My ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. When I was approved to review this book, I took the opportunity to catch up on the first 3 books in the series which had been on my TBR list for a while. They are all enjoyable in different ways and this was another good installment. They are out of Callahan siblings and it was wrapped up well with updates 5 years down the road for all of them so I assume this is the final book. I look forward to reading whatever comes next from this author.

🏐 synopsis:
A secret summer fling was all it was supposed to be, but suddenly Nikolai finds himself forced to transfer to Mcakee where the captain of the hockey team just happens to be the brother of Isabelle his ray of sunshine from the summer.

Izzy was trying to focus on winning back her dream position on the volleyball team while trying to forget about her got summer romance. But then Nik came crashing back into her life. She isn't sure she can keep her feelings secret for long

🏑My thoughts:
I absolutely adored this spicy college sports romance! I enjoyed that both main characters played a sport and had their own struggles with team dynamics and balancing the demands of trying to succeed. It also dealt with mental health issues and relationship struggles. the Callahan family and partners from the previous books all made appearances as well as adding in new characters from Nikolai's family.
⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

🏐 Forbidden love
🏑Secret relationship
🏐Found family
🏑Sports romance
🏐Grumpy/sunshine
🏑 Teammate's sister
🏐Open door spice

I liked this more than I thought I would. There was some good mental health discussion and I liked the characters. I did think it was a little long and the middle seemed to drag on but it didn’t detract from the story overall. I do think the author should have aged up the FMC as there were a lot scenes she was drinking outside of parties or whatever in a way that seemed unrealistic for an 18/19 year old.

Wicked Serve is book 4 in the Beyond the Play series by Grace Reilly and it is the absolute best spicy brother’s rival hockey romance story! I had the best time devouring this book!
I liked both of the MCs a lot and really enjoyed their energy.
Nik and Izzy's chemistry was off the charts!
Their chemistry was so beautiful. I’m such a character driven reader and they stole my heart right from the start.
Reilly has written extremely likable and relatable characters, it was the perfect blend of romantic, funny and sexy.

Thank You NetGalley and Avon for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Ugh!! Can this book be everything I needed and MORE! I realized it was part of a series when I saw some of the characters have been developed, but the Callaghan clan are literally the best family Ever.

Aside from that, let’s get to the real thing, the story Izzy and Nikolai, I tried to stay away from romance novels that the characters are college students, but I loved how adult concepts were incorporated in their lives, and how they developed in them, was amazing, I love how the author did that, There were real life problems in this relationship. But again, going back to their relationship, from the beginning, it gave me all of the amazing vibes of what a summer fling is. These two have the most steamy chemistry, it was too much fun to read.

Like I said I never read the other books but I loved how this one ended, overloaded with HEA’s.

✨ARC review✨

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

“𝐼𝒻 𝓈𝒽𝑒’𝓈 𝓈𝓊𝓃𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑒, 𝐼’𝓂 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑔𝓊𝓎 𝓌𝒽𝑜 𝒽𝑜𝓅𝑒𝓈 𝒾𝓉 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓇𝓉𝓈 𝓇𝒶𝒾𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔”

He’s her brother’s biggest rival in hockey and the summer fling no one can ever know she had. She’s the sun he never knew he needed and the one person he shouldn’t be with.
After the perfect summer, both Nikolai and Izzy reluctantly return to their normal lives; Nik returns to Massachusetts to finish his last year of college Hockey before hopefully playing in the NHL 🏒and Izzy returns to McKee University with only 2 goals: get her positions as setter back 🏐and forget she ever met Nikolai Volkov. Things get complicated fast when due to an unfortunate circumstance Nik ends up at McKee University playing with his biggest rival, Izzy’s brother. Will Izzy and Nik let everything and everyone else keep them apart or will they go against the odds and choose each other ?

Wicked serve had me completely entranced from start to finish! As a girl who was obsessed with Anastasia as a kid and also grew up in Canada, Nik is like crossing Dimitri with the hot hockey player from High School (ifykyk 👀)
I loved the complexity of both Izzy and Nik’s characters as they both struggled with figuring out who they were as individuals and not just the sister/child of a famous athlete. And the chemistry between these two ?!?!🔥🔥🥵🥵 I couldn’t get enough!
This story also tackled some intense topics such as mental health (panic disorder) and physical/mental abuse and they were done with so much tact but please read the Trigger Warnings before reading!

Here’s some more of what you can expect from Grace Reilly’s Wicked Serve:
🏐Brothers rival 😏
🏒”Good girl” 🤤
🏐Sports romance (🏒x🏐)
🏒Family trauma and drama
🏐Mental Health Rep
🏒Sneaking around
🏐Possessive MMC
🏒Found Family
🏐Book 4 (interconnected stand alone)

I want to thank both NetGalley, Valentine PR and the author for the opportunity to read this book early in exchange for a honest review 💕

This is the fourth and last book in the Beyond the Play series with the Callahan family. I’m going to miss every single one of them, including Izzy and Nik. This was a fantastic varied sports series about a family I would love to be a part of. Each set of stories was unique but existed naturally within the family.

We’re dropped into Izzy and Niks story at the end of a summer fling. This makes the start of the book a little jarring but not in a bad way. Just getting on a rollercoaster which releases you into a drop instead pulling you up the incline one forbidding click at a time. We are free falling from the first moment. I was a super cool way to start a story.

The dual POV is fantastic and I think nuance would be lost without understanding where each of them is coming from.

Nik is the perfect sad damaged self-loathing protective deeply loving rich boi. He has a lot of relationship trauma he needs to work out. He reminded me of Luke Ryder (in the best ways possible) but was also a totally separate character. His Russian side is great and I loved his adaptability. Plus the way he treats Izzy is easy to swoon over.

Izzy is a classic youngest child and the only girl with three professional athlete brothers giving her a large dose of sass to be able to stand up to them and imposter syndrome. I loved her energy and how she supports everyone in her life.

We get to experience their relationship evolve a ton throughout the book, something I truly love. Both characters have significant growth moments as well.

The cameos are top notch. I am so happy to see Cooper and Penny featured quite a bit, along with all the other Callahans and Tangerine! I do wish the epilogue was a smidge longer just because I am a glutton more not because it wasn’t enough.

As for spice, this is not the spiciest book in the series. The scenes are great, very well written, lots of adventure and detail. Only complaint is that there weren’t more.

This is the first book I have read by Grace Reilly, and I am in love. The characters are well written, and you cannot help but fall in love and root for their happy ending. The book was fun, spicy, and heartfelt. It even made me tear up a few times. Nikolai and Izzy were perfect for each other. I really enjoyed watching them support each other and fight for each other's happiness. I adored Izzy's relationship with her brothers. I cannot say enough wonderful things about this book, and I am excited to read this author's backlist.

“If she’s sunshine, I’m the guy who hopes it never starts raining.”

Wicked Serve was a delight to read. Isabelle and Nikolai are so refreshing together and I loved the way their relationship developed so organically. They were so good together.

“I don’t want to stop falling, not when it comes to her.”

This was so much more than a secret relationship story. It was a story about a healthy couple who communicate their wants, needs, and insecurities and supports each other in their life goals. Full of spicy moments, flirty banter, and heartwrenching emotions, I immensely enjoyed Wicked Serve. This was my first book by this author and I will be checking out the rest of this series.

4.75/5 stars

This hockey-college romance was such an enjoyable read. It was quick to read and had a great balance of plot and spice. When it comes to Nik and Izzy's chemistry, it's there from the start, reflecting their previous summer fling (wish we got to see more of it, it could be a fun novella). I think what makes this book so entrancing is how human/ realistic their college struggles were. Also, the complexity of Nik's relationship with his father and hockey is fascinating to see develop.

SPOILER AHEAD: What I liked about the third act break up was it wasn't one. They were taking the space from each other so Nik could get the help he needed so they could truly be together.

I thought this was a super cute completion to the Callahan family stories! I loved Nikolai and Isabelle so much, and we got to spend lots of time catching up with the other siblings and their partners.

Am I the only one who never starts a series from the beginning? Or is that just me? I always spot these cute covers and then realize they’re part of a series. But even though I didn’t read the first books, I didn’t feel like I missed anything. It actually made me curious about the other books!

This was a cute and funny story following Isabelle and Nikolai. I enjoyed how they were introduced and how the story picked up from where the prologue left off.

I had a great time reading this book. Isabelle is very determined and wants to excel in everything she does, while Nikolai has a lot of problems and trauma to work through.

I loved how there was minimal miscommunication between them. They talked about everything and tried their best to respect each other’s decisions. However, I felt that sometimes Isabelle was a bit pushy with Nikolai, always urging him to share things he clearly wasn’t ready to discuss. If the roles were reversed, she would probably have been upset.

I also think the book could have been a little shorter. Since they were together for most of the story, we mainly saw them being a cute couple, which was nice, but I needed a bit more drama.

Overall, this was a fluffy read. I enjoyed the family moments and how Nikolai and Cooper went from enemies to besties, giving Nikolai someone other than Isabelle who had his back.

Thank you, Valentine PR and NetGalley, for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I enjoy a good sports romance here and there but wasn’t impressed with this. The entire book felt really long with a lot of scenes that added sub plots that felt unrelated to the overall story. The characters aren’t anything impressive. And the steam felt cringy when his response to her was “good girls let their boyfriends f* them wherever they want”. Meh. It’s a summer fling (for a girl not on birth control?) turned into a school transfer and of course they wanna make it a long term thing but have hoops to jump through. Lots of family / emotional trauma and enough money that a quick trip to Australia isn’t even questioned.

I received an advance review copy for free from the publisher via Netgalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I had super high hopes for Wicked Serve, but it fell a bit flat for me. I feel like the story stretched on way longer than necessary - I’m a strong believer that romances don’t usually need to be more than 400 pages. At 467 pages, Wicked Serve really drags out the plot and generously throws in fluff and filler. Another complaint I have is that several unrealistic things happened (I.e. Nik surprises Izzy with a trip to Australia and it was just a little ridiculous regarding the circumstances and activities). I also didn’t feel the connection between Nik and Izzy as much as I’d hoped. I enjoyed the story when there was plot movement and I think it was an overall okay read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Valentine PR, Avon, and the author for sending me an early copy!

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager for allowing me to be an ARC reader.
Sneaking around, spice, brother's teammate, lots of banter.
Isabelle has been hurt in the past and is reluctant to fall for any man any time soon. When she meets Nikolai, their summer romance ends tragically as suspected. He leaves without saying goodbye and breaking contact. Isabelle is heartbroken. Nikolai ends up returning and is now on her campus and playing college hockey.. with her brother. She runs into him... of course... and the attraction is still there. Can they sneak around and have a secret "friendship " without getting caught?
Nikolai has also been hurt in the past. Will they be able to find true happiness?
This story had me absolutely swooning and blushing. I cried and laughed... a lot!
10/5 🌟 I loved it!

I found both main characters' stories compelling. Izzy doesn't feel she measures up to her family's accomplishments. Nikolai is a talented hockey player afraid he'll become like his abusive father. Izzy has a wonderful, loving family. Nik is pretty much a loner. All of this works well for an angsty sports romance, However, the open door sex scenes are too numerous and detailed, slow down the story, and really seem to belong in a different book. These college kids are awfully sophisticated sexually, more like older adults.

I rated this 4,5 stars! This book was the perfect ending to this series. You get plenty of insight from the characters from the previous books and how theyre relationships are going. Also the main characters in this book, Nik and Izzy, are absolutely perfect for each other. Both of them struggle with some issues. For Izzy it’s the feeling of needing to live up to certain expectations from her family and for Nik it’s dealing with some pretty heavy childhood trauma.

Im usually a little skeptical when it comes to reading about domestic abuse since it’s often very romanticized but that’s definitely not the case here. It was very well written and made me care and feel very deeply for Nik.

I think this might be my favorite book in the series so please don’t hesitate to read it!

Wicked Serve was such a fun read! Thanks to NetGalley for this arc. If you love hockey romances, you’ll like this! I really enjoyed the characters and their personal growth, especially Nick. I did find it to be a little long in some parts, but would still recommend!

Thank you Netgalley and Avon for the opportunity to read this eARC.

3.5. I seriously enjoyed this book....this is the first in the series for me and at time felt heavy handed on all the characters on the page at all times. I am sure if I read the first books in the series I would love every minute of it. However it felt ALOT to digest as a new reader for this world.

I loved Nik's journey as he learned how to navigate his childhood trauma, but sometimes it felt repetitive and made the story stagnant. The author did a fantastic job exploring options for his self healing and making sure that the readers knew it's about taking ownership for find your own happiness and not put that happiness into a single person.

Every time I read a new book in this series, I tell myself, “That’s my new book boyfriend.” ….this one is no different. Reilly always writes characters with such depth & development all around the concept of chosen families and different sports to tie them all in. I had been longing to know more about Izzy since she was first introduced in the series, and my excitement once I realized she was getting her own book was off the wall! The invisible string that continuously ties Izzy & Nikolai together makes my heart flutter as they exemplify trust, persistence, and love towards each other, and I can’t wait for more of anything Grace Reilly pens.