i've read another book in this series and do like the family but thsi book was hard to take, it was both serious about really intense issues and not and that was a hard needle to thread

I switched between the audiobook and the digital book for this. The audiobook was great! This book is lighthearted and enjoyable - although it did feel a bit long in parts. It does capture the charm of a forbidden summer fling. I enjoyed meeting the characters and seeing previous characters from this author pop up in this book. It's a cute and easy read with just the right amount of romance and spice.

For Hockey focused NIK switching school;s was never going to easy.Finding our Izzy, his summer hook-up is the little sister to his new captain makes things even harder. A cute secret love story that does not seem overly sweet.

"Wicked Serve" is the 4th book in the "Beyond the Play" Series by Grace Reilly. After following the 3 Callahan Brothers, it's finally time for Izzy Callahan's story. Collegiate volleyball player and aspiring wedding planner, Isabelle Callahan, gets her dream summer internship in New York City. New York brings her new experiences. And a summer fling. But there's one problem. It's her brother Cooper's collegiate hockey nemesis Nikolai Volkov. But when summer ends, and so does the fling, there's no chance of her brother finding out. Until circumstances thrust Nik back into Izzy's life. As they venture past the "friend zone" and things get deeper and more complicated, can they survive everything that's thrown at them, or do they walk away?

This was a great finale to the Callahan siblings series. "Wicked Serve" tackles some tough subjects including alcoholism, abuse, and childhood trauma. Reilly handles all of these topics with care and thought and delivers a beautiful and emotional conclusion to the series.

This was a fun new adult sports romance! As someone who does speed up her audio (I'm sorry the ADHD just can't handle 1x) I will say the MMCs thick accent was on the hard to understand side. That is totally a me and how fast I choose to listen to my audiobooks problem though. I am sure most will love the accent!

I really enjoyed this book! Quick easy read.
A fun romance!
I really enjoyed the character development.

Grace Reilly can do no wrong and this book was just absolute romantic perfection. I love the mixed sports aspect it just adds to the fun of the characters and their dynamic. I just fell in love with the story from the first chapter and everything I love about Graces writing was in this book from beginning to end. The narrators were perfection for the characters and forever engrained in my brain as them.

This book had me BLUSHING. Nik had me blushing. I wasn’t expecting to love the russian accent so much but the male narrator killed it with this. I was so deeply invested in their story and it really felt like the perfect ending to this series. The epilogue made me want to sob

I was so looking forward to this one as I loved all the Callahan brothers. This one felt different. The writing seemed forced. There was less humour. I didn't connect with the characters as much. The audio performances were good, but I found myself picking it up and putting it down again.

A spicy brother's rival hockey romance? Umm, yes please!

I have not read the other books in this series but that did not matter one bit as I was immediately transported into this steamy college setting.

I am sometimes creeped out by new adult spicy romances but this one did not focus on age and youth, making that just a fact instead of the center of the book.

The narrators were EXCELLENT and the Russian accent was perfection.

Thank you to Net Galley and Spotify Audio for the audioARC!

I will start this one stating I'm glad I had this one in audio because I'm not sure I would have finished it if was in print. Nik and Izzy are a second chance, sports, spicy (sort of), college story. Nik gets in trouble at his previous school and his grandfather pulls strings and gets him transferred and now he is on a team where his rival is the captain and just happens to be the brother of the fling he had the previous summer. Izzy wants nothing more than to get back where she was on the volleyball team but her coach is doing everything in her power to keep her down. When she crosses paths with Nik on campus all bets are off and BAM they start back up again. Hockey and volleyball and family and lots of a lot happening to get to the end.

The fourth and final book in the Beyond the Play series follows Isabelle and Nik, a hockey player on her brother’s rival team, who have a summer found that ends, but is quickly rekindled when Nik has to transfer to the university is at.

This was such a huge disappointment. I loved be first two books in the series and really didn’t like this third, I sadly dislike this almost as much. I was really excited to read this as I liked Izzy in the previous three books. But there were so many issues with this. It’s way too long for starters and so boring. I had this on audiobook and legitimately could not make it through even 5% with the horrible fake Russian accent the male narrator had. It was so bad it was comical. As the author wrote in the book, Russian can be a beautiful and sexy language. This was a joke.

So I picked up a physical copy and went from there. For me the problems started with the complete lack of tension between Izzy and Nik. Because they had already been together, there was no will they won’t they lead up. They basically hook up almost right away after seeing each other and then go from there. Since there were no flashback scenes to when they met or how they got together, the chemistry and tension from the beginning of their relationship was nonexistent and it just didn’t work for me. They didn’t have enough of a deep emotional connection throughout the story to make up for that. I truly don’t think this often in books, but I really believe that Izzy and Nik would not be together in real life, I don’t really understand what they see in each other and even if they got together, I don’t see how they’d ever actually stay together. Izzy comes off as very privileged but in an almost negative way? She’s a tad irresponsible, immature and just kind of takes all the hand outs. Nik was fine, but really needed therapy from the beginning of the story and I don’t like how Izzy was upset about that.

This took me so long to get through, and my complaints continue. I don’t see why they couldn’t be together for so long, dumb reasons, especially because the fallout is so mild once they are together and it’s revealed. The spice was fine but I thought the parallel of rough sex and physical abuse concerns in this was odd, I didn’t know what to make of that. Nik taking over the company and the reasons for that we’re also dumb, again, because it switched so quickly. I don’t even know what this was really disposed to be about? I guess them overcoming their own issues? There were some super cringe worthy lines in here that I couldn’t get over including: “His seed is inside me.” Gross. And referring to her as his “blue eyed angel”, cue the eye roll. The run in with her ex and him calling her a fridge bitch, with everyone then puffing their chests out also was so predictable and unnecessary, cringe worthy again. Nik spitting on the floor of his fathers feet?? Nik setting up an entire apartment and buying clothes for her without even talking to her?? So weird. Anyways, this was a very disappointing end to this series which sucks. There was nothing original about this story at all. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free preview in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book—it was cute, wholesome, and the unexpected spice was a fun surprise! My only issue was that it felt a bit long but I'll definitely be checking out the other books in this series now. (I will also note, I received an ALC but was not able to listen to the audiobook and had to read the ebook instead since the male narrator's accent made it a bit hard to understand what he was saying.)

I thought this was an easy and fun read. This definitely isn't the book for you if you don't like smut.
I enjoyed the banter between the hockey players and felt that Isabelle's torment on not feeling adequate for her family was highly relatable. Overall, I would recommend this to other adults to read because despite the innocent looking cover, this book is not appropriate for younger kids.

Isabelle and Nikolai
College romance
Secret relationship
Brother rival
Both fall hard
Mental health
Hockey/ volley ball
After having a summer fling with her brother enemy, they part ways because they are attending different university. They start to miss each other but knowing they can't be together. Isabelle has always been supportive and caring for others and never putting herself first. She has to proof to other she deserve to have what she earns because of who her family is, especially to her coach who seems not to like her.
Nikolai is a Russian and sweet and genuine man who struggle with mental health and he doesn't hide it or let it define who he is and he working on himself with the help of a therapist. I like the book very much I enjoy the characters were wonderful. I'm happy the author talk about mental health.
The narrations need to be better the accent for Nikolai i just didnt like it.

Unfortunately, this book just wasn’t for me. Despite pushing through to the end, I never got into the story or connected with the characters. First of all, the length was overwhelming. In my opinion, a story without much plot shouldn’t be stretched out so long, but the author managed to do just that! What could have been conveyed in 200 pages was dragged out to nearly 500.

We never got to see how the relationship between Nick and Izzy blossomed during their summer fling; we only received flashbacks. As someone who loves the emotional depth of a relationship, I felt cheated. It seemed like they jumped straight into the relationship after a brief separation without any angst or resistance. The excessive explicit scenes didn’t help either—they felt like filler and, to my surprise, made me feel nauseous. Nick and Izzy are supposed to be 19, but the things they do! It almost made me forget how immature they behave outside the bedroom.

Since I listened to the audiobook and endured nearly 13 hours, I want to point out some positives. I loved the bond shared by the Callahan family, and Nikolai’s character development at the end was somewhat heartwarming. However, the brief breakup between him and Izzy felt completely unnecessary.

Now, about the audio:

Initially, I struggled with the male character’s Russian accent, which made the pronunciation hard to understand. Although I eventually got used to it, I couldn’t help but question if the thick Russian accent was really necessary, especially since his American accent was so cool. It made me rethink the whole accent change. The female narrator’s voice was moderate, but at times it came off as a bit too whiny for my taste.

In the end, this book didn’t meet my expectations, with a drawn-out plot, lack of emotional depth, and narration that just didn’t work for me.

I'll be giving this book 3 stars.

I think the story would be worth more, but I struggled a lot to listen to this. The Russian accent on the MMC was just too much. It was difficult to listen to. I understand that the hero is Russian so there would be an accent. I'm not a native English speaker so I'm not sure if that is why the accent was so difficult to me.

The story is entertaining so I think I will read this later as a normal book and I will like it more that way.

'If I’m sunshine to him, then he’s the earth beneath my feet, the grass between my toes, grounding me like nothing else.'

This is my first book by this author and it wont be my last.
If you love
- brothers rival turned teammate
- secret romance -
- forbidden romance
- spice
- found family
- sports romance
- mental health rep
then you should definitely read this book.
This book isn't just a romance, it has a few heavy topics which I think the author handled really well. (childhood abuse, mental health, anxiety, panic attacks to name a few)

I loved all the characters, it was interesting to read about both MC having their own sports and not just the MMC. Nikolai is what everyone would describe as book boyfriend material, who makes you swoon. Why is it always so hot when the whisper words in another language. I have no idea what they are saying but that doesn't matter.
I was hooked on this book from me first pressing play. I couldn't stop listening. The narration is perfect. Faith Clark and Oscar Reyes do perfect jobs of bringing Izzy and Nikolai to life, the didn't just bring their characters, but their personalities, traits and traumas. Which just made this story even more addictive.

“Our love has felt like springtime. Warmth chasing away shadows, light spilling into the open. I imagined sun-drenched days ahead, but the frost hasn’t left the ground. The flowers haven’t bloomed.”

Thank you Spotify Audiobooks for this ALC!

I have been having a lot of fun with this series! Grace has been writing some fun and spicy romances and I am here for it!

Wicked Serve was a great next installment to her Beyond the Play series. Nikolai and Izzy had fantastic chemistry and banter, I loved the sports setting for their story, and who doesn’t love an athlete who can go gooey for their girl? 🥹

gah!! This book! I was so glad I read it with Quinn so I could freak out about it! We’ve been waiting to hear Isabelle’s story even when we introduced to her during First Down. I loved all the cameos of the brothers throughout the book. I had to keep reminding myself these are college kids making mistakes and miscommunicating. But beyond that this book is SO fun and also SO spicy! Love you Grace Reilly!! Can’t wait to see what you do next!!