Carrie Soto Is Back

Jumping right back onto the Taylor Jenkins Reid train with my second favorite of hers so far, Carrie Soto is Back.

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Why I Read This Book/How I Heard About It

Honestly, from here on out, any TJR books are just the luck of the draw, considering almost all of them have a hold list a mile long on the Libby app. So, when I get to read one of hers, it's purely due to timing and not because I strategically chose it as my next great read.

Side note: Carrie Soto makes an appearance in Malibu Rising, as the other woman who dates swimsuit model, Nina Riva's husband.

Basic Summary

From the back of the book:

"Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular. But by the time she retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Grand Slam titles. And if you ask Carrie, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father, Javier, as her coach. A former champion himself, Javier has trained her since the age of two.

But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning player named Nicki Chan.

At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked “the Battle-Axe” anyway. Even if her body doesn’t move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.

In spite of it all, Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season."

First Impressions

I was almost sure I would hate this book, if only because I had grown to love Nina Riva's character in Malibu Rising and, honestly, the cameo that Carrie Soto makes in that story does not paint her in a great light. I mentioned this to my sister and she assured me that this story would explain why Carrie is the way she is. And how is she? Sassy. Outspoken. Arrogant. But by the end of the book, as promised, I also came to see her as sympathetic, focused, intelligent, determined, broken, and powerful.

In addition, I knew it was largely about tennis, which I couldn't care less about. Then again, I wasn't really into the mechanics of surfing when I read Malibu Rising and that turned out to be pretty entertaining.

Final Thoughts

This story is yet another example of the depth Taylor Jenkins Reid gives to her characters. For all the cheesiness in her books, she really does do her backstory work and I'm convinced this author could make me feel a connection with any sort of person in this world. She's that good at giving her characters depth and weight and inserting just enough humor to make their defense mechanisms less intimidating than they are meant to be.

I absolutely loved this story. Even the tennis part of it! It's a tribute to her writing style that Reid was able to make a sport I know next to nothing about into something I was mentally "seeing" on the movie screen in my head. I felt like I was sitting in the stands of Wimbledon watching Carrie and Bowe play.

Really fun book! I definitely recommend!

Rating on Goodreads

I rated this book 4 out of 5 stars.

My rating method:

• I rarely rate books 5 stars. I save this for the absolute best books I've read. You know the ones...the ones that you can't get out of your head, even after you've finished them. The ones you think about for weeks afterwards.

• If a book is really, really good, I'll give it 4 stars. If you see a 4-star rating from me, I'd definitely recommend it to you to read.

• If it's just OK, it gets 3 stars. Basically, it means I could take it or leave it. I'd probably read it again because it wasn't terrible. But not like a favorite or anything.

• If I rate it 1 or 2 stars, I would not recommend anyone read it. It either didn't hold my interest or I couldn't relate to the characters/plot.