Really good, love the characters. It was easy to follow, and the characters very relatable!

I started this series with book 3 Jacked Up and wanted to read more with Misconduct. Then once I can find free time from Blogging and other tasks, I will definitely retract to book 1 & 2. With that said, you do not need to read all of the books in the Birmingham series. They are all standalone.

I was introduced to Carmina in last book. We knew her struggle from Afghanistan. So I was pretty stoked to find out that this is her story with two very hot and yummy football players, Tom & Danny! Of course the story line does not start off easy. These characters have to work for it. They need to over come a lot of traumatic events that they had to go through in their past. Some are in denial for what they feel, and others may just be afraid to live again.

When these three finally let go, they become free. Their passion struck me in the heart and I was captivated in this story! Samantha Kane knows how to keep her readers interested and show how love is just love!

I have so many issues with this book. Too many to actually talk about, mostly because the more I try to unpack all that is wrong with this story, the angrier I become. I'm not sure how I read the whole book, but I did. I think I pushed on to finish because I was hoping that the author would somehow, miraculously, find a way to write herself out of the mess that started.  While some things did work themselves out, sort of, other things still rang true through the whole book and it made me so very angry.

Misconduct is part of a series that I have not read. While this book can be read as a standalone, it would probably be a good idea to read the previous books. There are clearly things that have happened in prior stories that impact these characters. Still, because I did read the whole book, I was able to piece together what I may have missed. The big thing is that this is a pro football team full of players who are, apparently, very into poly relationships. But that's where the rub starts. It's totally unbelievable to me to have that many team members into the same things, the same types of relationships, having the same sexual desires. Why? Bad story telling for one.

Then there are the characters and their personalities... Ugh. Take Carmina. She's a war vet, suffers from PTSD, has had some serious head injury, and is trying to deal with things back as a civilian. She's likable enough, a tough cookie, and really spunky. I liked her for about a minute before I learned that she's having difficulties reaching an orgasm. There are reasons... all related to her PTSD and issues she's not ready to deal with, but oh no, all she needed was a guy with amount of forcefulness... or something. Please… please tell me why the way to “fix” her involves two men who take control of her pleasure and that’s what does it. Please tell me why it’s not because, oh maybe, she has some other issues steaming from the war and her being injured and duh, the dude she had a thing for while in the war. Dick(s) do(es) not fix things! 

Then there is Tom. OMG Tom. Tom wants a long term bi-relationship, whatever the fuck that means. Bi-relationship. Really? Perhaps the author want's Tom to come off completely and totally clueless? Perhaps the author wants readers to believe that Tom doesn't know the difference between being bisexual, and what participating in a polyamorous relationship means. Perhaps this is where I should have stopped reading... why didn't I stop reading? So Tom comes off to me as a guy who's is bisexual, doesn't really know what that is, and really just wants to fuck men and women because having both is like some sort of fun game to him. Because "fucking a guy in the ass was forbidden thrill he didn't think he'd ever get over." Seriously, again, why didn't I stop reading? 

But then there was Danny. Danny is in denial, does not want to act on his feelings towards Tom, nor Carmina. So what changes? Tom feels like he just knows that if he pushes, he’ll get what he wants from Danny. There is a moment of “he said no but his dick said yes”.  Hell no! What even is that? I’ll tell you what it is. It’s gross. Dubious consent isn't he way to wind a dude over. But it doesn't stop there. We also get dubious consent three way sex just so one guy could have his cake and eat it too.

Oh, and there's more...This book is filled with men who thing they have to protect a woman who was the victim of assault and was almost raped, only because it’s like their duty or something. Meanwhile, the woman in question wants to get past shit and she’s bad ass enough to handle her own problems.  These are not the problems of the men she’s involved with, or her friends. Most of them didn’t even know her when it happened! Ugh. Like, the entitlement these men have is disgusting. Plus, there are a lot of problems on how the actual football play is handled on the field, how the players behaved, and how the referees were portrayed. As a huge football fan, this book offends me. As a woman, this book offends me. 

I can’t with this. It’s totally offensive to me on so many levels and I wish I'd never picked it up.

Samantha Kane just keeps you wanting more and more of her books. I don't know how she does it but by god she does. I really enjoyed every book in this series. They just get more fantastic with each one you read. You literally can't put them down till you have read them and then want to re-read them all over again. Would totally recommend this to everyone

After the third book in the Birmingham Rebels series came out I was hesitant to even read the fourth book in this series. However, my faith has been renewed with Misconduct. This story was amazing and I couldn’t be happier that I got this series early.

Tom Kelly discovered he was bisexual during the first book in this series after helping a friend. Now a couple months later after months of promiscuous sex with men and women, he wants to start getting serious with someone(s). His roommate Danny and Carmina a girl he recently met but is falling for rapidly are top on his list of people he wants. Carmina was injured in the line of duty overseas with Sam and now has a brain injury that gives her speech trouble. She has an instant attraction to both Tom and Danny, but after one hot time in the shower together Danny doesn’t want anything to do with Carmina. Danny lives in denial about what he feels for Tom and Carmina since he doesn’t want to want them and he harbors too much guilt and anger over what happened to his best friend.

I loved Misconduct. First, off the issue I had with the last story was that there wasn’t much story and too much sex. Misconduct did not suffer from this issue at all. The whole story was fantastic. There was football, training, character development, and of course super hot sexy scenes. I enjoyed every waking minute of this story. The pacing was just right and I read this in one sitting.

Tom Kelly is a young football player who discovered he was bisexual and went on a sex spree. After having been with one girl his whole life, he felt it was time to let loose a little. I loved Tom’s character. He’s mostly laid back, but during the sexy times, he was completely dominant in all areas. Yum. I enjoyed reading about how he changed and grew throughout the story. I love how he was with Carmina and Danny and how they were with him. Carmina struggled a lot with pretty much everything since she got out of the service. She can’t have an orgasm, she had trouble speaking again, and she lost her family due to pressure from them to get better fast. Danny had a lot of struggles with anger and letting go of the past.

So much fun with this story. I enjoyed it from start to finish.

Really loved this series. I have told a couple of other booksellers who are now reading it themselves. It is definitely going in our staff recommends bay. The characters are fresh funny and the overall series is fun. Great book for the beach or as a light read.

This is my first book by this author and I have found another one to follow. i will definitely be backing up to read the previous books in this series. This book was so hot and there was so much more going on. These three were just amazing, I loved all of them. I loved how they all had some inner demons to fight and with the help of each other they were able to overcome and come out stronger. This was an amazing book and I can't wait for more.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Misconduct is book #4 in the Birmingham Rebels Series. I have not read anything by Samantha Kane but after reading this book I will be going back to read the rest of this series

I loved this book! She hooks in you right from the start. She explains the characters and you know you don't need to read the previous books to be able to follow along.
There is plenty of m/f/m menage trois action along with lots of other hot sex scenes. I loved how it centered around a hot sports team.
Overall, Misconduct definitely captured my attention and I look forward to reading more by Samantha Kane

Misconduct is book four in the Birmingham Rebels series. It can be read as a standalone. Each book focuses on a different group. This one is Tom, Danny, and Carmina story. Danny and Tom are football players. Carmina is best friend's with Sam (who is also a football player). Carmina is struggling after a traumatic tour in Afghanistan. She's suffered a brain injury. She has her struggles but she's rebuilding her life. She's a really likable character. Tom is a sexy football player. He has no problem finding men or women to hook up with. He likes Carmina. He's nice and sweet with her. Danny struggles with what he wants sexually. He also struggles with his past too. Danny did some things that surprised me a bit. I wasn't sure where his head was at sometimes. I was rooting for all of them to get on the same page. I really liked this one.

The hotness continues! We finally get Danny and Tom's story. We know Danny has definite anger issues. Now he's working through feelings he doesn't know how to articulate much less determine if it's what he wants. We briefly met Carmina when she's introduced as Sam's best friend. She has her own issues stemming from the war and is wary of taking on a relationship. maybe these three were meant to heal each other.

I’ve always enjoyed the Birmingham Rebels series and this story was good once it got going. I was a little baffled by Tom’s description of “forbidden” referencing his bi-sexual preferences, especially in this day and age. I can only surmised it was regarding him being a famous football player and the stereotype that is portrayed by buff, hard-bodied athletes.

That said, the storyline was interesting and followed a similar path to previous books in the series with these tough guys finding their sexual groove, and the right partners to have a future with.

I enjoyed this book far more than I expected to! I love the depth that the author gave all the characters which is something not always done in these types of books. I felt the attraction Carmina had with both Tom and Danny as well as the closeness that Tom and Danny had for each other.

There were a couple sticking points that prevented me from giving this book 5 stars. First, there was no real reaction from anyone on the relationship these three had. No one reacts or even blinks an eye. I wanted Sam's reaction especially given how picky he was about who from the team she should get involved with. But it was as if he disappeared from the story except for a random phone call. Second, there were far too many triad relationships on one football team. I mean, the probably of there being one triad relationship on a football team is rare enough but to have 3? Plus several team members engaging in group sex with members of the same sex? It just seemed unrealistic.

That said, I enjoyed reading this story. I appreciated Carmina's back story and the struggles she had as it related to not just TBI but also PTSD. I appreciated the struggle each felt with the attraction they felt for each other especially as it went beyond society's norms.
**

I hadn't read any of the other books in the series but thankfully, that wasn't needed as the book pretty much brushed on anything you needed to know about the previous books.

I really loved how the M/M/F relationship was done here. All three people in the relationship were separate from each other, with their own hopes and fears regarding the relationship. It wasn't like the focus on Tom/Carmina together, it was Tom/Carmina, Carmina/Danny and Tom/Danny because they all had to work out how to relate to each other in different ways because they were different people. I liked how there were several female characters in this book and they were all different people, despite the book was centred around a football team. I really liked how the ending climax scene ended because it would have felt wrong if Danny had carried out what he wanted to do.

However, there were several things which made my skin itch and so I wouldn't be able to wholeheartedly rec this book because of that.
Tom's bisexuality- Tom came across as someone who would miss fucking men too much to be a monogamous relationship with a woman and considering he's a bi character, that came across as really skeevy.
The way race is handled- I'm not American so some of the stereotypes, especially of Puerto Rican people, sometimes pass me by but when Carmina was described as the fiery Puerto Rican girl (or something similar) and Danny, in the next sentence, as 'the sexist black man', I winced. Like, it really wasn't needed to mention what race they were there and it came across as fetishising.
Danny saying no- I get what Kane was going for with that scene. She was trying to show that Danny wasn't letting admitting to himself what he did want because he saw it as messed up and Tom was helping him push through that barrier in his mind. However, it came across not like that. When Danny says 'don't' and 'stop' several times and Tom keeps going, it made several warning bells go in my head. Later the narrative tried to justify it by Tom thinking that Danny could throw him off if he really didn't want Tom on top of him because he was stronger than Tom and I wanted to point out that Danny might not do that because he would be afraid of hurting Tom, considering Tom is his best friend and all. Then later, Tom joked that Danny was saying no but his body was saying yes and solidified my complete dislike of that scene.

I did like this book but because of the problems mentioned above, I cannot recommend it and I won't be continuing with the rest of the series.

I always knew Carmina de la Cruz was going to be an emotional character for me to read just from her introduction in the previous book. And although I will say that it was emotional, Samantha Kane did a fantastic job seamlessly weaving her past in with her present. She also highlighted what it was like to be a combat veteran in a way that I haven't read before, and I applaud her for doing this so well without losing sight of the romance elements. That takes talent and it's something that I've come to love about Kane's writing.

So I was surprised by some of the events in this book, but I was so proud of Carmina going after what she wanted after struggling for so long. And Tom...oh Tom is just such a sweetheart of a guy and I just wanted to hug that man for all of his sensitivity to not only Carmina, but also Danny as well. I will admit that I thought he and Carmina were a perfect couple, but I did feel that Danny was a bit forced into the situation and didn't quite fit in right after that shower scene. Thankfully that feeling quickly dissipated though towards the end of the book, and these three characters really worked well for me as a menage relationship because they balanced one another so well.

This series from Kane has been exactly as I have expected from her writing. It has a perfect balance of emotion, action, romance, and steam that you just can't help but love it. I will caution that you should read the series in order and that this book is better read along with the others. Not that it detracts from the book to read it alone, but more so you will understand the characters a bit more. So with all that said, this is a definite read for all those football loving menage readers out there.

I love Samantha Kane and her Birmingham series is awesome. She writes wonderful characters that are well developed. I loved this story and look forward to more stories from this author.

I love a good sports romance and although I haven't read any other books in the Birmingham Rebels series, I was able to get into the story after a couple of chapters. I like the female lead, Carmina and the polyamorous relationship that unfolds between her, Tom and Danny. I have read quite a few books that feature this kind of relationship but I did feel a bit disturbed that male gay sex (for Tom's character) was described in one part as 'forbidden' when in fact it's just sex between consenting adults. That said, I did quite enjoy the book and how the relationship unfolded between the three characters, it had enough of a slow burn and the characters back stories were believable and had enough depth to keep me interested.

I've been a Birmingham Rebels fan since book 1, Broken Play. And I love getting lost in their world. We've seen glimpses of Danny and Tom throughout the other books, but I really enjoyed finally getting their stories! Tom has always been a good guy. The boy next door, with newly found sexual desires and temptations. He finds himself attracted to Carmina, but never acted on that desire. Danny, on the other hand, has found himself in trouble in the past and he's a part of the Rebels for a reason. He's trying to move past that part of his life but hasn't quite overcome the trauma and the anger he has held onto. Tom has been a good friend to him and a good roommate. They understand each other. They also shared an experience with a few other people to help Marian overcome her trauma. It was unexpected for Danny and he couldn't talk or think about what happened.
Carmina is trying to get her life back to "normal". She wants to date and be treated like a woman, not someone overcoming a traumatic experience and dealing with a head injury. She has had Sam as her protector, but she wants to spread her wings. Tom is safe and a comfortable choice for her. He helps her when he learns about a problem she has.
I enjoyed the ease Tom and Carmina have with each other and loved how sweet he was with her. Then the sexual tension between Carmina and Danny had been building. And whew! H-O-T-T! When heat up between them, they are scorching. Danny has to face what he didn't want to acknowledge and even though it's an atypical relationship (for most, not others on the Rebels team), it works for them. I was sucked into this book and enjoyed their story and their love for one another. If MFM isn't your thing, then skip this book, but Samantha Kane writes in such a wonderful way that she may change your mind. She makes the reader feel for her characters and let's that slow burn happen. Great series and I really enjoyed this read!

I was pleasantly surprised by Misconduct. I was expecting a book that started and ended with sex. Not only was the sex sparsely handed up in the book but the sex scenes were beautifully written. I have read several ménage books where everyone was just like “group sex/sex with a man. Let’s do it”. Instead, she had Danny teetering on the edge of wanting to do it and at the same time not wanting to. I loved it because when it finally does happen (both the group sex and sex with Tom), it was explosive.

I really liked that while the sex was part of the book, the author chose to focus on the characters and their different issues instead just having them have sex all the time. Carmina was a Wounded Warrior and was in therapy to help her relearn how to talk. Tom was sowing his wild oats and Danny had issues going back to college with the quarterback of another team. It was interesting to watch how the author had them work through their issues (well Tom banging everything in sight really wasn’t an issue).

Carmina was an interesting character to read. I will admit, that opening scene with the dildos and vibrators did make me giggle but once it was explained why she was having sexual issues, I stopped giggling. The giggling came back when she was telling Sam that she needed to have sex, to orgasm and he was pointed out who was wrong for her and she ended settling on Tom, her crush. And that first sex scene with Tom. I felt awful and honestly thought that maybe he should have stopped and not gotten off.00

I didn’t think that Danny or Tom would have ever crossed that threshold in the book (even though I knew it was going to happen). I really thought, at one point, that it would be just about Carmina and her sexual healing (sorry, had to throw that phrase in there). So when it did happen, I was a little surprised. Actually, a lot surprised.

Now, ménage books are normally not my kind of thing to read. They really just don’t do it for me but this book did, somewhat. Like I said, the author didn’t have the main characters humping their way across the book and I think that is what did it for me. For me, too much sex can be a bad thing.

The end of the book was what I expected. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, I did. It was just your typical HEA.

How many stars will I give Misconduct: 3

Why: Good book with surprisingly good plotlines. Just really couldn’t get into the characters or the sex.

Will I reread: Maybe

Will I recommend to family and friends: Maybe

Age range: Adult

Why: Sex and language

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

Tom, Danny and Carmina make an interesting love triangle. They all have their issues that get in the way of living their lives the way they would like. Can they overcome their issues and have a truly loving relationship or will the opinion of others and their own hangups get in the way?