Book Review: Wicked Serve by Grace Reilly

 

Expected publication August 13, 2024

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He’s my brother’s biggest hockey rival… but he’s bringing the heat for me.

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.

MY REVIEW:

Wicked Serve by Grace Reilly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nikolai is in the last season of hockey in college and is forced tos witch colleges. So now he is playing with his enemy, who is the brother of Izzy. Hm and Izzy had a summer fling and didn't think they would see each other again.
Their feelings are back but they need to keep things from her brother. But then the brother and him start becoming friends.
Izzy plays volleyball and wants her position back but for some reason the coach has it out for her. So she has to prove herself and get what she wants, Both the position and Nikolai.
I found it a cute romance and enjoyed reading it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the ebook to review.

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#wickedserve

Grace Reilly

Website

https://www.grace-reilly.com

Genre

Romance

Hi! I’m Grace.

I’m so glad you’re here! Originally from Long Island, I now live in Florida, where I pretend the lizards in my backyard are miniature dragons and soak up the sunshine. I can usually be found with a notebook in one hand and a paperback (or my Kindle!) in another. A storyteller at heart with a deep romantic streak, I write what I love to read: stories filled with swoon and steam, laughter and love, family and friendships, and authentic, earnest emotions and growth. I love drawing on my personal passions for my books, which is how my sports fanaticism resulted in the Beyond the Play series.

More about me: I collect earrings, the quirkier the better. I never turn down a good mint chocolate chip ice cream. I listen to way too much sports talk radio. And I adore writing about couples who are stronger together.

Book Review: The Au Pair Affair by Tessa Bailey

 

published July 16, 2024

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Tallulah is smart, vivacious, and studying to be a marine biologist. She’s also twenty-six and broke. So when Burgess, a battle-scarred hockey veteran and newly single dad, offers her a job as his live-in nanny, she jumps at the opportunity to get paid while living in a super fancy neighborhood and being around Lissa, his cool but introverted tween.

Her tween charge isn’t the only one who could use some help fitting in, though. According to…well, everyone except Burgess, he needs to get back on the dating scene, and adventurous Tallulah is just the girl to show him how. But as boundaries are slowly crossed and Burgess finds himself pulled between his daughter, who wants her parents back together, and his insane chemistry with Tallulah, a huge rift is formed, and Tallulah does the “right” thing—breaks her own heart and walks away.

Though Burgess knows it’s for the best—he’s too jaded, with too much baggage—a chance meeting, and a new push from his daughter, forces him to put everything on the line and fight to prove he learned his lessons well and is worthy of a happily ever after with Tallulah.

MY REVIEW

The Au Pair Affair by Tessa Bailey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A cute Hockey romance. Tellulah is hired as a nanny for Burgess's daughter who is a tween. I loved how Tellulah and Lissa bonded right away until Lissa saw something between Tellulah and Burgess. Lissa wants her parents to get back together and when she is told no then she hates Tellulah. Burgess and his ex are coparenting so they see each other alot. I like how they still seemed to get a long. Tellulah was a character that I also enjoyed. This is the 2nd book of the series.
Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC to review.

View all my reviews

Tessa Bailey

Bornin Oceanside, California, The United States

Website

http://www.tessabailey.com

Twitter

mstessabailey

Genre

Romance, Contemporary, Humor and Comedy

New York Times Bestselling author Tessa Bailey can solve all problems except for her own, so she focuses those efforts on stubborn, fictional blue collar men and loyal, lovable heroines. She lives on Long Island avoiding the sun and social interactions, then wonders why no one has called. Dubbed the “Michelangelo of dirty talk,” by Entertainment Weekly, Tessa writes with spice, spirit, swoon and a guaranteed happily ever after. Catch her on TikTok at @authortessabailey or check out tessabailey.com for a complete list of books.

Book Review: Secretly Yours by Tess Bailey

 

                                                    Published February 7, 2023

                                              Buy from Amazon

A steamy new rom-com about a starchy professor and the bubbly neighbor he clashes with at every turn...

Hallie Welch fell hard for Julian Vos at fourteen, after they almost kissed in the dark vineyards of his family's winery. Now the prodigal hottie has returned to their small town. When Hallie is hired to revamp the gardens on the Vos estate, she wonders if she'll finally get that smooch. But the grumpy professor isn't the teenager she remembers and their polar opposite personalities clash spectacularly. One wine-fueled girls' night later, Hallie can't shake the sense that she did something reckless--and then she remembers the drunken secret admirer letter she left for Julian. Oh shit.

On sabbatical from his ivy league job, Julian plans to write a novel. But having Hallie gardening right outside his window is the ultimate distraction. She's eccentric, chronically late, often literally covered in dirt--and so unbelievably beautiful, he can't focus on anything else. Until he finds an anonymous letter sent by a woman from his past. Even as Julian wonders about this admirer, he's sucked further into Hallie's orbit. Like the flowers she plants all over town, Hallie is a burst of color in Julian's gray-scale life. For a man who irons his socks and runs on tight schedules, her sunny chaotic energy makes zero sense. But there's something so familiar about her... and her very presence is turning his world upside down.

                                                        MY REVIEW:

Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hallie Welch fell hard for Julian Vos at fourteen, after they almost kissed in the dark vineyards of his family's winery.
On sabbatical from his ivy league job, Julian plans to write a novel. But having Hallie gardening right outside his window is the ultimate distraction.
At first I thought Julian was a stick in the mud and boring. I didnt see an attraction between them. Then as I kept reading and the love letters started then I was hooked and couldn't stop reading and was rooting for them.

View all my reviews

New York Times Bestselling author Tessa Bailey can solve all problems except for her own, so she focuses those efforts on stubborn, fictional blue collar men and loyal, lovable heroines. She lives on Long Island avoiding the sun and social interactions, then wonders why no one has called. Dubbed the “Michelangelo of dirty talk,” by Entertainment Weekly, Tessa writes with spice, spirit, swoon and a guaranteed happily ever after. Catch her on TikTok at @authortessabailey or check out tessabailey.com for a complete list of books.