I love Taylor Jenkins Reid and I love playing and watching tennis, so this book was always going to be a winner for me. And now I love Carrie Soto too, unlikeable and her own worst enemy though she often is.

Legendary player, Grand Slam record holder, now retired ("now" being 1994), Carrie as a player was ungracious, unapologetic and sometimes downright mean. Winning is everything for her. She's known as the Battle Axe or, more privately - though not always - as the Bitch. Now, Carrie at thirty-seven is tempted out of retirement to defend her record against upstart Nicki Chan, coached once again by her beloved father and mentor Javier.

Reid has some things to say about perceptions of women in sport and how they are expected to behave, and she says them powerfully.

"It was okay to win as long as I acted surprised when I did and attributed it to luck. I should never let on how much I wanted to win or, worse, that I believed I deserved to win... The bulk of the commentators… wanted a woman whose eyes would tear up with gratitude, as if she owed them her victory, as if she owed them everything she had."

I mean, she's not wrong.

There's a lot of tennis in this book, which may be off putting for those who aren't into tennis. But Carrie - a character briefly referred to in Reid's previous Malibu Rising, who gets her own story here - is fascinating and goes on a real journey here. It's a sports novel, but a lot more too, and there's at least one adorably romantic moment (you'll know it when you read it). I also loved the press articles and transcripts of pundit chat which are scattered throughout.

Fabulous.

Having just read Daisy Jones and the Six I was beyond thrilled to be able to read an advance copy of Carrie Sotto is Back and I loved it! I have not read Malibu Rising and I’m not a fan of tennis as the scoring and rules confuse me. Neither of these facts impacted my enjoyment of the story though.

In her heyday, Carrie Soto was the number one tennis player, and she won more grand slams than anyone else. There's a new player on the scene, Nicki Chan, threatening her title and as such, Carrie, her father and her coach, decide to help her mount a comeback and defend her title. Carrie is not a character you’ll fall in love with; she is driven, determined, and ambitious and doesn't care what other people think of her. She's a woman who doesn't let anything stand in her way!

Another 5* book by Taylor Jenkins Reid!! Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

Before I dove into Taylor Jenkins Reid's new novel, I revisited Carrie Soto's cameos in 'Malibu Rising'. I was quickly reminded of the unlikeable woman who steals Nina Riva's husband, and her stunning turn setting fire to Brandon's clothes on the front lawn. We already knew this is certainly a fearsome character who knows what she wants and is driven to win, no matter the costs. However, do not think that if you have met this Carrie Soto that you have the full measure of her; we have barely started to peel back the layers of Carrie's compelling story.

In 'Carrie Soto is Back', Reid is back on stunning form with a pacey and captivating narrative. We are some years past Carrie's run in with the Rivas (an unimportant footnote in her history) as we see her come out of retirement at age 37 to claw back her title of the most grand slams to her name. She had 20 until Nicki Chan drew with this record, seriously threatening to overtake Carrie, which she refuses to accept.

As someone who has only really had a passing interest in tennis, I raced through this book finding joy in the tension and release of every page of this novel. I spent my time either desperate for Carrie to win or desperate for her to find happiness beyond records and trophies. She may be driven but I was in awe of her unapologetic drive to be the best and crush her opponents. Yes, she is flawed but she owns her strength which makes her a complex yet fascinating protagonist. I loved how the relationship with her father, and grief at losing her mother young, brought a softer edge to Carrie's character, allowing us to develop an appreciation for her beyond our memory of her as the woman who "stole" Nina Riva's husband.

Overall, Reid has taken a character from 'Malibu Rising' who didn't seem to have more story to offer us and has written an incredible novel full of tension, heart and some fantastic tennis. I was slightly disappointed with 'Malibu Rising' but Carrie Soto is BACK to the heady heights of Daisy Jones and Evelyn Hugo. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Well Taylor Jenkins Reid has done it again. She can write incredibly great escapist stories that I just want to crawl in to. Always solid on plot and character and Carrie Sotto doesn't disappoint.

What I thoroughly enjoyed in this story was that Reid didn't necessarily want us on Sotto's side, she isn't the most likeable character but it also makes you question why you don't like her. The levels to this story are brilliant as you can see that Reid is well aware of the hypocrisy of the media and how women are torn down in the press and the papers the minute they 'don't smile' for instance. The expectations on women such as to be the greatest tennis player in the world as well as be charming and lovely and grateful is ludicrous and Reid really delves into how women are character assassinated the moment they do not conform to how men expect them to behave. What a brilliant way of questioning this narrative through this story. Reid doesn't hold back and I adored her pulling apart a system that is still very much in place and she makes us question the internal misogyny that we can all be guilty of. A great story that also makes you think.

This is one for a sunny afternoon when you want to disappear into a story. Fantastic.

What a breath of fresh air. I've recently become increasingly frustrated with a sub-genre of fiction that I call 'Ambitious Women Meet Bad Ends': for some reason, ambitious women in commercial fiction, especially but not exclusively in psychological thrillers, are often punished for their ambitions or decide that love and family are more important and give up on their lofty career goals. It’s hard not to feel that readers are being told, over and over again, that women should just stop wanting things. So, what a relief to read Taylor Jenkins Reid's Carrie Soto Is Back, which demolishes this trope in its first few pages. Carrie Soto has already had an immensely successful tennis career in the 1970s and 1980s, setting the record for winning the most Grand Slams before her retirement from the game. Now it's 1994, and Carrie is thirty-seven years old. As she faces a challenge to her record from upstart player Nicki Chan, Carrie makes a brave and perhaps ill-advised decision: she's going to come out of retirement and defend her achievement.

The two books I kept thinking of while I was reading Carrie Soto Is Back was Lauren Weisberger's The Singles Game, which is the only other women's fiction book on tennis I've ever read, and Lionel Shriver's merciless but insightful Double Fault, whose protagonist has to face the fact that she'll never achieve what she wanted to in tennis. Weisberger's book is a great (read: terrible) example of the Ambitious Women Meet Bad Ends trope I described above: its protagonist gives up tennis in her prime for paper-thin reasons that suggest that you just can't be a nice girl and also be competitive. Shriver's brilliant book interrogates what happens to us when we pin our entire identity on achievements that we can't control. Reid walks the line between the two. Carrie is allowed to be satisfyingly, gloriously successful, but this book also questions what success means if you aren't playing the kind of tennis you used to love. Rather than posing a neat opposition between love/family and ambition, Carrie Soto Is Back realistically shows how the two are intertwined. Carrie's beloved father is also her coach, and while her love for him goes beyond tennis, tennis is also the ground on which they've built their relationship.

Reid is not concerned with making Carrie easily likeable, which I loved. Even more importantly, though, Carrie's opponents, such as Nicki, are also complex women, not cartoon villains. Nicki is potentially even more ambitious than Carrie herself, and yet we see what drives her. This narrative choice makes the ending of the novel, which could have been a bit disappointing ((view spoiler)) work, because Reid is still celebrating female ambition. And while there's a romance sub-plot in Carrie Soto Is Back, the tennis is rightly centre-stage. Some readers may find the close focus on tennis matches boring, but I was fascinated by the way Reid explores the psychology of the game (and I rarely actually watch tennis, so I'm by no means a tennis fan).

If I had any complaints about Carrie Soto Is Back, it's that Reid's writing is a bit more simplistic than in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones and the Six: the use of voice is much more straightforward, with the whole novel narrated by Carrie in first person. The 1994-5 setting is also disappointingly thin: I only remembered we weren't in the present day when characters occasionally did things like use a landline rather than a mobile phone. However, this is so much better than Malibu Rising, and represents a return to form for Reid as much as for Carrie.

I loved this. I’m no fan of tennis and have little to no understanding of the rules and terminology but even that didn’t dampen my love for this book.

Carrie Soto was once the number 1 tennis player, winning more grand slams that any other. Now retired, there’s a new player, Nicki Chan, on the scene who is just about to take that grand slam title. Carrie, with the help of her father and coach Javier ‘The Jaguar’ Soto decides to stage a comeback and defend her title.

A lot of the time Carrie is an unlikeable character. But somehow that doesn’t stop you rooting for her! She is driven, determined, ambitious and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. If Carrie Soto sets her mind to something, it is done. I totally loved the relationship she had with her father. The back story explained such a lot about her development and her attitude and we felt her grief along with her. I also loved the character of Nicki. She was such a good opponent for Carrie!

The book itself is well paced and superbly written. Even without knowledge or understanding of tennis, I wanted to know what would happen and was compelled to keep reading. I did enjoy the growing relationship between Carrie and Bowe too. They were good for each other!

This is a superb book and my daughter is supremely jealous I’ve been able to read and review it. I will definitely read more books by this author- like Carrie Soto I think I’ll try Daisy Jones and the Six next…. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

“She’s destined,” he said. “It is plain as day. With your grace and my strength, she can be the greatest tennis player the world has ever seen. They will tell stories about her one day.”

Carolina Soto, known as the ‘battle axe’ of womens tennis, had dominated the game for years. She retired six years ago after a knee injury and now Nicki Chan is coming to overtake her grand slam titles. Carrie decides to give it one more go, one year to extend her reign and prove she’s still the best. There’s only one man to help her do it - her father and coach, Javier.

Taylor Jenkins Reid has hit the mark again with this book. A simple plot, a fairly slow pace but great characters and a rush of adrenaline pumping through that wants you to see if Carrie succeeds. I will say, I watch the tennis every year and love the game so this book was so interesting to me. If you don’t enjoy tennis you might find it harder to get through.

I thought Carrie was a fantastic character; unlikeable, untouchable and aloof but with a deep passion for the game and a burning love for her father. The relationship between Carrie and her father was what made this book great. I thought the commentary on women athletes was tackled well and I also appreciated how we saw there wasn’t just a male/female divide but how the women fought and tore each other down within their own field.

I couldn’t put this down, it was so easy to keep turning the page. Like I said though, the heavy sports focus won’t appeal to everyone but it’s the relationships in this book that make it excellent. With references to Malibu Rising and Daisy Jones and the Six, this is another great tale for Taylor Jenkins Reid fans. Can’t wait to see what she does next!

✨Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! ✨

Taylor Jenkins-Reid can truly do no wrong in my eyes. I love everything that she does. Carrie Soto is back was no exception. Was it my favourite book ever? No. But I still really enjoyed it and tore through it. I love Tennis so I read it really easily but it is very tennis heavy with some pages just solely describing a tennis match so I don't know that it will be for everyone (where as I think all of her other books are). Stil 4/5 for me!

Just wow Taylor writes everything so wonderfully and there isn’t a book of hers I don’t love . This one is right up there with Malibu Rising for me just loved every minute of it . Thank you Netgalley and the publisher

So bloody good. TJR doing it again. Just love her work soo soo much!!
5stars!!!
She has outdone herself with this book. Carrie Soto is one of her best characters ever. Loved her.’