Carrie Soto is Back

As most of my readers know, I love a lot of the Taylor Jenkins Reid books. None of her books are very deep or meaningful from my perspective, but they can be great summer reads to just enjoy. I (obviously) loved Atmosphere and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, so this book was a little disappointing. It is her second most recent release, and I just didn't like it near as much as I have liked her other books. This post is not to say that it is not worth reading, but I just wasn't in awe.

Carrie Soto is Back is the tale of a 37 year old woman who has become a legend in the tennis community. Carrie Soto has enjoyed a decade of retirement and has had sponsors calling her name ever since she retired. Back in her twenties, she was the greatest tennis player of all time and often referred to as "The Battle Axe", but that part of her life had come and gone. Then one day, young Nicki Chan beats Soto's record. Carrie Soto steps out of retirement for one last season to play in the Australian Open, French Open, US Open, and Wimbledon. Soto makes one last chance to regain her record. Her journey is a story of wins and losses, on and off the court.

I'd love to start with what I liked about this book because while I was a little disappointed, I still did enjoy parts of the book. My absolute favorite part of the book was the end (not in the way where I couldn't wait for it to be over, though). Within the last hundred pages, the book started to pick up, and I will admit... I did cry multiple times within the end. That is what TJR is good at. She is an excellent writer, and she is talented at pulling emotion from the reader. I think I have cried at least once for all of her books that I have read. Another major thing that I was happy with includes the character development. Out of all her books I have read so far, the characters within Carrie Soto is Back are among the most realistic personalities that she has created. Everyone in the book was flawed, and everyone in the book had their perks. In some of her other books, take Celia St. James for example, some characters are just perfect. I'm not saying this is inherently a bad thing, but as a reader I do like to see flaws and imperfections within relationships, people, and personalities. That was one of the things that I was very pleased with in this book.

That being said, I was disappointed a tad. I believe part of the problem was that the plot never really resonated with me. I loved the idea of the premise, but the book relied on a very competitive environment. Naturally, I'm not a very competitive person, so part of me just didn't feel the spirit of the book. My main issue was not this, though. I think I easily could have overcome the competitiveness. To me, the book felt very repetitive. Most chapters were either training for a game or playing a game. Parts of both aspects were sometimes interesting. For example, I would have never imagined how important the height of a jump was in tennis. There were things like this that I learned, but most of the training and games simply felt repetitive. I think this is part of the reason that I enjoyed the ending that much more. It became less repetitive and more focused.

Overall, I gave this book a three out of five stars on Goodreads. The book had plenty of redeeming qualities, but overall it wasn't my favorite. I don't regret reading it, but I wouldn't reread it. It was fine and I strongly believe that the right person could love this book. I would strongly recommend reading a different TJR book, though. Thank you for reading and as always, READ A BOOK.

P.S. Reid announced a new book coming in 2027 called The Last Days of Vic & Coco! I'm excited to read!