Wicked Serve was a cute and fun read with some spice.
The pacing of the book felt a bit off to me.
Overall, a ok read but way too long.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review.

I absolutely loved this book to death. Ever since I finished "Stealing Home" in May of last year, I’ve been eagerly awaiting Isabelle and Nikolai’s story. The three brothers captured my heart, but the series wouldn’t have been complete without our favorite Callahan!

Izzy meets Nik during a summer internship at Nik’s mother’s company. Their summer fling is intense but they decide to end it when the summer does because Nik also happens to be the rival of Izzy’s brother, Cooper. However, after a teammate's mistake, which Nik takes the blame for, he is thrown out of school and transfers to McKee. Despite Cooper's request that Nik stay away from his sister, Izzy and Nik can't seem to resist each other. Eventually, they stop hiding their feelings and come clean about their relationship after Izzy accidentally injures herself after an argument.

Grace’s writing is simply incredible; I don’t know how else to explain it. I adore her books so much, and I cannot wait to see what she has in store for us next!

𝙒𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙎𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙚
- 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘺

Isabelle Callahan
Nikolai Abney-Volkov.
#4 Beyond the Play


Isabelle is a sunshine girl from a family of sportsmen on her journey to prove her legacy and show her Volleyball coach that she deserves to be on the team because of her love for it and not because she is a Callahan. She wants absolutely no distractions no matter if its just a smart, drool worthy hockey rival of her brother and her summer fling who happens to make her heart flutter by just a glimpse.

Nick on the other hand is a complicated guy with secrets from his past and is struggling between his dream to get into NHL and family obligations. He has this last year with his favorite sport and wants to give it his all.
Which also means that his summer fling with sister of his ex rival and now team captain should remain just that, a summer fling.

But what will happen when they both come across each other?? Will the attraction they both feel for each other take over their desire to not risk it this year??? OR their past, challenges of their careers and the truth tear them apar???

Grace has done a beautiful work with this dual sports romance ( dual because both MMC and FMC are sports person) The details of both the sport are shared beautiful without confusing a non sport reader like me.

Where Izzy is all sunshine and full of positivity she also struggles and that's what makes her real. Her insecurities, her endless love for her family and her strong will to prove herself is what I admired the most.

Nick was the sweetest, cutest the most lovely person and perfect for Izzy. He not only had Izzy the push she needed to grow out of her comfort zone he supported her whenever and cheered for her the loudest. Despite struggling with his life and goals he was always there for Izzy, just like Izzy was there for him. He pushed himself to be better for her and dealt with his issues and trauma in the right way.

A beautiful book with sports romance, mental health rep. and found family which you will definitely love.

I've loved this one from Grace and going to pick other books from the series next.

Toodles 💕

I'm unsure how I feel about this. I both liked it and didn't like it at the same time. There were some really, really good parts of the novel, but there were also so very poorly done ones. Very 50-50 on the scale.

*I received an ARC from Netgalley. My review is my own

✨ New Review ✨

Title: Wicked Serve
Author: Grace Reilly
Genre/s: sports romance
My format: eBook 📱 #ARC
Spice level: 3
Spice quality: 4
Swoony-ness: 4
Feels: 🥹😂😭🫠🤭
Darkness: 🖤🖤🖤
Tropes:
🏒 Forced Proximity
🏒 Second Chance
🏒 Dual POV
🏒 Hockey Romance
🏒 Trauma Bonding
🏒 Found Family
🏒 University/College Romance

This was a fun, swoony, and spicy hockey romance.

It ticks all the usual boxes for a hockey romance and a few more. The depth of emotion and trauma was beautiful and their relationship was all the more believable and enjoyable for it.

This was the first in the series for me, but it is written perfectly so you can read it as a standalone. Whilst it is clear that many of the side characters were the MCs in previous books, it was easy to follow on.

The pace of this book was quite slow for a hockey romance, which is not a bad thing! As Grace really focussed on the emotions, the trauma, and the healing the slow pace felt … I dunno, respectful (?) to the characters.

And that spice, it be spicy. A little shminky and a lot hot. Very good read.

Th@nks to: @valentines PR for providing this copy.

**These are my honest thoughts that I have provided voluntarily.

✨ 𝔸ℝℂ ℝ𝔼𝕍𝕀𝔼𝕎 ✨
Wicked Serve by Grace Reilly
Book 4 - Beyond the Play Series
Pub Date: August 13, 2024

Review Title: Match Point
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5)  
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ (3/5)  

👊🏼Tropes:   
College Sports Romance
Hockey Player x Volleyball Player
Brother’s Rival / Teammate
Secret Relationship
Grumpy x Sunshine

✌🏼Vibes:
Sad to see the Callahan series end! The chemistry between Nik and Isabelle was addictive. Although much of the drama was immature (duh - they’re college kids), there were moments of great character growth in the end. Battling the effects of childhood trauma and breaking the self-conceived boundaries of perfection were two of the underlying victories in the book. I missed some of the best friend bonds, but the family ties were as strong as ever! I loved the spice! I craved resolution to family drama.

👉🏼My Summary:
Nikolai Abney-Volkov trained his entire life for a professional hockey career, but it ties him to a dark past he wishes he could forget. Will he give up on his lifelong dream or fight for a future he’s always wanted?

Isabelle Callahan has strived to live up to the greatness of her family, but a career in a professional sport was never going to be in the cards. Will she finally find purpose and a true sense of self worth outside of her performance on the court?

👇🏼Recommended to...  
College sports romance readers unafraid to wade through the murky waters of childhood trauma.

This was my first book by the author and I enjoyed it! I have not read the rest of the series but after reading this one I definitely plan to!

This book was so cute and light hearted! I loved Izzy and Nikolai’s relationship. I loved their dynamic, who doesn’t love the sneaking around trope?! The maturity and communication between Izzy and Nikolai was super refreshing. There was plenty of spice throughout the book! I can’t wait to dive into the rest of the series!

Read if you like:
Summer Fling
Brother’s Rival
He Falls First
Found Family
Hockey Player x Volleyball Player

So, I haven’t read the other books in this series, but I can now say that I want to because this one was good! The author does a pretty good job at depicting mental health issues within the novel and while there were parts that had me weary (I have a master’s degree in psychology) I appreciated her bringing stuff like this into the novel. I think many readers can relate in some way even if not to the depth of the ones being faced here. I also love a story where fate steps in and the characters essentially have a second chance at romance. In this one, there’s a summer fling and not expecting to see each other again the two get a big surprise when they find out they are attending the same college. There’s a bit of drama there as well but you can read it to see what I mean.

Overall, I liked this one. Some parts dragged, some parts pulled at the heartstrings, and then some made me fan myself for a few minutes. So, if you’re a fan of college hockey romances then this may be a great one for you.

𝗠𝗬 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was fun! I really liked both Izzy and Nikolai. I really liked seeing Izzy pop up through the other books, so I loved a book all about her. For me, this was a great mix of plot and spice. Overall, a really great way to end the series!

3.5 stars rounded down

For fans of:
- Forbidden Romance
- He falls first
- Grumpy/sunshine

The last of the Callahan’s stories is wrapped up with Izzy! She’s a volleyball player/aspiring wedding planner dating her brother’s biggest rival, who ends up his teammate.

Things I liked:
- How Izzy’s feelings of self worth/self esteem are addressed
- The care with mental health, DV and ptsd are covered
- The nicknames and the surprises Nik has in store for Izzy
- How our favourites from the other books in the series make appearances throughout (we love cohesiveness in a series)

What didn’t do it for me:
- I wasn’t the biggest fan of how the central conflict was handled by the FMC (this knocked my feelings on the whole book down, unfortunately)
- It read long. I don’t shy away from long books but this book in some places felt like it was longer than it needed to be

Not my favourite out of the Callahan’s stories (that honour goes to Penny/Cooper) but still a solid read to round out the series!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC! Love the hockey romances! I thought this was a good book to read! Was not expecting all the spice! I need to read the other books in the series now! Loved the main characters so much!

Absolutely phenomenal continuation of this series. I think it teaches a valuable lesson to college age or even high school age - do what makes you happy. The ones who truly matter will support you in whatever that is.

I was excited to start a new sports romance book and this sounded right up my alley. Overall the writing was well done, but I think the length of the book was a little more than I bargained for when I picked it up/what I expected from this read.
The characters were likable which was the reason for finishing. This is perfect if looking for a straight forward spicy college romance read.

This is my first book by this author, yeah i know this is the last book in the series but since i've wanted to give it a try why not this one.

I'm not sure what to think about it.

My main problem is that his dragged on a on and it was so hard to stay interested. This book could have ended halfway through if it werrent for way to many plot lines that didn't really contribute to anything and then having most of the book be smut instead of dealing with their problems and those serious topics that were involved in this book (check trigger warnings). I skimmed the last 40% of the book bc i was so uninterested at that point.

Ah the characters, Nik had no balls, speak up and stand up for yourself man and Izzy was just annoying most of the time. Also i did not for one second believe he was russian, whenever he spoke a bit of russian it felt forced and not realistic.

And seriously pink is one of my favorite colors but with how many times it was mentioned in this book i might just start to hate it.

I did love Nik and Izzy as characters and the extended family. I love a sports romance where both the main characters play a sport. I quite enjoyed the fact that Izzy was not super amazing at her sport because she has a natural born talent for it, but more good because she was hardworking and dedicated. And because Nik was super talented at hockey it provided a nice contrast. I also loved the wedding planning aspect of it and it was a really good way to incorporate Izzy’s passion for that into the family. The family dynamic between the Callaghans is one of my fav parts of this series and I liked how they lived together. Nik and Cooper’s relationship development was also a highlight of the story and it was so sweet to see Nik be brought into the family without any hesitation. Both characters had problems with their families and the plot I think focused more on that sometimes that the relationship between them.

I did have high hopes for this book and tbh I was a bit disappointed in places with the story, some of it felt a bit like filler and it could have been 100 pages shorter. I’d have liked there to been a bit more build up before they dove into a relationship, like if we’d seen more of their summer fling. It still gets 4⭐️ for the vibes and I did really enjoy the last 20%.

As a sports romance fan, this book was right up my alley. I adored Nikolai and Isabelle's chemistry and passion for their sport. The smut in this book shined for me the most. I'd say it's like Medium-level spice, though. All I'll mention about the spice is a hint about mirrors. There were so many steamy moments, though.

I adored Isabelle's strength despite her insecurities and uncertainty about where her life is headed. Nikolai's family struggles truly resonated with me. I know firsthand what it's like to have the past haunt you because of what someone else has done to you. I appreciated the way Grace Reilly tackled mental health in this book. I also loved how College sports and professional sports were portrayed in this book. I loved the side characters, too, which made me want to read the rest of this book series.

Read if you like:

🏐🏒 Sports Romance

🏐🏒 Found Family

🏐🏒 Secret Relationship

🏐🏒 College Sports

🏐🏒 He Falls First

🏐🏒 Teammates Sister

🏐🏒 Grumpy x Sunshine


Love Always, Catherine



Thank you, Valentine Pr, Avon and Harper Voyager, and Grace Reilly, for my gifted ebook copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

This is such a sweet book! I love how they always support each other to go beyond in every way and you can actually see how they begin falling in love, instead of having them be obsessed with each other right at first. It was finally Izzy's time to shine by having her own story and I think it was worth waiting for that! I think Nik is my favorite out of the Callahan's in-laws as he's honest, sweet, and kind, even considering his dark past and life struggles. I think it was a great closing to the series as well! The book was a bit long with 70+ chapters and there were times where I found myself a bit tired of reading a deep explanation about each of their thoughts, but the dialogues make up for it, for sure!!

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for an eARC!

3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

An enjoyable, fluffy read. It was the perfect book for me to read between fantasy books with heavy plot. I will say that I did not previously read the other three books in this series. I didn’t feel like I was missing any important information, but the MCs do start as an already established relationship. This is an interesting switch up from the typical enemies to lovers trope that I love so much.

One major downside to this book for me was the length. This book could be trimmed down some and then it might be more enjoyable. It does feel like the problems are solved early-ish in the plot and then you just continue to get more information than what is really needed for a good story.

I would recommend this book to sports romance enthusiasts.

-Healthy, established relationship
-Hockey and a small amount of volleyball
-Spice
-Family and Friendship bonds
-Mental health representation
-Dual POV

And now I’m ready for hockey season 🥵 This is the first smutty book that felt tedious for me. While the plot was present, I often felt like it was going from spicy scene to spicy scene and it felt redundant at times. I understand that’s the point of some books, but I really wanted more from this plot!

I loved reading about the last Callahan sibling - a sweet summer fling with her brother's arch nemesis.

Easy summer read :)

Thank you to Valentine PR, Netgalley, Avon and Harper Voyager, and Grace Reilly for my gifted copy!