Wicked Serve blends college sports, spice, family, heavy topics, and koalas.

This story is cute if a bit predictable. I appreciate the lack of drama in Nik and Izzy's relationship. They continue to show up for one another time after time, while choosing to support the other, sometimes at the detriment to themselves.

Izzy's character is strong, but still immature and finding her place in the world. She's a fierce supporter of those she loves.

Nik is damaged but he's the best possible outcome from that situation. His drive to be better for Izzy is almost swoon worthy.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

Try as I might I just couldn’t get into this. The writing felt off and all the characters seemed like old people disguised as college aged kids. Nik’s weird phrasing when speaking to Izzy felt like an old man disguised as a teenager. Also the whole bragging repeatedly about how many girls he’s bedded was just weird. Izzy tried to present herself as well off and fancy but kept going on about Starbucks and Target as well as the Trader Joe’s flowers. Surely there are better florists in Manhattan Izzy.

Nik and Izzy were so sweet! I liked when they were hiding their relationship, but it was so much better when they came clean. This book reminded me why Cooper is my favorite Callaghan. He was so sweet when everything came out! I love how much Nik supports Izzy. He is so wonderful! This book was fabulous, especially in audio. Faith Clark and Oscar Reyes did such a fantastic job performing this audio!

Wicked Serve by Grace Reilly 🩵
Beyond the Play, Book 4
Interconnected Standalone

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
New Adult • Sports Romance
ARC Review
448 pages
🗓️ August 13

•hockey romance
•volleyball romance
•college romance
•rival/teammate’s sister
•secret relationship
•from summer fling to more
•3rd act wobble, no breakup

📌“She was mine for three months and she’s still mine, never mind the weeks of silence. How the hell could I have thought this would fade the moment she wasn’t in my mother’s office every day?”

📌“Of course I missed him; I missed him before I even lost him.”

📌“Dance with me”
“Always, Isabelle.”

The opening line reads, “The High Line at sunset is pretty.” And I just knew I would get along with this book. Because the High Line is indeed beautiful at that time of the day 😜

I had no idea I was going for the fourth book in this series of interconnected standalones. And yet, I have no regrets. I mean, I now need to go read the other three. Need! But I didn’t need them to enjoy Isabelle and Nikolai. To fall so desperately for these two.

This book got me so good. From the swooning romance to all the mental health rep. From the sports goodness — love a good rivalry — to all the side characters. The list of things that made this book absolutely unputdownable is long. Very, very long. And I was here for every single one of them.

Is it bad if I read Cooper’s book next? I know it’s not the first in the series but he might be my favorite 🫶🏼

I’ve loved every hockey romance I’ve read and this book is no exception.

What starts out as a fling, turns into something more once Isabelle and Nik realize they actually care for one another and want to be together. Isabelle and Nikolai are such a great couple. They both had their own goals that they wanted to achieve and they helped each other reach those them. They are also there for each other through their tougher moments. Isabelle helps Nikolai open up and talk about his past with his father. Meanwhile, Nikolai helps Isabelle see her true potential and that she shouldn’t compare to those in her family.

I loved that the secret relationship wasn’t secret the entire book. The ending made me so sad, but also so happy. I liked the fact that Nik did what was best for himself, but it would help their relationship in the end. This book is also full of spice!

Thank you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for an ARC for an honest opinion.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️.5

NIKOLAI!!!!!!! That’s it. That’s the review.

Just kidding! But seriously, that man made the whole book. Nothing against Izzy, she was great, but NIK?????? My man, my man, my man 🥰

Their relationship was so good to read. I loved that they had a history, but I wished we could have gotten some flashbacks to that throughout the book instead of just the prologue. It just would have been nice to read some of their earlier moments, as well.

The spicy scenes were okay. There were a few words I could have done without (seed, slick, etc.) but that’s just my own personal opinion. Sometimes it felt like the scenes were there just to have spice, which is fine. But it just didn’t really add much sometimes.

I will say, this book felt like it went on forever, though. There were so many chapters that I felt weren’t really necessary to the story as a whole and they made the book drag on quite a bit for me.

BUT!!!!!!! I love Grace Reilly and this whole series and the epilogue in this book was my favorite of all of them so far 🥹

Thank you so much to Valentine PR for the ARC of this book!!!! 🫶🏻

Thank you NetGalley, Avon and Harper Voyager and Grace Reilly for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wicked Serve is the story of Izzy Callahan and Nikolai. Izzy is the 4th Callahan sibling in this series so I recommend reading those books first so you meet all the characters and know their backstories.

This is told in two perspectives, Izzy and Nikolai. There is a lot of spice but some bigger topics are also covered - domestic violence, cheating, panic attacks, self doubt, manipulation, etc.

I liked that the story included growth in the main characters and the third act wasn’t frustrating because there was a good reason behind

Wicked Serve was one of my most anticipated releases of 2024 and it did not disappoint. It was the perfect conclusion to the Beyond the Play series. Coming back to these characters felt like coming home 🥰

- college sports romance 🏐🏒
- brother's rival (now teammate)
- secret relationship
- grumpy x sunshine ☀️
- mental health rep
- found family
- spiiiice 🌶 🌶 🌶

Grace Reilly's writing and characterization keep getting better and better...she manages to draw you in the story from page one and makes you fall in love with the characters, each with their own specifically tailored personality, set of struggles, fears and flaws.
The story is fun and light, but also deeply emotional, due to Nikolai's childhood trauma and present mental health struggles. Isabelle was the light to the darkness of Nikolai's childhood...I mean, he literally calls here SUNSHINE, guys 😭💛
Isabelle and Nikolai complemented each other perfectly: their chemistry was off the charts and the spice was *chef's kiss*, but what I loved most of all is when they finally got vulnerable with each other, letting their guards down and showing their scars and struggles.
As much as I'm sad that it's over, I couldn't have asked for a better conclusion to the Callahan series. Pick this series up and become obsessed with me 😂😍

TW: panic attacks (on page), domestic violence/abuse (on page through flashbacks)

title: Wicked Serve

author: Grace Reilly

publisher: Avon

publication date: August 13, 2024

pages: 448

peppers: 3-4 (on this scale)

warnings: 

spousal/child abuse
violence
trauma
alcohol abuse
anxiety

summary: Volleyball-playing, college sophomore Izzy never thought she'd see Nik again after their summer fling because she goes to school in Boston and he's the captain of the UMass ice hockey team. However, when he gets thrown out of his college and transfers to hers, their connection, which is problematic because her brother is on his team now, reignites. He's dealing with childhood trauma that makes it hard for him to feel safe, and she's got an overprotective family.

tropes:

summer fling that was never meant to last
brother's teammate
big family
controlling grandfather
alcoholic father
big family-no family
athletes

what I liked: 

lots of character development
actually talk about their school work
dual point of view makes sense
good family scenes

what I didn’t like:

book is too long
the main characters sometimes seem age-appropriate, sometimes not


overall rating: 3 (of 5 stars)

Wicked Serve
3⭐️ 3🌶️
- MF
- Collegiate Sports
- Secret Relationship
- Brother’s Rival

If you like collegiate sports romance then think this you’ll really enjoy this book. I unfortunately don’t, usually finding the characters annoyingly immature. I keep reading them hoping I’ll find one that I like and that’s my fault.

This book had some delicious tension in the beginning of the book. Izzy and Nikolai had to keep their summer fling a secret since he is her older brother’s hockey rival. Their intense attraction was apparent from the start.

But I was frustrated by Izzy. She has lived a charmed life and seemed unable to imagine that Nikolai’s life wasn’t as idyllic. It really bothered me that she expected him to share his childhood trauma when she wanted, regardless of how he was feeling.

I liked Nikolai a lot. But also wanted to shake him. He needed to stop bricking up his emotions when it came to his family.

Ultimately they were both annoyingly young (my first clue should have been that they weren’t even born when Legally Blonde came out!) which makes sense for the genre. So I fully accept that it is my fault for picking this up.

I enjoyed the narration. Faith Clark did a wonderful job. I loved the variety of voices she had for the large number of female characters. I did enjoy Oscar Reyes as Nikolai but felt he lost his accent at times. Sometimes he sounded Russian, sometimes he sounded Scottish, and sometimes there was a third accent that I couldn’t place but was different from the other two. His performance as all the other male characters was great though.

જ⁀➴ 3.5 ★

"The High Line at sunset is pretty. Isabelle Callahan at sunset is stunning."

Full transparency, I actually loved this book's plot and I think the book started off really strongly but the only problem I had with this book which did shake the rating up was that I felt like it was kinda dragged on towards the end and that it was just longer than necessary to be honest without a strong enough plot by then to support it. Most of everything/anything got resolved by like the 50% point and could have ended there in my opinion.

But one of the highlights of this book which I was OBSESSEDD with was the friends to lovers trope. I just LOVEEEE the familiarity and comfortability between the hero and heroine in friends to lovers tropes and that's what you get with them.

And he also calls her sweetheart????? 😫😫🙏

Another thing worth mentioning of what I enjoyed about this book is how this man is ENAMOURRED with the heroine and how the heroine is ALSO a collegiate athlete herself (i need more books like this!! i love seeing heroines in sports). Nikolai had an interesting character arc because in the book, he kinda has his own story as he struggles with his mental health. And he was just such an easy to love character with the way he cares and loves Isabelle. For this reason I really wanted to see more of their "prologue" time where they began their summer fling because I loved that.

I think if the author wanted the book to be longer with substantial material she could've included that instead of the extra padding at the latter half of the book.

All in all though I think other than that, the book was very cute/fluffy and the soft scenes in this book by the hero were done RIGHT, i loved him a lot.

some tropes
➢ second chance
➢ brother's rival turned teammate
➢ athlete x athlete

and also a big thank you for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!! <3

I was absolutely loving it in the beginning but about 60% of the way through it kind of went downhill. This book is waaaaay longer than it needed to be. If you took out about 150 pages it would probably be a 4.5 star read for me. It just felt like there was so much extra added in for no reason and it really brought the reading experience down.

I did love their relationship. It was so sweet and cute. The actual romance between the main characters was by far my favorite thing out of the entire story. It got almost sickeningly sweet, but in a totally good way.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ✨/5 (3.5 stars)
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Brother’s rival, secret relationship, sports (volleyball & hockey)

Wicked Serve brought in all the elements of a Grace Reilly book - sports, significant character development, and spice. Izzy and Nikolai have a secret friends with benefits relationship over the summer, and that should’ve been the end of it. That all changes when Nikolai is expelled from school and his grandfather gets him into McKee University for senior year.

I did appreciate that they did not maintain their secret/friends with benefits relationship for long in the book. Isabelle and Nikolai were able to have a straightforward conversation about what they wanted going forward, but only after he tries to end it and she ends up in the hospital with a concussion sooo. But they were able to clear the air with her brother fairly quickly.

The remaining story/conflicts in the book revolved around uncertainty about the future. Izzy is becoming disinterested in volleyball and isn’t sure what she wants to do with her life. Meanwhile, Nikolai knows he wants to play hockey, but is unwillingly being set up to take over the family business. Woven into these struggles are Izzy’s feelings of insecurity and Nikolai’s past trauma (TW - domestic abuse).

Unfortunately, the story does become very long and drawn out for me. There is no way a college sophomore should know what they want to do in the future or be able to plan her brother’s extravagant wedding. Also there’s no way Nikolai should’ve been expected to take over a multimillion dollar business after college. But the overall resolution was so worth it!

(P.S. This did create a spicy book ick for me and I do not appreciate the numerous uses of slick)

Thank you to the Valentine PR and NetGalley for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

‘If she’s sunshine, I’m the guy who hopes it never starts raining. But deep down, I worry that I’m the typhoon.’

🥹This was really cute. I already loved Izzy from the other books but Nikolai was better than I ever thought he’d be. That man was a goner for Izzy from day one and I’m here for that kind of devotion. They were perfect together. They both were so supportive of one another and also pushed back a little when they felt it was in the other’s best interest.
I also just want to say that I loved Breakaway, Cooper’s book. I loved Cooper in that book but this book made me love him so much more. What a guy! I just love him. He was throwing down nothing but green flags.
There were so many cute pop culture callouts and I personally loved it! I really loved the Russian aspects entwined a little in the books too. It was different and interesting. Omg and the moment Nick has with Izzy’s dad near the end! 🥹 so cute.

If you read and loved the previous books in this series then you will def need to check this one out. I loved Izzy and Nik’s journey to happily ever after. 🤍

A cute light hearted romance that gets you in all the feels. A little bit of spice +volleyball/hockey= the best romance combination around.

Very cute book, I enjoy the Callahan siblings and their significant others. Nik and Izzy’s story is about overcoming the odds and self acceptance

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 2.7✰

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹”If she’s sunshine, I’m the guy who hopes it never starts raining” ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

The plot had a lot of potential but somehow it fell flat, the book was way too long… I think it could work better if it was at least a 100 pages shorter.

I liked how the relationship between Nikolai and Isabelle was healthy, how they cared and supported each other and how there was little to no miscommunication between them!!🙌🏻 I cheered for that

There were some part enjoyable and cute but I feel that they were shadowed by some unnecessary scene and all the smut. It was little cringe too but tolerable.

Didn’t liked Izzy at all🫢 she was very immature and would make a big deal out of something simple. I Hated HATEDDD how she forced Nikolai to tell her what was happening in his life, yeah they were dating and maybe she wanted to help but eventually I guess he will come around on his own terms and tell her whenever he feels ready

My problem is that the author was dragging the story. By 40% of the book mostly everything was solved, after that I found it hard to be interested in whatever was happening and started skimming through it. I wished the author showed more about their summer fling.

I’m surprised I didn’t dnfed the book.

💌tropes

ᡣ𐭩 secret relationship
ᡣ𐭩 brother’s “rival”
ᡣ𐭩 he’s a hockey player
ᡣ𐭩 she’s a volleyball player
ᡣ𐭩 mental health rep
ᡣ𐭩 boy obsessed
ᡣ𐭩 sport romance

thank you netgalley and the publisher for the arc

First of all I loved this book. I read the summary thinking I was going to just enjoy it but I LOVE IT.

The conflict, the characters, the emotions, the angst, the way the characters made it through! (and the smut! Chef kiss)

First let me talk about Isabelle

I know there are a lot of negative perceptions around soft women. Jessica Day for example there are a lot of people who see her as ditzy and dumb.

Softness isn’t weakness and I loved that Isabelle was that way, I love that Isabelle likes the color pink, and is still a badass at sports, is the baby of the family, has stuffed animals (okay I thought that was weird) but still. Isabelle was still a strong character and she deserves Nikolai ’s softness.

It was literally her softness that allowed them to fit together because that’s what he needed. And Isabelle needed someone who was focused and cared about her.

Now let me talk about Nikolai

THIS MAN RIGHT HERE DESERVES EVERYTHING. THIS POOR BB!!! Been through so much and is still going through it. Trauma SUCKS.


Wicked Serve was tense and suspenseful and at the same time a warm and fuzzy ride. I would definitely read the content warnings before reading because it can be dark at times depending on your comfort level. Yet I will say the tension in the book really escalated it to a top tier book in my opinion. I think fluff books are great and there’s always a need for them but this book really moved me and I think that’s what a five star is supposed to do.

Wow! What a book! It was jam packed with so much! Between Hockey + Volleyball, a hidden relationship, a LOT of spice, mental health issues and a troubling family and spice, did I mention that?

I enjoyed stepping back into this world! I love all of the Callaghan siblings! I’m sad the series is over! They’re so much fun to be around.

Nik and Izzy had so much to overcome and navigate and I enjoyed watching everything unfold!!

I can’t wait for everyone else to jump back into this world and enjoy another great book by Grace Reilly!

This was very difficult for me to get through. The story didn’t make sense, they were in college and the spice was so unrealistic. I had a hard time even wanting to finish it.