This was an adorable story… it didn’t need to be over 400 pages (personal opinion), but I enjoyed it. I absolutely loved Nikolai, but there were moments when I just felt absolutely sad for him. He stands up for others who can’t stand up for themselves, but when it comes to himself, you can tell he’s frustrated but stays quiet.

Izzy was hit or miss for me. Sometimes, I loved her, and sometimes, she got on my nerves. I appreciated their relationship and the fact that there wasn’t any miscommunication between them. They both had some mental health issues to deal with, which made both of them endearing. It made Nikolai and Izzy relatable.

I didn’t realize this was book four of a series, but it is a standalone. There were moments when this dragged a bit. While the chapters were short, there were a lot of them, some of them were unnecessary.

The entire series is available on Kindle Unlimited.

rating: 4 stars

This is the first book I have read in this series, so it absolutely stands alone and you are able to keep the other characters straight, even though there are a lot. I am sure I will go back and read at least some of the other books in the series as I think they will be just as good as this one. The only reason I don't give this book 5 stars is there is just too much angst in it, and the angst lasts for most of the book! The love story, though, really isn't the main angst in the book, which is refreshing! Nik and Isabella are a great couple, and this is a YA book, so if you don't like those, this isn't the book for you. The path to their HEA is rocky, but well worth the journey. I can absolutely recommend this book. Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy.

arc review: wicked serve —

rating: 4 stars

this is book 4 in the beyond the play series and i don’t think you absolutely have to read the first 3 books to understand the other characters but it’s always good too! and after reading this i’ll definitely be wanting to read anything by grace reilly

this book follows nikolai and isabella who have just had a summer fling come to an end especially because nikolai and isabella’s old brother are hockey rivals

i really enjoyed the fun and lightheartedness of this book. isabella and nikolai are really great characters and i really enjoyed getting to read them. the spice was good and this is definitely a book to read when you just want to enjoy yourself. i love how hard they both fell for each other over their summer fling, the chemistry was soooo good!!! and so much encouragement between the characters especially because they are both competing in different sport teams

i really loved this book and definitely makes me want to read the complete series

read this if you love:
💗 sports romance
💗 secret relationship
💗 brother’s rival
💗 he falls first and harder

thank you valentine pr, net galley and grave reilly for this arc 🤍

"𝐈𝐟 𝐬𝐡𝐞'𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞, 𝐈'𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐮𝐲 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠."

Grace never misses, just like the other 3 books I loved Wicked Serve. The way she portrays the consequences of child (and domestic) abuse is raw and beautiful. I loved Nikolai and Isabel together – also a huge fan of the fact that there wasn’t much conflict between the two of them; and when there was conflict, they resolved it by communicating like adults instead of jumping to conclusions (we love that). I also adored the realistic epilogue! I do however think this book could’ve been shorter – especially the middle part of it dragged on a bit.

The vibes ✨
- Hockey player x Volleyball player
- Mental Health rep
- College setting
- Found family
- ‘Forbidden’ romance
- And much more!

This was my first Grace Reilly book (I know I know I started with the last book in the series😅) and I really enjoyed it! The writing was great! I never felt like the story was dragging and I read the entire book in a little over a day. I laughed, I cried, it truly has you invested in these characters and rooting for them to get their happy ending.

Definitely recommend to all sports romance readers! Now I’m off to start the first book in the series😂

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy to review!

This was my first ever book by Grace Reilly, which I was fortunate enough to be given as an advanced reader copy. While I had not read previous books that would have offered backstory on our FMC Isabelle‘s siblings and their partners, I felt like this book was strong on its own.

And while the activity in the book centered around college- aged main characters, I still felt connected to them, likely because they were both written in a way that was really mature and emotional. The love story between Isabelle and Nikolai was both beautiful and a little heartbreaking to me throughout the book. For his part, Nik was dealing with so much trauma, and it obviously impacted his lens of the world, especially his view of what love and relationships could be. The beauty comes in when Isabelle and he reconnect after he transfers to McKee — and she slowly, gracefully, lovingly teaches him what true support, respect, and love looks like.

I won’t say more than that so as not to spoil the story, but I think this was a really well-written book that I enjoyed reading from start to finish. I will definitely be picking up more titles from Grace as I go back and explore Izzy’s siblings’ stories sometime very soon!

Nikolai and Isabelle are fresh off a summer fling that’s totally off-limits. He’s her brother’s rival, and he’d lose it if he knew. But are they going to let that stop them from being together? Obviously not. What’s refreshing here is the lack of endless angst and misunderstandings. Instead of endless should we should we not drama, this book delivers just the right amount of spice and sweetness. It’s a fun, light read that’s perfect if you're craving something cute and easy. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC—I absolutely adore Nikolai and Isabelle!

What a conclusion to an absolutely amazing series! I’m sad that my time with the Callahan family is over because I could read about their lives forever it seems.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect of the youngest Callahan’s story, but Izzy did not disappoint! She was fierce and confident and unapologetically herself. It made her more vulnerable moments all the more relatable. Trying to live up to your older siblings accomplishments is hard, but I loved the support that Izzy had (even when she wasn’t aware of it).

Nik was a delightful addition to this series. I loved that he speaks another language and that he gives her a nickname in that language! Learning about his struggles and watching him endure them was tough, but getting to experience his journey and Izzy’s impact on his life was gratifying.

I loved the cameo’s from past characters and getting to see how past relationships have developed. The Callahan’s are such a beautiful family, they make you want to be a part of it.

Lastly, Grace writes some of the best spice I’ve ever read! There was a really great balance of steam and sustenance to their story.

Rating: 5 stars
Spice: 4 stars

Izzy, the baby sister, youngest child, and often the one forgotten about. She has spent her life in her three brothers shadows, from sports to career plans. She isn't playing the position she's used to for volleyball, has no idea what she wants to do with her life after college, and everyone sees her as the party girl. Nikolai is the son of a famous hockey player, but what no one knows is how his dad abused him and his mom. His grandfather took them in when they escaped years ago, but hates hockey and wants to strongarm Nik into taking over the family business instead of following his NHL contract. Izzy feels like a failure, until along comes Nikolai during her summer internship. The captain of one of her brother's rival team. But a summer fling between the two, no matter how amazing shouldn't matter, right? Wrong. Nikolai gets expelled from his school for covering for a teammate, and transfers to McKee with Izzy and her brother. As they run into each other more and more, their connection becomes undeniable. But Izzy and Nikolai have plenty of issues on their own, let alone together. Will their love be enough or will the world break them apart?

I was BEYOND excited when I got the notification I was selected to read this ARC. This has got to be one of my favorite hockey books now. Grace Reilly absolutely hit it out of the park with this final book in the series!! The topics she tackled, like anxiety and domestic abuse, were handled beautifully. She did her research, and as someone with anxiety I feel like she appropriately displayed the characteristics with Nik. AND THE SPICE!!! So flipping good, the descriptions were top tier and just perfectly placed. Felt like the plot and spice were perfectly balanced. I loved that characters from past books appeared in it, but without overshadowing the main ones. Definitely going on my favorites list, highly recommend!!

First thought: Hockey & Volleyball in this double threat sports romance- Yes Please! I had to read this one as I am a volleyball girl and I couldn’t wait to have a FMC that shared my passion for the sport. If you like a bit of secret romance, college sports, strong family bonds and spice this one’s for you.

Izzy grew up in a house of boys who were competitive, her family all does sports. So she took up volleyball to prove to them she’s an athlete also. This summer she internship in NYC in wedding planning and she thrived at it. She may have also had a summer fling with the boss’s son who happened to be the rival school’s caption of her brother’s hockey team. Now school started and it’s time to focus. She just needs her coach to see the amount of work she’s putting in, so she can shine in the position she wants to play.

Nik has a complicated dark past he keeps buried down. He just took the fall for his teammate and was kicked out of college. Thankfully his grandfather is wealthy and has influence so he was able to finish his senior year at another college and still play hockey. But that came with strings.. he agreed after college instead of going to the NHL he will go into the family business. So that’s going to suck but at-least he gets to still play one more season. The only issue is he’s now on the team of his summer flings brother and he doesn’t want it to be more than just a summer fling.

Read this one to see how Izzy and Nik navigate a year of college with all the things flying: volleyballs, hockey pucks,snowballs and feelings.

*References of domestic abuse that cause panic attacks due to childhood trauma

Literally Themes you’ll find:

* Hockey vs Volleyball Player
* Teammate’s Little Sister
* Secret Romance
* Found Family
* Grand Gestures
* Grumpy x Sunshine
* Collegiate Romance
* Dual POV
* Spice🔥


🏐🐨🏒🏐🐨🏒🏐🐨🏒🏐🐨🏒🏐🐨🏒🏐

Isobel and Nickolai spent an exciting, forbidden summer together in NYC where they developed feelings for each other. Their relationship had to end because he’s the captain of the hockey team for her rival university. As the captain of McKee’s hockey team, her brother Cooper considers Nikolai to be his arch nemesis.
When Nikolai gets expelled, he ends up at McKee playing with Cooper. Starting up his relationship with Izzy is extremely risky but they can’t stop themselves. They lean on each other as Izzy learns about Nikolai’s dad who plays Russian pro hockey, and Izzy shares her feelings about succeeding in her athletic family.
There are deeper themes addressed, like parental approval/expectations and sibling relationships that add to the quality of the book.
I enjoyed this one and I’m looking forward to the next book!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley, I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

When Nikolai (Nik) is forced to move to a whole new state, college and hockey team, he realizes that it all comes with a massive challenge: being in close proximity to the captain’s sister; Isabelle Callahan. The sister that he messed around with the summer before school started. If the brother finds out that Nik slept with his sister then he risks losing his spot on a roster all over again. His dreams of being in the NHL gone, just like that. Not only that but due to past relationships and trauma, he can’t be the one Isabelle Callahan needs.

Isabelle (Izzy) Callahan has set two goals for sophomore year: 1. get back in the good graces of the volleyball coach and get her spot back and 2. Forget all about the handsome defenseman, Nik Abney-Volkov and the summer they spent together. When Nik shows up unexpectedly on the McKee campus, all the intentions of forgetting Nik are wasted. Their friends-with-benefits relationship has slowly turned into more and blurred the lines. Will they be able to come to a decision to be together or are they destined to be apart from the start?

I have read all of the Callahan books besides the third one (sorry Sebby!) and this one was very cute! I wish it had been a bit shorter maybe in the 340-370 page range. The “We shouldn’t have done this”, or “we can’t do this”, got a little frustrating at times but I was able to power through it. Overall it was pretty good, only minor changes that I would’ve made. Some tropes include brothers rival, summer fling, hockey romance, and secret relationship. There may be more that I missed. Some TWs would be mention of spousal abuse (MMC father to mother), mention of drgs, and some others. Please be careful and look into TWs before reading. Take care of yourself!

Great steamy story. I loved Isabel and Nikolai together. I also loved reuniting with all of the characters from the previous books. The book had some emotional subjects.

I really wanted to love this one! But for some reason I couldn't connect. I tired to push through but I think I need to pick it back up at a later time!

I love hockey romances and have read many in the past year. For many of these books the love interest in usually the brothers best friends or the best friends brother so having the MMC be the rival was an interesting change that I really enjoyed. This was the first book I read for this author and I it really kept me captivated so I can’t wait to read more books by this author.

My rating: 4/5
Spice: 3.5/5, Maybe a 4 if you are not used to spicey scenes

I thought I loved Cooper and Penny. WRONG. I liked Cooper and Penny in comparison to Izzy and Nik. I love Izzy and Nik. Their relationship reminds me alot of Summer and Fitzy from The Chase. The only thing that really has me in a whiplash are the amount of troipes happening all at once. You've got Brother's Teammate/ex-rival, secret relationship, FWB to lovers, Grumpy x Sunshine, and sports for both MCs. After I absorbed it all, I loved how well it melds together in the terms of the separate views of Nik and Izzy.

One of the best things about Grace Reilly's writing is that even by showcasing so much slice of life in her chapters, I never have to expect for a last minute reveal or quick acceptance of circumstances. Her writing gets straight to the point when it comes to revealing her character's relationships. It makes me so freaking happy. The anticipation being drawn out is always what has me bored at about 50% but this has NEVER been the case with Reilly.

Besides the nickname of Sunshine, I love Izzy. She is a bright little twinkly light that knows how to have fun and is still somehow putting herself in the shadows of her brothers. I am glad we get to see what Nik sees in her and it makes her a very fun character. Nik, is brooding and complicated like most of our beloved MMCs. I Think it took me alot longer to warm up to his points of view. Even in his own mind he is so closed off from his past trauma. But that is so fun to see how our author shows us that he breaks free from his own mental confinement and wants to try harder because he sees how great a happy life can be.

Overall, I loved seeing Izzy and Nik progress in their own realizations of their self-worth and in their relationship together. I love them together and I love that Grace Reilly's sports romances actually have a decent amount of time covering the sports mentioned. I have never read a volleyball romance. The hockey side of the book was nothing new to me, but I feel like I learned things about a sport I knew nothing in.

this was such a cute hockey romance!! the forbidden aspect was perfectly executed, and all the sneaking around was so thrilling. the fact that they so CLEARLY had feelings for each other but called their arrangment «mutual stress relief» was so funny, i can’t 😂😂 like who are you kidding??

this story was also deeply emotional, which you don’t necessarily expect from just looking at the cover, and the balance between the emotional moments and the fun and lighthearted ones was perfect. the couple communicated in a healthy way and they were so supportive and understanding of each other. also, the spice was phenomenal.

this could probably have been slightly shorter, but it was overall a fantastic hockey romance!

- college romance
- brother’s rival
- hockey player x volleyball player
- friends with benefits
- forbidden
- anxiety rep

4.25 ⭐️
2.5 🌶️

Currently I am out of the country so I have not had a chance to write a full review of Wicked Serve but I will go ahead and say that I did enjoy the read. It felt a bit long but it was still very enjoyable!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️

Isabelle and Nikolai are Grace Reilly’s best couple yet. I enjoyed reading the first four books in this series, but I loved reading Wicked Serve. It was refreshing to see the FMC be an athlete too and fully understand the love of sport. The dedication it took to excel and the hard work that went into staying the best you can be.
Isa and Nik fell hard for each other over one summer. Their relationship is beyond sweet and healthy from the get go. No toxic traits here! Nik is very aware of Isa’s needs, but tends to put everyone before himself. Isa is strong and stands up not only for herself, but family and friends as well.
I want to record the saying that Nik whispered into Isa’s ears and play them back to myself! He whispered sweet nothings, but in Russian! Swoon!!!! And that is just the start of the perfection that is the spice in this book. I can’t say enough how much I loved these two together and the relationship they cultivated between the two of them.
The vulnerability each of them displayed as they grew closer was amazing! It takes a lot of trust to open up about some of the things in their past and you could feel the trust between these two pouring off the pages. Especially Nik and his past. There are some heavy topics discussed in the book, but Grace writes them with finesse.
I loved, loved, loved Grace putting emphasis on mental health. It isn’t talked about enough in the sports world. The pressure that athletes feel is real and no one takes the time to look at how it is tearing them apart. There is a fine line between determination and hard work to obsessive and unhealthy. The fact that she doesn’t gloss over this topic was appreciated by this reader.

As always review trigger warnings before reading.

Tropes:
☀️Sports Romance
☀️Hockey MMC x Volleyball FMC
☀️College Romance
☀️Secret relationship
☀️Brother's Rival
☀️Found Family
☀️Mental Health Rep (childhood trauma, panic attacks, "am i enough")
☀️Dual POV

3⭐️

"If she's sunshine, I'm the guy who hope it never stops raining. But deep down, I worry that I'm the typhoon."

TROPES
🏒 sports romance
🏐 college romance
🏒 he falls first
🏐 secret relationship
🏒 dual POV

Things I loved:
- coming back to the Callahan family once more
- summer fling doesn't get to last only for the summer
- very cool supportive family
- very determined FMC and MMC (constant go-getters, dedicated, etc. I appreciate that quality)
- healthy relationship between Nik and Isabelle


Things I could have gone without:
- the length. 400 pages just felt like too much for this particular storyline.
- the big reveal of their relationship was at the midway point and it felt like that could have been the ending rather than how it continued to play out.
- this sounds like it contradicts my healthy relationship comment previously but Isabelle pestering Nikolai for his family background was uncomfy.

Overall, this was an enjoyable summer read! I think I'd still go back and read the books from this series I haven't read yet!