Wicked Serve by Grace Reilly: My Book Review of This Steamy Hockey Romance

Check out my book review of Wicked Serve by Grace Reilly to see what I thought of this sports romance featuring a volleyball player and a hot, hockey star.

*Disclosure: This post may include affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Wicked Serve Summary:

Nikolai

Hockey is my life, and I need to make this last season count. But when I’m forced to transfer to rival school McKee University for my senior year, I risk pissing off the captain, who happens to be the older brother of Isabelle Callahan: the gorgeous beam of sunshine I messed around with in secret this summer.

Rekindling our fling could risk her brother icing me off the team—not to mention the fact that my scarred past makes having a real relationship impossible—and yet the moment I see Isabelle again, all my wild, burning feelings come rushing back.

Izzy

I have two goals for sophomore year: win back my old volleyball position, and forget I ever knew devilishly handsome hockey defenseman Nikolai Abney-Volkov. As the youngest and only daughter in a family full of athletes, failure isn’t an option.

But when Nik crashes back into my life, I can’t stay away from his broody charm. I’m determined to guard my heart this time, but between the furtive hookups and the heartfelt conversations, the lines between friends-with-benefits and more begin to blur.

As we fall deeper into a place we can’t come back from unscathed, we’ll have to make a choice: fight for a future together, or watch it go up in flames.

Wicked Serve: My Review

Wickedly sweet and spicy! Grace Reilly knows how to deliver a steamy college romance!

Wicked Serve is book four in Grace Reilly’s popular Beyond the Play series which features a bunch of college sports romance books.

Though this is the final book in the series, it can be read as a standalone. It does include couples from the previous books but you don’t have to have read their stories first to enjoy this one though I did read Breakaway (book two) and felt like that was a good intro to this world, Izzy and her brother.

I eagerly dived into it because Grace made the heroine a college volleyball player and you rarely, if ever, see this sport mentioned in a romance book. I’m a bit partial because I played volleyball in college so it was really fun to commiserate with Izzy and follow her in this sport.

But I’m also a HUGE hockey romance fan and Nickolai did not disappoint as a college hockey hottie who could bring it on the ice but who also had a very soft heart when it came to his little sunshine.

Grace gave both of these characters great backstories with a connection and chemistry that was undeniable.

Izzy is the youngest in a family of amazing athletes so she’s feeling the pressure to excel in a sport too despite hitting some road bumps in her career due to paryting in the past. She’s been a bit impulsive but really tried to make something of herself in this story.

Nickolai is a star hockey player that gets kicked out of his school and has to transfer to a rival’s school for his final year. I was intrigued by his upbringing in Russia and the traumatic past with his father which plays out in the later part of the book.

Overall I liked the character focus of this new adult romance. How Izzy and Nickolai connected over a summer and continued their fling once he transferred schools. Though more obvious to the reader than the characters that they were more than a fling, I enjoyed the progression of their relationship until they finally figured it out for themselves and could admit it!

Grace does not shy away from the steam in her books and I love it. So if you’re looking for a book with a good amount of steam this has it.

I will say that this book is pretty long coming in at over 400 pages. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing as it just gives you more of Izzy and Nickolai working through their issues but I did find myself skimming the last few chapters to pick up the plot highlights.

It must also be nice for these two to come from families with money. I’m not sure that athletes could just up and fly across the world to Australia for a few days during the school year and their season but I guess I’ll go with it!

I’d recommend this book to readers who love college romance books with spice and characters who are athletes but who also have compelling aspects to their lives outside of their sport.

*Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.

Related Posts:

• Grace Reilly Interview: Talking About Wicked Serve & Sports Romance
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• Best Sports Romance Series
• Best Hockey Romance Books
• My August 2024 Reading List: What to Read & Skip

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