I had no interest in (and knew absolutely nothing about) tennis going into this book. I came out knowing I will watch Wimbledon, with bated breath, next time it's on. 'Carrie Soto Is Back' and she's on FIRE! As far as I'm concerned, Taylor Jenkins Reid can do no wrong and this latest book is no exception. I had to stop reading it at night because I was getting too excited! Carrie Soto is a wonderfully complex character and hers is a beautiful, inspiring and empowering story. I loved everything about it. Highly recommend!

When I saw TJR was publishing a new book my heart leapt! When I saw it featured tennis my heart sank. Now don't get me wrong. I love sport - all sport - well, all apart from tennis. I will sit and watch pretty much everything but I will walk out of a room if the tennis is on. Long story, mostly involving school and injustice. But there we are... Dilemma.
But, and this is important to all you who view tennis with equal contempt. It. Didn't Matter. This book is about so much more than tennis although tennis is the platform on which TJR has chosen to tell this story. Carrie's story. Her comeback and what that means for not just her, but a whole other bunch of equally wonderful characters. Yes there's a lot of tennis matches to sit through but each one divulges more about both Carrie's and other characters and moves the narrative along to the next step.
And for those of you who have enjoyed other of TJR's books there are lots of crossovers to be found herein, which always makes me smile.
And the story, well that went in a whole other direction to the one I first thought we'd go. In a really good way. And with an ending which wholly satisfied but at the same time made me sad to leave the characters.
So yeah, stop reading reviews and read the book already. And, if you haven't already read the rest of TJR's back catalogue, well, your TBR will be blessed...
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I found this book slow to get going and twice I nearly gave up on it I found it got more interesting at roughly halfway through the book. On the whole I felt this was more like an autobiography than a fiction read.
I didn't enjoy the media & TV reports and found myself skimming over them & there was quite a bit of Spanish in the book as well.
Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for this advance read.

Well, I never thought I'd love what is essentially a sports drama. But I'll read anything that TJR comes out with, and this turned out to be one of my favourite novels of hers yet.

Don't get me wrong, there is a whole lot of tennis in this book. But the author managed to get me captivated with Carrie's story and completely invested into the importance of each and every match - I often found myself on tenterhooks, waiting to see which way a player would jump, which way the ball would drop. And I never thought that would be the case with a book about tennis.

Of course, this is not just a book about tennis. It's a riveting story of a fiercely ambitious woman and her relationships, particularly that with her father and coach, Javier.

At 37, Carrie is a sports superstar but, six years after her retirement from tennis, she's about to have her record taken from her by new women's tennis star, Nicki Chan. And Carrie is not the type of woman to sit back and let that happen. So she comes out of retirement for one more year, determined to win another title and claim the record that she believes she deserves, as the greatest women's tennis player the world has ever seen.

What really makes this story special is the characters. It's told from a first person perspective, from Carrie's point of view, and so the reader gets to see beyond the persona she presents to the public. Carrie is bold and brash - she's referred to as "The Battle Axe" (and sometimes even "the bitch") by sports commentators. But we get to see all of her - the bravado and the flaws and vulnerabilities it tries to cover.

"My ambition has long felt oppressive. It is not a joy, it is a master I must answer to, a smoke that descends into my life, making it hard to breathe."

This author has a knack of crafting flawed, authentic characters and relationships, and that's something that really shines through in this one. Carrie's relationship with her father is something really special to read.

This is an inspiring read about the power of raw ambition - it definitely motivated me a few times to stop sitting around reading and do some exercise - and maybe have more blueberry smoothies and almonds! The book also gives a glimpse into life being a woman in the spotlight - the sexism, the ageism, the judgement of her private life.

"And yet, no matter what type of woman you are, we all still have one thing on common: once we are deemed too old, it doesn't matter who we used to be."

But, on the other hand, it's an story of rising above the gossip. Carrie doesn't care what people think of her (for the most part), she's incredibly single-minded - sometimes to her detriment - and focused on success. But as she goes on one last, epic tennis journey, she might just learn that there's more to life than winning after all.

I have always liked tennis, but when I started reading Taylor Jenkins-Reid's latest offering I didn't realise it was going to be set in the world of elite tennis, but I loved the insight it gave me. I was there, at Wimbledon, at Flushing Meadow and on the training courts.
Carrie Soto is retired and 37 when her record for the number of Grand Slam victories is broken, and she decides she isn't too old to win it back. She is driven, she is ambitious and she is just a little bit lost.
This isn't just Carrie's book. Her father and coach plays a large supporting role, and it is his passion and drive for his daughter to succeed that dominates. I really liked their relationship but it couldn't help feeling that he was living his life through his daughter and that her own needs were often lost along the way. The books deals well with the death of her mother when she just 6, and the impact on her of this loss and her father's determination to not face their grief. It is the elephant in the room - or on the tennis court.
Carrie has a very powerful voice. She isn't always likeable, but there was a large part of her that was that sad little girl who missed her Mummy and I related to that. She grows on the reader as the book progresses and you will find yourself cheering her on and wanting her to succeed, although her motives are not necessarily good.
I definitely recommend this book, even if you don't like or know anything about tennis. It ticked a lot of boxes for me. It explores family and friendship, and human frailty and resilience. It made me laugh and it made me cry.
It is a 4.5 for me, but I am bumping it up to a 5 for its originality and heart.

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I am a big fan of Taylor Jenkins Reid and as usual she doesn't disappoint.

Carrie Soto is Back follows the titular character as she returns to tennis from retirement to defend her grand slam record from the brilliant Nicki Chan - failure is not in Carrie's vocabulary. Carrie is coached once again by her father and former tennis player, Javier Soto. It's rare that we get to see such a deep and complex father-daughter relationship - it had me both laughing and on the verge of tears.
Primarily set in the 1990's, the novel explores the double-standards placed on female sports players as well as the general sexism woman experience in a typically male-dominated field.

Carrie Soto is Back begins somewhat slowly by taking us through Carrie's early life, but it quickly picks up the pace and had me reading well into the night, unable to put it down. (An appreciation of tennis is helpful for this book, but definitely not required.)

3.5
Carrie Soto is the best tennis player in the world when she retires with a record twenty Grand Slam titles. Six years later and she has to watch as British player Nicki Chan wins the 1994 US Open to equal her record.

Never one to lose gracefully Carrie decides to make a comeback at the age of thirty-seven. Entering each of the four slams as a wildcard, she is determined to reclaim her record. Battling both the media and her own ageing body, she is willing to push herself to the limits to show everyone that Carrie Soto is back and she’s still the greatest.

Taylor Jenkins Reid knows how to write and one of the things she excels at is making her characters so believable. Carrie was so vivid it felt like we were reading about a real tennis pro. From her childhood when a racquet was first placed in her hand to her explosion onto the professional circuit, we saw someone who worked hard to be the best. There was no social life, no friendships, no other hobbies; just a life dedicated to tennis.

She doesn’t hold her punches both on and off the court leading the media to refer to her as the Battleaxe. I really enjoyed the fact that TJR used Carrie to highlight one of the many things female professional athletes have to deal with. The fact that you have to maintain a sweet and engaging personality otherwise you’re labelled a bitch. Be gracious, be humble but still be sexy. Be hardworking, be competitive but don’t you dare be arrogant. It’s a very fine line to walk.

Now I enjoy tennis but wow, there was a lot of tennis in this. Entire paragraphs of tactics, play by plays of each point and while I admire the research that went into this I worry that if you can’t stand the game then this may put you off.

There were a few things that I didn’t love about the book and one of them was the romance. I just didn’t buy it. It seemed to come from nowhere and even though Carrie treated him less than well, he kept coming back for more. Carrie’s epiphany, when it came, also seemed to come on rather suddenly and I wish we had seen a more natural transition.

That being said I still enjoyed this book. While it’s not one of my favourites it’s still eminently readable and I’ll be eagerly awaiting whatever TJR comes out with next.

I’ve read several books by this author and whilst I struggled a little at first to get into this one, I enjoyed it more and more as I turned the pages. The story has a relatively small number of characters and I struggled to warm to any of them, but in the end became hooked on knowing if the preconceptions about ‘older’women were smashed in Carrie’s world.

I'm old enough to remember player like Martina Navratilova and what was female tennis in the 80s. Carrie Soto would have been a myth as she's a woman who fights: she's isn't wasp, rich and she's a female.
But the she fight to be the best and win.
This book is her story, her coming back, her sacrifice and the possibility of getting something more from life than just winning a game.
I wasn't a fan of Malibu Rising but I read this one in one sitting as I loved Carrie and her story.
An excellent book, well told and plotted.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The second book I’ve read by Taylor Jenkins Reid and just as good as Daisy Jones and the six. I really enjoyed this book even though at times I didn’t particularly like the main character. All credit to the author for writing her so well.

Ok, so I've read some TJR books before I haven't liked them. I thought it might just have been the subject matter that I wasn't a fan of so that's why I requested this. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get past the first chapter. I'm not a fan of her writing style and I didn't connect with the characters. It seems her books are just not for me and i think I'm in a minority.

TJR has first obliterated me with Daisy Jones & the Six which I inhaled in a day and have since then spent months wishing this fictional band had released a real album I could listen to. Then the film geek in me devoured the somewhat overhyped-though-gut-wrenching classical Hollywood memoir Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Last year, despite my scepticism, she made me not not only want to read but also care about Cali surfers and models & their punchable father, and made me hate a briefly mentioned side character, Carrie Soto.

This year, my loyalty and belief in TJR were truly tested. You are not likely to encounter a person less into sports than myself. I avoid any vaguely sports related content – and activities – like plague. Couldn’t care less about the Olympics or any World Cup Championships, if that’s what they’re called, but, y’know, good for the winners! However, in TJR we trust and all that, and NetGalley and Hutchinson Heinemann kindly approved me for an e-ARC, which I’m very grateful for because now I get to shout about this book from the rooftops before its release.

Written in 1st person POV, Carrie Soto will tell you her life story, from her Argentinian father‘s immigration to America, early childhood and family tragedy, which would spark her relentless discipline, ambition and drive for excellence, guided and supported by her loving father and tennis coach; her early rise to fame and record shattering results on courts all over the world, to her early peak and abrupt retirement – which all happens in the first quarter of the book. You spend the majority of the novel with embittered, cynical 37-year-old Carrie Soto and witness her trials and tribulations, the casual sexism and ageism she experiences as she attempts to reclaim her hard-earned top spot in the world of Women’s tennis with unwavering belief that she deserves it. This includes her rivalry with the current champion, Nicki Chan; training with another retiree fallen from grace, and her journey to acceptance and proving her worth, among others. What particularly stands out, however, is Carrie’s relationship with her biggest fan, determined and resourceful coach - her father, Javier, who certainly has his work cut out for him. It’s a gripping story about ambition, fame, female athletes, double standards, and a stunning exploration of a dynamic father / daughter relationship that will tug at your heartstrings.

Carrie is not a particularly nice or likeable person one would enjoy being around but she’s a fascinating protagonist. Her drive, desire and determination to succeed are so genuine and desperate that you cannot help but root for her too, no matter how misguided or narrow-minded her reasons are. I’m constantly impressed by how Ms Jenkins Reid manages to craft engaging stories about such authentic flawed lovable women and I honestly hope she never stops.

If you’re like me, and sports content usually makes you grimace, I must advise you: there IS a lot of tennis in this but it is all character motivated and you don’t need any prior knowledge of the sport to understand the plot as TJR conveys the stakes very clearly. Did I understand all the match methodology and tennis jargon? Nope but a lot of it can be gleaned from the context and those who are familiar with tennis will be able to visualise things quite well, in my opinion. Did it affect my enjoyment of the book? Absolutely not. If I didn’t have work and life commitments, I could have easily finished this in one sitting.

It did not make me want to watch or play tennis but it did make me want to wish Carrie Soto was a real Grand Slam record breaking superstar whose begrudging public appearances and headline-making interviews I could browse through, just as it had made me want to lose myself in Daisy Jones’s music and Evelyn Hugo’s movies.
Ms TJR, can’t wait to meet another one of your inspiring creations.

I love love LOVED this book - by far my favourite of all the Taylor Jenkins Reid books! As someone who knows very little about tennis and generally has zero interest in any sport at all, I was less than enthusiastic when I heard about the plot of this book. However! I found the entire book so fascinating! It isn't overly sporty, and terms etc are explained in such a way that it doesn't make you feel stupid or like you are being mansplained to. Really loved the characters and way in which the story developed. No spoilers, but a certain section involving Javier had my crying in an airport terminal as I read while waiting for a flight! Will definitely recommend!

This has definitely been one of my most highly anticipated reads of 2022. I love TJRs writing style and I love how her books often look at different career paths that’s i would not normally read, so the fact Carrie Soto is a tennis player really didn’t bother me when I started reading.

However, this book is almost entirely about tennis, there are very few sub plots, no real twists or turns, it is very much like reading a sporting autobiography. Now that is obviously one of the merits of TJRs writing, that fiction can read and feel like non-fiction, but this one was just missing something for me.

Ultimately, Carrie is a deeply unlikeable character which made it hard to warm to her throughout. The things she says and the way she acts makes it very hard to relate to such a character for the majority of the book which in turn ended up manifesting as me being quite disinterested in the plot.

There are a LOT of tennis references which make it quite hard to follow if you’re not super into the sport. I thought I had a basic knowledge but still felt stumped at times! Similarly, Carrie and her father regularly talk in full sentences of Spanish and there is very little offered from TJR by way of translation. I speak no Spanish so I found myself skipping these sections but worried I was missing a key interaction between the characters. But without stopping reading and getting out google translate I was a bit lost.

I had high hopes for this one and it fell a little short but I would say that it is still written beautifully and if you like tennis then this one might be a winner for you.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for the ARC! I left review here voluntarily.

Actual rating is 4.5 ⭐

This book is amazing! I can't stop reading this book because I can't wait to see what happens to Carrie.

From the title we know that this book will tell us about Carrie wanting to go back to tennis tournament after her retirement. Her only target is to maintain her Slam Record.

To complete the story, the author gives us a glimpse of Carrie's story since a little, how she became the legend of tennis. That's why we know how obsessed she is with this tennis thing. Because the main story is about Carrie wanting to maintain her record, this book will be full of tennis from her practice and her tournament. But I'm not bored at all while reading this. I feel like I'm watching the real games! I'm also excited about Carrie's journey. Whether she succeeds or not.

I love how real this book can be. As someone who enjoys this kind of tournament I can feel the excitement on the court. How frustrated Carrie and how hard it is for her to reach her goal. I even love the ending!

Carrie herself is not easy to like. Her obsession, her cold heart, her sharp tongue, everything in her is so hard to love. But as I already know her story since childhood, I know why she behaves like that. And she is doing a great development on her character. I also love her relationship with her dad. The only one she has. Not an easy relationship, they threw up and down but I love how her father is always there with her, despite how mean she can be.

We are also given about her little love story. Because Carrie is a hard person, it is also hard for her to open her heart but I love how her partner is still with her, understanding her and loving her despite everything she told and acted to him. We can see how mature their relationship is.

One thing I hate is the Spanish word here. Sometimes Carrie and her father will converse in Spanish with no translation! I don't understand a thing and it's even harder when I read this offline. After a long time I just gave up trying to understand.

“we live in a world where exceptional women have to sit around waiting for mediocre men.”

taylor jenkins reid is the only person that could make me read a book about tennis. she really aced (get it?) this novel.

carrie soto, our former tennis player, witnesses the current tennis star tie with her milestone records. with the support of her father, she comes out of retirement in attempt to prove that she is the best female tennis player in the world.

as well as this being a gripping story about ambition verging to obsession, it is also being a woman in sports - the sexism, the racism, how mens tennis is ‘incomparable’ to womens and their achievements aren’t as valuable. everything was written so beautifully (which isn’t a surprise, this is TJR), including the father-daughter relationship that was both heart-warming and heart-breaking.

i really love how every novel taylor has written is set in the same (mick riva) universe. they’re all connected and we meet our favourite (or mick riva) characters again which i love sm.

the sprinkle of romance in this book was honestly enough for me. i loved how slowly their relationship developed and it was written magnificently <3

“you are perfect, even in your imperfection. you are completely insufferable and i can’t stop thinking about you. i want the real thing this time.”

Taylor Jenkins Reid is an author whose previous books I have enjoyed, most notably The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Malibu Rising, but I have to admit that when I heard her most recent offering was about a professional tennis player who was a minor character in Malibu Rising I was not particularly excited but oh how wrong I was. It turns out that this story of a strong determined woman fighting the odds to make a comeback was exactly what I needed.
The set up is the world's once greatest, if least likeable tennis player coming out of retirement and being coached by her father to defend her record.by winning one more Grand Slam title. There is a wonderful sense of urgency as each opportunity comes and goes that really builds the tension and raises the stakes, keeping the reader gripped and turning the pages. I appreciated that Carrie was a complex character, she was often unlikeable yet I still found myself rooting for her. Her relationships with the supporting characters, most notably her father (and coach) Javier and potential love interest Bowe were complicated and compelling. Even though I am not much of a tennis fan I appreciated the descriptions of the matches and the physical and psychological techniques needed to compete with her various opponents.
Taylor Jenkins Reid has done it again, and I highly recommend it to fans of her previous books .
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

3.5⭐️

If there’s one thing that TJR can do wonderfully is to make her characters feel like they are real. As always, her writing gives life to a fictional character and through masterful narration makes Carrie Soto seem like a real legend of tennis!

I have to give credit to the tremendous amount of research on tennis terminology, techniques and tactics dutifully presented throughout the book. It isn’t an easy thing to make a book about tennis as interesting as this one!

However, I have a few issues with the plot/narrative that TJR have chosen.

I have to warn future readers about the extend to which it talks about tennis. Tennis isn’t a background here, it’s the main plot. It’s at the forefront, and unlike other TJR novels this one doesn’t focus on relationships but mainly on tennis. I don’t even think it focuses on Carrie Soto, as she seems to be more of a carrier for a tennis homage rather than an individual. Which was my main qualm about the book and why it’s not a perfect 5⭐️.

Carrie seems to be narrating her story from an almost clinical POV where she speaks mainly about her career and tennis and little of her personal life. It looks a bit like a documentary on her tennis career rather than her life and although events of her personal life are mentioned, they are really sparse and pushed into the background. It’s a very unusual angle to take for an author and I am quite sad to say that I was expecting so much more drama and relationships in this one, especially after the way CS was portrayed in Malibu Rising. The weird thing is that just like the media, CS seems to be as emotionally inept and a bit wooden. As this is a first person narration, it was a bit odd to see someone that wasn’t bothered in any way by anything except winning on the outside but also the inside. It made her look a bit one dimensional at times, even in her relationship with her father, which sometimes was really endearing but most of the times felt stiff and detached.

The character shift was also a bit too abrupt in my opinion and as much as I like to see a character develop, I would like some small steps happening over the years especially when we follow a character from childhood to late 30s, it would be expected to see some change throughout the years and not only at some point in her 37th year…

The ending fell a bit flat to me. It was so abrupt, I would have loved a bit more of her development and how she dealt with some situations that occurred in the last 20% of the book (no spoilers but if you know you know).

Overall, if you like tennis and you know at least basic moves and rules then go ahead and read it because it’s a light and quick read that feels like a biography! But if you don’t like sports or tennis and you wouldn’t watch a match… Maybe skip this one as it is way more technical than one would expect from TJR…

I haven’t always found TJR books to be completely gripping from the off for me but this was the exception. Although Carrie isn’t totally loveable for a lot of the book, I still wanted to keep reading about her and rooting for her both in her personal and professional lives.

I loved how this was written, the use of outside perspectives made this even more immersive. A brilliant read.

This was a fully immersive easy to read comeback tale. Carrie isn't an instantly likeable protagonist but you are quickly rooting for her every step of the way and she is deceptively complex. The tight cast of characters are all fully formed and the narrative is fast paced and interjected with transcripts and commentaries that really work. The actual tennis is described so brilliantly that I wondered who her tennis source was - you really feel like you are there on court with her. It has everything you would want - a brilliant personal and professional arc, tension, tears and high drama. I sped through it and relished every page.