“You walk into a room and I know it’s you, instantly, solnishko.”

Wicked Serve by Grace Reilly is absolutely adorable and emotional. It’s the perfect book for fans of sports romance, comedy, and grumpy sunshine tropes. While this book is in an interconnected series, it can be read as a standalone (the side characters are well described in this book, which makes it very easy to follow).

Isabelle is a wonderfully bubbly FMC. She is always trying to make others happy and is so gentle with her words and actions. She sometimes struggles to ask for help from others which causes her to be overwhelmed sometimes. Nic is an extremely complex and selfless character. He is always protecting others and like Isabelle wants others to be happy. I love their dynamic and how they interact with each other.

Nicolai and Isabelle’s relationship begins as a summer fling (but it was so much more than that, despite what they say). From the very start of the book, readers are able to tell just how much they care about each other. Even when their summer fling ends, they still occupy the other’s thoughts. When they finally reunite, sparks fly and they fall right back into place! I absolutely loved them together.

The first half of this book was giving very much Casual by Chappell Roan. But in all honesty, I enjoyed the story a lot more than I thought I would. Nikolai and Isabelle had a lot of depth to them and their love story. I loved seeing them stand up for each other and their dreams, even when they at times they couldn’t do that for themselves. A really cute read!

This was a satisfying and SUPER spicy conclusion to the Beyond the Play college sports romance series featuring the Callaghan siblings - each of whom specializes in a different sport. I really liked that this book focused on Isabel who plays college Volleyball and her forbidden romance with her brother's Russian hockey star rival, Nik.

Full of emotional depth, great mental health rep (Nik has a physically abusive father and suffers from panic attacks) and, again a TON of open door heat, this book was great on audio (I must applaud narrator Oscar Reyes and his excellent Russian accent!). Nik might have been the product of a troubled childhood and had a toxic relationship with his father, but he sure knew how to treat a lady right!!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review. This book is PERFECT for fans of authors like Elle Kennedy and HIGHLY recommended for those who love spicy sports romance, the likes of which only Tessa Bailey can compare.

🏒 Bad Boy/Good Girl
🏐 Boy Falls First
🏒 Boy Obsessed
🏐 Close Proximity
🏒 Coming of Age
🏐 Forced Proximity
🏒 Grumpy/Sunshine
🏐 Found Family
🏒 Tragic Past
🏐 Tortured Lead
🏒 Opposites Attract
🏐 Second Chance
🏒 Soul Mate
🏐 Forbidden Love
🏒 Secret Romance
🏐 Sports Romance



Star: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶️

"Wicked Serve" by Grace Reilly is a sizzling sports romance that delves into the complicated lives of two college athletes. Nikolai and Isabelle, or Izzy, navigate their burgeoning relationship amid personal and professional challenges. The story explores themes of love, loyalty, and self-discovery, making it a compelling read for fans of the genre.

Nikolai Abney-Volkov, a talented hockey player, is thrust into a new environment at McKee University for his senior year. The transfer places him in a precarious position, particularly given his secret summer fling with Isabelle Callahan, the younger sister of his new team's captain. Nikolai's struggle to balance his passion for hockey with his unresolved feelings for Isabelle creates an intense emotional landscape. Grace Reilly does a commendable job of portraying Nikolai's internal conflict, especially his fear that his troubled past makes him unworthy of a real relationship.

Isabelle Callahan, on the other hand, is determined to reclaim her spot on the volleyball team and distance herself from Nikolai, despite their undeniable chemistry. Her resolve to protect her heart and focus on her goals is both relatable and admirable. Isabelle's character is a beacon of resilience and determination, embodying the pressures and expectations placed on her as the youngest in a family of athletes. Her interactions with Nikolai are filled with tension and passion, making their dynamic both intriguing and relatable.

The chemistry between Nikolai and Isabelle is palpable from the start. Their relationship oscillates between secret rendezvous and deep, meaningful conversations, blurring the lines between a casual fling and something more profound. Grace Reilly captures this transition beautifully. The forbidden aspect of their romance, given Isabelle's brother's potential disapproval, adds an extra layer of suspense and excitement.

The plot of "Wicked Serve" is driven by the characters' personal growth and the challenges they face both on and off the field. Nikolai's need to prove himself in a new team and Isabelle's quest to excel in volleyball are intertwined with their evolving relationship. The stakes are high, as both characters must decide whether to fight for a future together or let their fears and circumstances tear them apart.

Grace Reilly's writing shines in her depiction of the sports world and the pressures that come with it. The competitive environment of college athletics is vividly brought to life, adding authenticity to the characters' struggles and triumphs. The author also skillfully navigates the emotional complexities of young love, making the story both heartfelt and realistic.

In conclusion, "Wicked Serve" by Grace Reilly is a captivating sports romance that explores the highs and lows of love and ambition. The well-developed characters, intense plot, and exploration of themes like loyalty, self-worth, and determination make this book a standout. Grace Reilly's ability to blend sports and romance seamlessly ensures that readers will be engrossed from beginning to end, rooting for Nikolai and Isabelle as they navigate their tumultuous journey.

Absolute perfection from beginning to end!!

I have a sweet spot for the Callahan siblings and I knew going into this book would be difficult because I wasn’t really ready to say goodbye to this bunch but boy was it a sweet one.

Nikolai and Isabelle were the most beautiful couple and they were both so deserving of this big beautiful love and Grace absolutely delivered with it. Nik had a really tragic backstory and seeing him struggle so much in the beginning and even seeing those around him think he was anything less than a perfect, beautiful soul hurt my heart for him. He was the sweetest man with the biggest heart who was down so bad for Izzy from the very beginning!! And our girl Isabelle not enough words in the dictionary to talk about how incredible she is. Like Nik she had the biggest heart, but similar to her siblings sometimes struggled carrying the Callahan name, she always felt she had these big shoes to fill and worked so hard to make everyone around her proud, but she was amazing all on her own and while their validation was nice, it was absolutely not needed for her to grow into a really beautiful version of herself.

So sad this is the last of the Callahans that we’ll be seeing but what a perfect ending to a really incredible series

I absolutely LOVED Wicked Serve!! Immediate 5 stars! I really loved the first 3 books but this one was my favorite for sure! Both Nikolai and Izzy’s personal growth/development was just as engaging as their relationship. Their dynamic was amazing and Grace just absolutely hit the mark on this one! This is, without question, a MUST READ!!

This was my first in the series - I was unaware it was a series - but that definitely did not impact the overall vibe of the book. I picked up easily and look forward to going back and reading the first three in the series.

I loved the push and pull and depth that this book offered.

Wicked Serve is book 4 in Beyond the Play by Grace Reilly, published by Avon and Harper Voyager.
A fantastic sports roamnce that gives all the feels. Once I started reading I was hooked, I couldn't put down the book anymore. I just had to know what happened to the characters and the story. I loved the push and pull, the ups and downs.
Blurb: He’s my brother’s biggest hockey rival… but he’s bringing the heat for me.
Nikolai : Hockey is my life, and I need to make this last season count. But when I’m forced to transfer to rival school McKee University for my senior year, I risk pissing off the captain, who happens to be the older brother of Isabelle Callahan: the gorgeous beam of sunshine I messed around with in secret this summer.
Rekindling our fling could risk her brother icing me off the team—not to mention the fact that my scarred past makes having a real relationship impossible—and yet the moment I see Isabelle again, all my wild, burning feelings come rushing back.
Izzy : I have two goals for sophomore year: win back my old volleyball position, and forget I ever knew devilishly handsome hockey defenseman Nikolai Abney-Volkov. As the youngest and only daughter in a family full of athletes, failure isn’t an option.
But when Nik crashes back into my life, I can’t stay away from his broody charm. I’m determined to guard my heart this time, but between the furtive hookups and the heartfelt conversations, the lines between friends-with-benefits and more begin to blur.

I absolutely adore this book. Nikolai is my favorite ever, and Isabelle is the sweetest. This book dealt with heavier topics but I think they were handled well. I appreciated seeing a man with an eating disorder and panic attacks and I felt like Nikolai's character was handled with grace and care. The amount of sex scenes were kind of redundant and some felt unnecessary at times, and the epilogue felt sort of like a rushed together "where are they now" at the end of an episode of shark tank, and that's not my favorite thing so to speak. I felt a little like I was missing something since I haven't read the other books, and I feel like if you're gonna have a standalone, you should be able to, as a reader, at the very least connect the characters together without having read the other books. Chloe Liese's Bergman brothers does this really well in that you can read #5 before #1 and still feel like you're in the know. I liked this book and I would pick it up again at a library or something similar, but I probably wouldn't buy it for myself.

Wicked Serve was a great end to the Beyond the Play series! It’s hard for Izzy growing up in the shadow of a superstar father and 3 amazingly talented brothers, and she feels a bit aimless in what she wants to do post-college. But when she takes a summer internship for wedding planning and meets Nikolai, she finds someone who is firmly in her corner and encourages her to follow whatever passion she chooses.

Niko ends up transferring to McKee and is an amazing defenseman with a future in the NHL, if Izzy can convince him to follow his own dreams. There’s some childhood trauma there, and Nik’s character growth surrounding this throughout the story is hands down my favorite part of the book.

I loved seeing my man Cooper in this one as well. I loved the friendship eventually built with Nik. And the epilogue gave us the perfect peek into the future with the entire Callahan clan!

Wicked Serve is the fourth and final book in Reilly’s Beyond the Play series of interconnected standalones about the Callahan siblings at McKee University. Wicked Serve is a sports romance featuring the forbidden/ secret romance, forced proximity, rival turned teammate’s little sister, grumpy with sunshine, and boy obsessed tropes. I would highly recommend the Beyond the Play series to fans of sports romances like The Graham Effect by Elle Kennedy, The Game Changer by Lana Ferguson, Quarterback Sneak by Kandi Steiner, Catching Feelings by Maren Moore, Playing Hard to Get by Monica Murphy, or The Rule Book by Sarah Adams. Some themes and topics present in Wicked Serve include mental health and panic attacks, PTSD and trauma, abuse, marriage and divorce, love and heartbreak, self doubt and self esteem, legacy, as well as family and found family.

I have to admit, Penny and Cooper from Breakaway (book 2 in the Beyond the Play series) are still my favourite but Izzy and Nik are for sure a close second! Wicked Serve is probably the spiciest of the Beyond the Play books, with lots of sneaking around and secret hookups, but it’s also super sweet and swoon-worthy, with cute nicknames and even a romantic surprise involving adorable koalas. Izzy and Nik’s story was also surprisingly emotional towards the end, I even found myself tearing up a bit, which I was not expecting. I loved Izzy’s girly aesthetic and enjoyed reading about her preamble into wedding planning (without spoiling anything, Izzy even gets to plan a significant character’s wedding!). Having already read the first 3 books in the series, I enjoyed how all of the Callahans made appearances throughout Wicked Serve (I love catching up with my fave characters!) and I thought that the epilogue of Wicked Serve as well as the overall ending of the series was perfection.

There really wasn’t much about this book that I didn’t like but I will say that Izzy and Nik’s story had more conflict in it than I typically like (I’m a big fan of no third act break-ups).

Overall, I really enjoyed Wicked Serve and would highly recommend it to fellow sports romance readers. I’m sad that this series has ended but I’m excited to see what’s next for Grace Reilly!

I have loved the Beyond the Play series from day one, and have been quite literally foaming at the mouth obsessing over reading Wicked Serve. This absolutely did not disappoint, I love Nik and Izzy with my whole heart ❤️
There was definitely some emotional parts to this story, poor Nik had me sobbing more than once, but they are both so deserving of their happy ending.
My only complaint is that there are no more Callahans for me to read about 😭

I'm going through a sports romance (specifically hockey romance) phase and this was a nice addition to my reading list. I haven't read any of the others in the series yet, but will probably go back and read the rest. I did enjoy the book; I liked the characters and I liked the writing. However I felt the book was maybe a little too long with lots of spicy scenes that didn't give a lot of additional context to the overall plot. But I liked the book enough to be interested in going back and reading the previous publications.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

5/5 Stars

Thank you to Avon, Grace Reilly, Valentine PR, and Netgalley for providing me with an arc.

Wicked Serve is the conclusion to the Beyond the Play series and follows the last Callahan sibling, Isabelle who is the youngest and only daughter. I found this series last year and I will be honest I didn’t pick it up until March of this year because I saw the author post on Threads asking if anyone would like her to pass on their contact info for the chance for an arc of Wicked Serve and I put my hat into the ring. And then she was going to be at a signing so I picked up First Down which became one of my favorites of the year. So as these books have been rereleased over the last few months I have read each of them all leading to Wicked Serve and I can’t fully put into words how much I truly love this series. I love each of these couples in their own way and they each shine during their books and when they are show up in the rest of the series. This one is a secret summer fling between Izzy and Nik, who is her brother’s rival that then turns into more. It is rare I give every single book in a series 5 stars and this is one of those times.

Nikolai is forced to transfer schools for his senior year after he gets expelled from his college and he is risking pissing off the Captain who hates him and happens to be the older brother of Isabelle Callahan, the gorgeous sunshine he can’t keep out of his mind and spent the summer with. But when he transfers to McKee where Izzy goes, his feelings refuse to be ignored but rekindling their fling could risk her brother icing him out of the team when he finds out. Izzy has two goals for sophomore year, regain her position in volleyball and forget about Nik which should be easy as he does to a completely different school… until he shows up as a new student at her college. She is the youngest in a family of athletes so failure isn’t an option and she can’t afford a distraction like Nik. But when he comes back into her life, she can’t seem to push him away for good even if she knows she should.

The tension in this book isn’t really tension between Nik and Izzy, they are crazy about each other even when they think it is just stress relief fun. Instead the tension comes from them having to sneak around and hide their fling because of what Izzy’s brother might think and what he could do if he was to not take it well. I loved this and I really loved how their relationship reveal was handled. I also loved the third act breakup which is rare but I think this one made so much sense and I love when effort is actually put in to improve whatever was wrong to begin with. Nik and Izzy had me dying at times with how steamy they are and this is the spiciest of the 4 books as it kicks off pretty fast. The steam to plot ratio was definitely more steam than the previous books but it worked really well in my opinion.

Nik is rich and it leads to some adorable and ridiculous moments that are why I love romance with millionaires/billionaires because they can throw money and make crazy stuff happen for those they love. I really loved the contrasting family dynamics we see in this book because you have the Callahan’s who are very close and tight knit that would do anything for each other and then you have Nik’s family that is not at all like that given his father is abusive, his grandfather is an old entitled rich man, his mother cares in her own way but struggles after what his father did, and then you have his cousin who is a sweetheart and I adored her. I kinda expected Nik to be somewhat of an asshole based on the previous books but was pleasantly surprised by what we actually got and it makes sense. He is fiercely protective over those he cares about and he will take care of others before taking care of himself. He has massive childhood trauma and we see that come into play in this book and learn more about his past.

I thought this was not only an amazing conclusion to this family but it was everything I wanted out of Nik and Izzy’s story. It has everything I have come to love about Grace Reilly’s books and even more from the steam to the heartbreak to the happy feel good moments. I cried a few times especially at the end for the epilogue as it was the perfect conclusion.

What a great way to wrap up the Callahan siblings! I have loved this series and Izzy and Nik are no exception!

First I want to thank NetGalley, Avon and Harper Voyager and Grace Reilly for my ARC of Wicked Serve. I was in love with this right from the start! Izzy and Nik had a great love story. They are absolute perfection! I’m a sucker for a spicy hockey romance 🥰 I finished this in a day because I was so invested in their story! I wish it didn’t end!! The forbidden love story was so fun to read and see how it played out. I loved this book and can’t wait to read more from Grace! My first book from her but definitely not my last!

This book was precious. Such a light, fun romance. I flew through this one and it was a joy to read 🥰

“You’re everything to me"
•

he’s her brother’s rival-turned-teammate, and he’s completely off-limits. but when Izzy’s summer fling transfers to her college, she’s finding herself ready to test those limits. both Izzy and Nik have something to lose, but is it possible they have so much to gain if they see where things could go between them?

Wicked Serve is a spicy college romance with mental health rep and people chasing their dreams.
•

this and that:
♡ brother’s rival
♡ chosen family
♡ college sports
♡ dual pov
♡ gossip girl appreciation
♡ hockey
♡ hurt x comfort
♡ koalas
♡ mental health prioritization
♡ open door spice 🍑
♡ secret relationship
♡ she wears his jersey
♡ therapy
♡ traveling
♡ volleyball
♡ weddings
•

triggers:
☞ alcoholism
☞ child abuse
☞ childhood trauma
☞ disordered eating
☞ domestic abuse
☞ infidelity
☞ panic attacks

I absolutely adored Wicked Serve. I’ve been dying this whole series to get more inside of Izzy’s head. I knew tgere had to be more to her than just the happy go lucky party girl, and that I was going to find a lot of myself inside of her.

Izzy and Nik are perfection together! 10/10 on this enture series. I’m sad to see it end, but so incredibly excited to see what else Grace writes.

Grace Reilly has done it again! I loved this book, the fourth (?) book in the series! Izzy is such a FUN main character, and a refreshing switch up from all of the brothers. I'm so glad she got her happily ever after, as she is just a ray of sunshine. I can't wait to see what Grace Reilly writes next, as I assume this is the steamy finale to the series.