The ending with Maddie and her classmates was very strange to me. JP

2 out of 5 on my spice scale.

1st listen was with the Alexa app 08-01-22
1st audiobook listen 08-06-23
2nd audiobook listen 09-21-23