Hockey Romance, need I say more? This was a great fun romantic comedy that had me laughing and sometimes wanting to cry a bit. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope to read more from this author!

I did not finish this book. I was drawn in by the cover and the tropes of secret relationship, brother's enemy, and ice hockey from the provided summary. However, I found issue with glacial pacing and lack of differences from other similar stories led me to keep putting it down. Eventually, I never picked it back up.
For the characters, there isn't much that sets them apart from the crowd or really makes me want to root for them to become a couple. I took fault with many of their actions. Why did Nikolai feel he needed to take the fall and implode his life for a teammate? As for Izzy, why should I feel bad for her having to overcome nepotism? Does she deserve a chance to prove her immature, ice cold coach wrong? No, I could see caring if Izzy was moving on to professional of Olympic dreams, but she wants to be an event planner and doesn’t appear to take anything seriously.

This book just solidifies how much of a fan I am of Grace Reilly! I loved this story between Nik and Izzy- the chemistry in this book was on FIRE! I found the mental health represented in the book super relatable, this story blended such a great mixture of emotions and feelings! Please do yourself a favor and read this book and series!

This book gives off second chance romance vibes without a fully tragic breakup which fills a very big gap I think in the bookish community. Grace Reilly does such an amazing job of showing multiple layers in her characters and seeing the softer side of Nik had me swooning! I love that each character has their own individual journey as well as their relationship made the book feel more immersive. I related to Izzy so much as a youngest daughter and the moments with her parents had me in tears (happy ones)

Okay I'm bummed and also excited to find out this is the last oook in the Beyond the Play series of standalone novels with interconnected characters. It didn't take away from the story at all! But I'm definitely going back and reading the others now!
Wicked Serve was a fun fluffy read that also touches on a few serious topics. I enjoyed that though Isabelle and Nikolai's relationship is a secret, it's still so sweet and full of peace and support. I genuinely loved how they were together. The most encouraging partners.
The biggest reason I want to go back and read the other books is because I LOVE Izzy's family dynamic so much. It plays a huge role in this story as Nikolai's family history is very rocky and he often finds himself lost and wanting in that department. I adored seeing Izzy's relationships with her siblings, especially Cooper with how close they are.
I feel like the plot got lost a little at times so l didn't think it needed to be as long as it was. But I still very much enjoyed the story and recommend it for all my sports romances fans!

I love sports romances, especially hockey! I was super excited for this second chance, older brother’s rival turned teammate love story. Unfortunately, this story did not hit for me. While I loved the premise and the overall themes, I was frustrated by the female main character’s very privileged attitude and I had a very hard time sympathizing with her. The male main character had a truly traumatic childhood with real trauma responses and her responses felt selfish. Plus the stuffed animal, everything needs to be pink attitude was a bit childish and hard to relate to as a reader.

That being said, I loved how supportive the male main character was of her dreams and goals and was willing to better himself for their future. It was very sweet. Also the spice was perfect.

Overall, while this story was not my favorite, I did have a good time reading it.

"When I’m around her, I can’t focus on anything else. We could be in the middle of a hurricane, and I’d just stand there like a goddamn fool, cataloging the raindrops on her face."

This was a really sweet college romance, filled with spice, sneaking around, and emotional swoonworthy moments.

Read if you enjoy:
🏒College/Sports Romance
🖤Secret Relationship/Sneaking Around
🏒He Falls First
🖤Found Family
🏒Close Proximity
🖤Teammate's Sister

✨ Review ✨
***
Wicked Serve was so good!! I loved Nik and Isabelle. Their relationship and love was so beautiful. They were both so supportive and caring. I loved their chemistry and their love so much. The writing was so good and all the characters were amazing. I loved the found family feel and the love between everyone. Nik was amazing and so easy to love. His story was heartbreaking but his HEA was perfect. The spice was so hot and unexpected. The ending was beyond amazing and left me so happy.
***
Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Romance: 🩷🩷🩷🩷

The perfect ending to this series! I was so excited to finally read about Izzy and when I learned that the MMC was going to be Nikolai I was so intrigued. I loved learning more about both of their backgrounds. When you know characters from other books in the series I always love to dive deeper and see inside their minds, and Grace did an amazing job in this book giving readers the best insight into the characters that we already knew. So sad this series is over but I had so much fun reading it while it lasted.

sabelle Callahan is coming off of a summer interning in NYC, where she had a fling with her brother's hockey rival, Nikolai Abney-Volkov. She's ready to go back to school and move on, even if her feelings for Nik were starting to grow beyond the easy-breezy nature of their summer together. When Nik gets expelled from his school and ends up at McKee where Isabelle goes to school, they're unexpectedly in each other's orbit once again.

I really liked this book! I love an angsty love story so this one really worked for me. I love a spicy romance, but a spicy story PLUS angsty, emotions, and real issues is catnip to me! Nik was such a sweet guy under the grumpy exterior, and I loved how Izzy brought out his playful side. They both had challenges to overcome, but they were always supportive of one another and willing to do anything for the other. My heart broke when reading the story of Nik's parents and what he and his mother went through, but facing his trauma head on led to such a beautiful result. I also loved seeing all of the other couples from this series and felt like this was the perfect ending to the series!

TW: Domestic violence, violence against a child, trauma, PTSD

Overall, I love the storyline for both main characters and their own separate struggles they were both facing. I feel like both characters achieved so much growth through the book separately which made them grow together too. The epilogue was the perfect ending to complete this series and we get a little into all their futures.

The only downfall to me was it seemed overly drawn out and repetitive. For a while in the middle I did consider DNFing but ultimately decided I wanted to see how it all played out. I loved the characters and the relationships but there were some things I didn’t love as well

While a cute read it could use a good edit to cut out many of the pages, this was just unnecessarily long. I got bored part way through as it just didn't feel like it was moving forward and some of the same content repeated.

I actually loved Isabelle and Nikoli's story. They both have similar backgrounds with a family of sports, but that's where it ends. Isabelle has the loving family full of athletic people and she strives to fit into that athletic roots. Nik comes from a family full of alcoholism and abuse. His mother ran back to America when he was thirteen escaping his father.

Isabelle and Nik have a summer fling that fizzles out, but when Nik gets into trouble and has to change colleges it allows them to get to see where things could really go with them.

Nik has a haunted past and Isabelle is so supportive helping him and working through some of his nightmares. I love how Isabelle is able stand up for what she really wants and blends everything together. Both characters grow a lot over the course of the book and it really adds to the story.

If you can just turn the page when the crawling scene comes up, then this is a great book by Grace. It's just unrealistic and laughable in my opinion. This is also a part of a series and I haven't read the other books and don't feel like I'm missing out either.

Plot ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (4.75)
Spice 🌶️🌶️🌶️.5

I absolutely loved this book. Nikolai (Nik) & Isabelle (Izzy) are the sweetest and cutest couple. They had me laughing, blushing, screeching, and at times I was doing all three. I loved that Nik & Izzy meet and have a summer fling knowing they both go to different schools and it won’t continue past summer, but then due to circumstances Nik ends up at her school and the chemistry is just too much to ignore. Tell me that doesn’t give you Grease vibes?

Nik truly was not what I was expecting when I started this book. I honestly thought he’d be more grumpy or act like douche especially after he gets kicked out of his school and has to transfer to a new school AND play on the rival hockey team. However he came across more like a cinnamon roll/golden retriever AND he wasn’t a douche to his new teammates. He was honest, sweet, caring, and truly showed up for Izzy in ways she didn’t know anyone would.

Izzy was such a fun and happy character, always bubbly and helping people out even if it meant not always showing up for herself. I loved that both her and Nik, for the most part actually talked to each other which means that stupid miscommunication trope really doesn’t rear its ugly head much in the book. Thank you Grace, we appreciate that. Don’t get me wrong both Izzy and Nik do deal with some pretty harsh trauma and while it causes issues it’s dealt with in a mature way.

I will say for characters that are supposed to be 19 & 21 they do come off as way more mature than a lot of 30 & 40 year olds I know 😂 But maybe that’s why I liked them so much, because they actually worked through their issues. This book is definitely about emotional, family, and friendship connections without all the added drama.

I've enjoyed all of the books in this companion series and this one was a nice way to round out the family story!

Was it overly dramatic and quite smutty? Yes. Did I fly through it in two days? Also yes! I always enjoy that there is more than just a romantic relationship struggle in this author's works. Whether that's difficult family dynamics, sports obligations, internal struggles etc. I also feel like the author wrote about a hard subject (parental/domestic abuse) with a good deal of sensitivity to the characters and the story.

3.5 stars rounded up

I really liked the chemistry between Izzy and Nikolai, and I loved that their "secret relationship" was only kept secret until midway through the book. There were some parts that felt overly juvenile but I did enjoy the overall romance and the cast of characters. The book also felt a touch too long for the story that it was telling. Note: this is not entirely a light romance, despite the juvenile feel, due to some darker topics. Sincere thanks to NetGalley and Avon Harper Voyager for this review copy!

This has been a series I've really enjoyed, and Wicked Serve was no exception! The story follows Nik and Izzy, who had a summer fling and did not expect to be around each other again. Now, Nik finds himself at Izzy's college, and playing hockey with her brother, who just so happens to be a long-time rival. While they know they should not be together, they cannot help the pull.

What I appreciated most about this book was that their "secret" relationship came out about halfway through the book rather than the end. The plot did not depend fully on Izzy's brother discovering their relationship, which I feel like typically happens with this trope. I will say that I felt as though the story could have been a little shorter; the book seemed longer than necessary. I would still recommend to anyone who likes hockey romances, or the brother's rival trope. Reilly does know how to write growth of the MC's, in particular the MMC's.

Cute but it seemed a little juvenile and the characters were a little over the top. The overall romance was fine, but the darker parts seemed too dark for the rest of the story. I felt like this blends in with other hockey romances.

Good cast of characters, loved the hockey details, and Nikolai and Izzy had good chemistry. Some of the details were shark-jumping over-the-top, and Izzy's thinking and behavior was often super juvenile, so that took away from the enjoyment a bit. But overall, good writing and fun story.

I haven't read any of the others in the series and didn't feel like I needed to to enjoy this one. There are some deeper topics addressed, so it's not just a light romance. I love a good hockey romance, so that drew me in, but it was just okay for me.

Thank you to Netgalley, Grace Reilly and Avon and Harper Voyager for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.