Book Review: Beyond The Court by Stef C.R.

Official Synopsis: Nothing will stand between this tennis player and her grand slam. Not even love...

Maggie Taylor didn't get to be one of the best tennis players in the world by throwing out all her rules. She sticks to her routines and works hard to keep her heart from getting broken.

After all, "love" means nothing to a tennis player and Maggie knows first hand how complicated and messy relationships can be. Even her parents ended up getting a divorce. Instead of looking for love, she keeps her eye on the prize and her heart firmly locked away...even though it beats wildly for a certain best friend.

Rowan Amory has worked hard to make a name for himself and now he’s one of the best players of his generation. But lately, all he cares about is spending time with his loved ones and wondering if his best friend, Maggie, loves him back.

He was young and stupid when he agreed to a no-strings-attached agreement, not realizing a decade would pass and he still wouldn't have the courage to ask for more. But now, he's more than ready for the next step. All he has to do is convince Maggie to abandon the list of rules between them and trust that he'll be there to break her fall.

Will throwing out the rules result in a double fault? Or will taking the relationship to the next level be as easy as "game, set, match"?

I'm sure by now most of you are wondering how I can keep finding ARCs for tennis romances and how I keep reviewing them. I am wondering the same, since I feel like they are very hit or miss for me. Spoiler alert, this one was in fact a hit for the most part (don't let my star rating at the end confuse you.) Also, the main female character's name is Maggie, yes this was confusing for me and yes I will feel like I'm writing this review in third person, so I hope you are all ready for that.

Maggie Taylor is a star female tennis player, a position she doesn't take lightly and she worked hard on getting to. One way she did this was by ignoring most other people, especially any who might be looking for a relationship. The way she deals with both tennis training and sometimes needing to let off steam? A deal made her Rowan Amory while they were in college. He would help her train for singles tennis, while also being her best friend with benefits on the side. Now it has been a decade since their initial deal, and Maggie is starting to wonder if it's been going on too long, even though she doesn't want it to end. Rowan has been thinking the same thing, though Maggie doesn't know, and is wondering how to get her to finally commit to him fully while also trying not to ruin their friendship and partnership.

One thing I liked about this book was the fact the main characters have a pre-established relationship, which I know doesn't always work for people. I liked seeing that Maggie and Rowan were obviously very comfortable together, and were essentially already exclusive without the title of it all. Maggie has some things she has to work through on her own when it comes to love and marriage, but her opinion starts to change when she sees how happy her older sister is...even when their parents relationship didn't work out. Maggie tends to hold her emotions close, unless its Rowan, but when she starts to think about ending their agreement, she wonders in what way she should end it, especially when Rowan starts to act shady towards her. Rowan, on the other hand, is a sweetheart, this dude is head over heels for Maggie and would stay in an agreement that no longer fully fulfills him just to make sure they remain friends. He has definitely been in love with her the whole time and seeing his POV really helps us understand that. With both of them being professional tennis players, and playing on a highly competitive level, we get to see how the mixture of tennis and their feelings interact. These are two people who definitely know a lot about each other both on and off the court.

When it comes to the side characters , such as Maggie's family, I think their story was a big reason on why she felt the way she did about love, but it was hard to see her not fully understand what had happened between her parents. I also really enjoyed Rowan's friends, both the tennis and non-tennis ones. I think having this story just occur in the world of tennis really made the difference for me. Both the love story and the tennis were important to the characters, especially Maggie, and you could tell.

Now for the things that made this book 'only' a three star read for me. Though I liked the setup of the story, these two characters occasionally made me want to bash their heads together. That being said, the reason this book sits solidly at a three while also being a book I did enjoy is there weren't too many moments in the book that blew me away. It was a good love story with a mix of spicy scenes and romance scenes but didn't have anything that fully made it stand out to me over other books I've read. I think it was a good book and a refreshing read to escape some of the chaos of the outside world, but I wanted a few more surprises.

I rated this book 3 out of 5 stars!

Beyond the Court comes out February 19, 2026!

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