‘Carrie Soto Is Back’ by Taylor Jenkins Reid | Book Review

Mini spoilers!

Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular.

By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. And if you ask her, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach.

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, British 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.

My thoughts:

I have read almost every TJR novel and have rated them all highly, so I knew instantly this wouldn’t be an exception. Carrie Soto Is Back is unlike any novel I have ever read and I was a little sceptical going into it, but TJR has a way of pulling us in from page one.

Carrie Soto is one hell of a main character. She is unapologetically herself, she has the determination and the strength that one can only admire. I went into this being told that Carrie isn’t a good main character and that she is hard to root for but that wasn’t the case for me. Her personality is what made me gravitate towards her. Her ability to know what she wants and to not fake her way to the top was so inspiring and admirable, and I feel like we don’t have enough characters like Carrie Soto paving the way.

Now, I know she can be a bit mean at times, but have we all been complete saints and never said a bad thing ever? She was a tennis pro at such a young age and being told she needs to be the best. That is hard for anyone to manage and being in the public eye, of course she was going to make mistakes. Throughout this book we see Carrie grow. We see her become kinder, more supportive of others and become kinder towards herself too. TJR’s ability to bring a character to life in such a raw way has left me in awe.

Carrie has a complicated but loving relationship with her father, which is to be expected considering he was also her tennis coach. Those lines get blurred and sometimes professional can seem personal. I love that throughout this book Carrie carries to love she has for her father everywhere she goes, and in everything she does. Their bond was oozing from the pages and was absolutely devastating as the book neared its end. The ending of this novel really showed how strong their relationship was and Carrie showed us how to carry that, even in the worst of situations.

One of my favourite things about this novel was Carrie’s ability to say how she felt, especially to men. She would speak up when she was uncomfortable and she continued to set boundaries for herself and made them known to others. I found this so inspiring and we should be more like that. We should be seeing boundaries and making them known and not people pleasing.

I have a lot I can say about Carrie Soto and this novel and I think the most amazing thing would be that I was never into tennis, until this book. Now I enjoy watching the sport on TV and would love to try it out in real life too (Casually, of course). The world TJR created was so realistic and beautiful and showed how different women’s sports can be to men’s. In reading this novel I have not only found a new favourite character but I have found a new sport that sounds interesting to me. It’s pretty cool that an author can influence people like that.

Interested in giving Carrie Soto Is Back a read?

Buy here!