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

A spicy sports romance seems to be my read of the summer and I'm happy to add 'Wicked Serve' to the list of books I've really enjoyed. This is the first book in the Beyond the Play series I've picked up and Nikolai and Izzy's story was a lovely place to start.

One thing I particularly enjoyed about the story of Nikolai and Izzy's romance is we join it after the meet-cute, when they've already fallen in love but aren't admitting it to themselves yet. When your relationship starts to get more serious and the cracks can show. It made for a book that I kept wanting to turn the pages and wishing for a happy ending for both of the main characters.

I will definitely be picking up the other books in this series because all the characters captured my interest.

I love this series, so I was so excited to get to read wicked serve. Grace Reilly has become an automatic buy author for me. Nik and Isabelle’s story was cute and funny. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and this series as a whole. Definitely recommended all Grace Reilly’s books!!

I have thoroughly enjoyed this series focused on each of the Callahan siblings and Izzy's story did not disappoint! The spice was top notch and the development of her and Nik's relationship felt natural to read. I am very much looking forward to reading whatever GR decides to publish next :)

OK, this was good. Really good!

I've not read any previous books from this series but it worked just fine as a standalone. I LOVED isabelle and Nik, their obvious attraction and deep relationship was everything. And the spice.....so much spice!!
I'll definitely be reading the other books in this series. Sports romances are one of my favourite tropes at the moment and this one definitely hit the mark!

2.5 ⭐️

This book follows hockey player Nikolai who transfers to a rival school while dealing with his feelings for Isabelle, his teammate's sister. Isabelle, is a volleyball player who struggles to resist rekindling her romance with Nikolai as their connection grows stronger.

This was my first time reading anything by Grace Reilly and I feel like I should have read the previous books in the series before getting into this one because of how many characters were introduced all at once and that made a lot of things hard to understand. Not gonna lie, it took me ages to finish this book— it’s just another hockey romance book, I don’t think it has anything to stand out from the story. This book has no business in being this long… it really feels like the author filled it with chapters with unnecessary scenes unmethodically. The main characters were already together by the 20% mark of the book —from my stand point, that killed the tension— hence to why this book wasn’t for me.

Read if you like:
🏒 college romance.
🏒 bother’s rival.
🏒 found family.
🏒 secret relationship.

Thank you to Headline and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Wicked Serve by Grace Reilly will be coming out on August 13th.

Keeping this short because there's not much to critisize: it's an emotional and heartwarming read that was able to steal a laugh or sob from me every now and then. Nik and Izzy are amazing characters and it's just a great way to end this series.

Beyond the Play has become a favourite sports romance series of mine! Although they can all be read as standalones, I loved getting to know the characters throughout the series and was already so excited for Wicked Serve before reading it as we had hints of Nik and Izzy's story coming in previous books. I loved getting to know them both in WS, especially Nik who we'd seen very little of. In this brother's rival-turned-teammate forbidden romance, we get all the spice and tension we're used to seeing in Grace Reilly's series.
I thoroughly enjoyed their book - Izzy is so fun and bubbly but it was nice to see her developing to have more depth and seriousness in Wicked Serve. I loved seeing her career become clear and how much she loved wedding planning. I also really loved getting to know Nik - he's so precious! It was heartbreaking to see what he'd gone through but I really appreciated how his trauma was approached and dealt with. Some of the decisions he made towards the end made me really feel for him and appreciate him as a strong male character, without spoiling anything!
Personally for me, I'd have liked to have seen them get together - this was similar to Stealing Home in that the main couple had already been hooking up when we see them at the start of the book, so it's a bit Second Chancey but it was still an enjoyable read. Spice wise, it's similar to Stealing Home - I think Breakaway was by far the spiciest of the series!
I also did find things a bit slow around half way - everything was good with the two of them so I felt like there was a good 10-20% that felt very mundane/waiting for things to fall apart. So for me, it was slightly longer than it needed to be and bits were a bit fillery but it was nice to see Nik and Izzy happy together. It does make me appreciate them as a solid couple and understand their love for each other.
I absolutely loved the epilogue and was close to tears with it - it was the perfect goodbye to the Callahan's!
Would definitely recommend this series if you enjoy a sports romance or want to give them a go!