Release Date: August 13, 2024
Date Read and Reviewed: July 21, 2024
Ratings: 3⭐️

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This was such a quick read for me. It was my first time reading from the author, and I think it went quite okay, which I am pleased.

I liked how it was quite a balance of a fluff and steam. The circle of friendship is fine as well.

Another part is that there's 2 sports being shown here, and I did like that as well.

I think my only issue is the fact that the characters act way older than their age. It was something that bothered me. They feel way older than being a character who's supposedly in their 18 or 19, a senior high student.

Overall, I think this was mediocre for my taste. Nothing special, in my opinion.


Thank you, Forever/ Avon Books, for the e-arc opportunity via Netgalley.

This book wasn’t my favourite in the series but I did enjoy it. I’d been looking forward to Izzy’s book since Grace was independently published. I felt slightly disappointed because the book felt a little too long and dragged. I felt like at times Izzy and Nikolai were a little immature for their ages. I don’t know if this is because I now prefer professional sports romances vs college sports romances.
I feel like it was a good ending to the Callahan family series and I loved the snippets of the previous characters.

4🌟
This book was predictable in terms of the direction it was going to take but to be honest, I didn't have much of an issue with it. The 2 main characters are both loyal and fiercely protective, and Nikolai seemed really sweet to be honest. It had a good amount of drama and added some dimension through the family issues and ending up in the same college. I always love reading a sports romance and this one was enjoyable!

I adored this so much. Being back in this world with the Callahan siblings was just perfect and Grace has written yet another smashing sports romance.
What I loved so much about this was the mental health representation, the struggles both Nik and Izzy faced were difficult and dark, but the author handled the topics with empathy, and grace.

I really loved these characters, the plot, the romance and the spice... oh the spice was perfect!!

If you loved the first three, you are going to adore this one!

So grateful to have read the E-Arc of this book because I LOVED IT!! I sped through this book and finished it in two days, loved Isabelle’s personality and the relationship between her and Nikolai :)

Perfect mix of romance and emotion and humour like so many of Grace Reilly’s books. Reading this series has been so fun, I have loved the brothers books and so happy to have finally read Isabelle’s!

Thank you again for allowing me to read this!

Wicked Serve is the fourth installment in Grace Reilly’s Beyond the Play series. It follows the last and youngest of the Callahan siblings, Isabelle. Isabelle feels under pressure because the rest of her family is so passionate and successful (most of them within a sport). Meanwhile, Isabelle’s Volleyball career at university hasn’t been as successful as it should have been and even though she loved her internship with a wedding planner over the summer, she feels like she didn’t deserve that because she initially received it through nepotism. To add onto all of that, she spent her time off during last summer’s internship with Nikolai, her brother’s biggest hockey rival. Of course, no one knows that the two of them spent all that time together and it should be fine since they’re going back to different universities… Right? Turns out, Nikolai transfers. to Isabelle’s university at the start of the semester, meaning he is now part of her brother’s team and the two of them keep running into each after, which brings up memories of last summer.

It’s been a while since I read the other books in the series, but I don’t remember them to be quite as long and as spicy in terms of volume. Personally, for me this book contained too much smut. It ended up getting boring. The book also is just too long, sitting at 450 pages. In the end, Wicked Serve isn’t revolutionary. It’s a decently written Ice Hockey romance with two likeable main characters and it ties into a series of sports romances with likeable main characters. Like so many of these books, the plot can be a little drawn out and dramatised to the point of silliness. And also like so many others, it’s just a tad too long. But I still had a great time reading it and it’s definitely a fun continuation of the series. I’m excited to see what more comes from Grace as she continues gathering experience.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an advanced copy of Wicked Serve in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first Grace Reilly read, I saw ice hockey player and thought 'that's right up my street' and I'm so glad I did because I really enjoyed this.

I know I say this about all my book boyfriends but Nik is just lovely. He was always straight with Izzy, and did what was best for her and the relationships in the book (their own and those she shares with her family). It was heartwarming to see him create his own little family after his tragic past and I love that Izzy was able to help give him that and stand in his corner fighting for him.

I was expecting something more from where his dad was concerned, but that may just be because I've read too many dark romances. This doesn't detract from the story or my rating though.

A great read that I will recommend to friends and family.

We’ve reached the end of the line for the Callahan siblings and I’m sad about it. Nikolai and Izzy were a great couple and left the series on a high note.

The relationship between the two was healthy and so charming, I adored it throughout my read. I really enjoyed Izzy as a character in the second and third books and i enjoyed reading from her perspective.

Nikolai is also a complex character that we don’t normally get from an MMC. He had a tough childhood and we see him come to terms with it through the book and choose to heal.

I found this story followed the same kind of pattern as the other books in the series, which made it slightly predictable but that isn't a bad thing at all. I was so glad we finally got an epilogue that was set in the future and I think it was a lovely way to sum up the series. I’ve enjoyed the Callahan’s and am excited to see what else the author releases.

i absolutely loved the free and easy feeling of this book and it took no time at all to hook me with the banter and cuteness izzy and nikolai displayed!

the characters ―୨୧⋆ ˚
i found both izzy and nikolai characters i loved spending the book with - they were funny , had such great communication and were generally such a cute couple to read about . i loved how they supported each other and continued to fight in each others corner despiste a tiny 3rd act break..

plot ―୨୧⋆ ˚
the plot in wicked serve felt very easy to follow and enjoyable .. i must admit i was a lot sceptical of the direction as i didn’t love first downs ending however wicked serve absolutely delivered and i could tell this was grace reilly’s later book in the series!

overall, a cute easy romcom that i really enjoyed

I’m sorry to say that this was just a mediocre romance novel for me. I enjoyed it but it was nothing to remember, if I’m honest.

It is a perfectly alright book for anyone looking for an easy sports romance though.

I will still be reading another book by this author because it might just have been that this one wasn’t for me. 😊

The 4th book in the Beyond The Play series is HERE and we finally got Isabelle’s story! I really am a sucker for sports romance books and have enjoyed all the books in this series to date, I knew that I would enjoy this one just as much

Starting with Nik’s nickname for Isa 😭 ‘My sunshine girl’ in his native language was just so perfect. Every time he said it felt so wholesome and made me kick my feet, completely swooning over him!

Something that usually comes with a lot of forbidden romance books is the sense of regret or misunderstandings. The characters will sometimes turn around to each other and say “we shouldn’t do this” or “we can’t do that again”, and whilst Wicked Serve had a couple of those scenes, it didn’t feel overpowering and I actually really enjoyed the way that the two protagonists dealt with the whole forbidden romance thing.

I loooved seeing Bex and James from book 1!! It felt like the best full circle moment as their story was the one I read first, and seeing them happily married with a baby was like someone was giving my heart a high hug!!

A hockey and volleyball crossover?? Sign me up! I’ve never read a volleyball romance before but if this book was anything to go by, it certainly won’t be my last.

Something that I wasn’t too keen on was the length of the book, I don’t think it needed to be as long as it was. It just didn’t feel super necessary to the story and the pacing sometimes felt a little off because of this. There were a few moments where I felt myself zoning out because there wasn’t too much happening in the scene or chapter. I really enjoyed the story and love Nik and Isa, but I found myself getting a little bored at certain points.

Overall, I really loved this and will definitely be continuing to read Grace’s books as they’re released. Grace also never fails to write some of the best spicy scenes so this is one for those who love reading about characters with sexual tension, and also smutty books, of course!

I have always loved Grace Reilly and have really enjoyed reading the Beyond the Play series.

This has to be my fave of the series, I was obsessed with the sunshine and dark trope with Nik and Isabelle.

They are such a gorgeous pair and i loved how there was elements of dark romance within the smut in this but it was not dark outside the bedroom. This was the perfect combo for me

I adrore thi oneeee.
Pure love all the way. If I could gave this a ten stars I would. Love every little thing about it.

I just loved this book, I wasn’t too sure at the start but once I got more into it I found that I couldn’t put this book down and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I would highly recommend reading this book if you like a a spicy romance.

I would like to thank Headline Eternal and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book early.

Wicked Serve by Grace Reilly is book 4 in the Beyond the Play Book series. This is an interconnected sports romance series about the Callahan family, however, this book can also be enjoyed as a standalone. This spicy hockey forbidden romance is perfect for fans of Hannah Grace and B.K. Borison.

I found this book very frustrating at the beginning. In the first couple of chapters it's very clear Nikolai and Izzy are already head-over-heels with one another. We get fleeting references to the summer they spent in New York doing all the sweet relationship things I wanted to read about; going to farmer markets, watching TV during a thunderstorm, days on the beach, midnight dim sum, museum visits and "slow mornings wrapped in daisy-patterned bedsheets". Unfortunately, second chance romances are really not my favourite, especially when the reason the first "break-up" took place because the MMC simply ghosts the FMC. I felt like I was missing a big part of their journey as a couple as a clear connection had already been established and therefore I wasn't particularly invested in their relationship. I think that's why I found the pacing to be a little off too. We didn't get the "I love you' scene until 80% of the way through when it was clear that's were they were heading from the very first chapter.

I did appreciate how Nikolai's panic disorder and childhood truma was slowly unpacked. It was done so in a really sensitive, emotional and relatable way. It explained and justified his reasoning behind a lot of his previous behaviour, however, I do wish Izzy had more of a backbone when it came to the way he treated her, as well as her overbearing brothers.

I also didn't appreciate the repetitive pop culture references as they really pulled me out of the story. Were 5 New Girl references really necessary?! I feel like this book was aimed at an audience a lot younger than myself despite how explicit the sex scenes were.

I didn't actually realise this was fourth in a series when I requested the ARC for it, so maybe that factors into why I didn't enjoy the book as much as I could have. I'm guessing other people appreciated the cameos from characters from previous books.

It wasn't bad, there are just much better sports/ice-hockey/brothers friends romances out there. I felt as though the situations the characters found themselves in were a little immature for their ages and the dialogue wasn't much better. I found myself just suffering through the book as opposed to actually enjoying it.

Again, it wasn't bad, just very middle of the road.

Wow, what a rollercoaster of emotions this was!

I adore this series, and Wicked Serve once again proves why Grace Reilly is one of the best Sports Romance authors out there.

It’s fluffy, it’s spicy, it’s swoon worthy - but also, it tackles topics that are hard hitting and fragile but it’s written so well.

Seeing Nik and Iz after their summer fling is the perfect starting point - it almost gave me Grease vibes. The tension is there, and boy do the fireworks start from there.

I absolutely loved seeing the friendship and family dynamics change in this one, especially with Cooper. And I loved seeing how Iz matures despite being slightly bratty at the beginning.

Sports smut central.

I absolutely adore this series and this book was probably my favourite of them all. Nik absolutely had my heart from the start and I also adored Izzy. This book tackled some heavy topics while also managing to being lighthearted, romantic and steamy.
Seeing the rest of the family and their partners was also wonderful and I wish there was another sibling left for another book!
Highly recommend not this book but the whole Callahan siblings series.

3.5⭐⭐⭐

This was a beautiful conclusion to the series! I really loved Izzy and Nik as a couple, they had great banter and surprisingly good communication skills most of the time. It was also nice to see some beloved characters from previous books and see their HEAs play out.

My only issue is with the pacing of the book. We start after Izzy and Nik already had a summer fling, so a lot of the beginning stages of their relationship are lost to the reader. A lot of the book felt like "third act conflict" to me and I missed the warm and fuzzy feelings from the getting-to-know-each-other-phase to tide me over.

I thoroughly enjoyed Nikolai and Izzy’s story. It’s much more than just a spicy love story, it’s about pain, growth, communication, acceptance, and family. All the Callahan family are here, which is great as we get to catch up on them too.

4.5 stars