All's Fair in Love and Pickleball by Kate Spencer
Published by Forever on June 3, 2025
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
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Pickleball rivalry? Sure. Falling for your fake boyfriend? Now that’s a surprise.

Bex Martin’s racquet club is her entire world. But the business she inherited from her mother has started to feel more like a sinking ship. That is, until Nikolaus Karras—a former tennis bad-boy with an ego as big as his serve—makes himself at home on her courts.

Niko has something to prove, and a high-stakes pickleball tournament is just what he needs to get back in the game after a career-ending injury. When he is finally able to set his ego aside to ask for Bex’s help, everyone assumes that they are a couple—on and off the court.

But she needs the prize money to save the club, and he needs a win to restore his reputation. So now they have a fake relationship as well as a doubles partner that they can’t seem to resist. Game on!

Read if you like:

• Enemies to lovers vibes
• Small-town feel
• Sports romance
• Relatable characters
• Humor
• Emotional depth

My thoughts:

All’s Fair in Love and Pickleball is utter perfection. Kate Spencer delivered so much more than a pickleball romance. Bex and Niko have taken up residence in my heart and on my favorites shelf.

I’ll start off by saying that if I had even one complaint, it would only be that it’s a little slow to start. It doesn’t have a plot that immediately grabs you and keeps you captivated. It does, however, have a cast of characters that does. Bex, Niko, Loretta, Deb, Ed and all the rest of the Sunset Springs Racquet Club crew stole the show from the very start. Every single character was well-rounded and well-developed but even more important, they had such heart and wonderfully defined personalities. Bex and Niko may have been the leads here but Loretta and Ed also stole a piece of my heart. Not to mention Maureen and Deb making me genuinely laugh out loud.

Don’t let the cutesy cover of this one fool you. It’s a little deceptive when it comes to what’s between the pages. Yes, it’s a romantic comedy with fake dating, enemies to lovers vibes, and pickleball playing but it also focuses heavily on grief (specifically from loss of a parent) and mental health. Bex’s love for pickleball and the racquet club is wrapped up in her love for her mom and the thought of losing it so soon after losing her mom is something she struggles with throughout the book. It fuels a lot of her determination to save the place. With Niko, he’s trying to come back from a serious injury and there’s a lot going on in his head surrounding that. I think the thing that made this really stand out to me is how Kate Spencer approached these topics. They were such an intrinsic part of the characters but there was also so much more to them than just their struggles. It felt so natural and relatable.

Seeing Bex and Niko grow together was the best part of this book. I loved the animosity and tension between them at the start but seeing that change over the course of their fake relationship was just too good. Niko started out as this elitist grump (which can be overlooked since he’s a literal Greek tennis god) but Bex was able to bring out another side of him. Seeing Bex come out from behind her shadow of grief brought me so much joy. Playing pickleball with Niko reminded her of her love of the game and her fake relationship with him reminded her that she still had so much life and potential.

This was sports romance done right. Pickleball was an actual part of the story, not just a brief mention. I knew nothing about it going in but I feel like I know it now. I’m not gonna lie and say I’m going to rush out and play but I’m certainly more interested than I was before.

Overall, All’s Fair in Love and Pickleball moves to the top of my recommendation list. Readers will come for the pickleball but stay for Bex, Niko, and the Sunset Springs Racquet Club crew.

TL;DR

Utter perfection. The writing, the story, the characters; I have nothing bad to say about any of it. Kate Spencer did the impossible and even made me care about a sport. I have nothing but good things to say about All’s Fair in Love and Pickleball. I highly recommend it.

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