Talyor Jenkins Reid does it again! I was so thrilled to get an ARC of this book because I've loved all of this authors previous books, and this one did not disappoint.

Carrie Soto is back started a little slow for me. The description of Carrie's early years was cold and factual and didn't really provide any depth to Carrie. Which I think was the point. In her early years, Carrie WAS tennis. She didn't have much else going on and that was her entire focus and her entire personality.

When the story jumped to present day where Carrie is coming out of retirement in an attempt to hold on to her world record, this is where the story picked up. The plot was quick as Carrier fought her way back to being the greatest tennis player. The internal monologue and character growth and development really resonated with me. Carrie's struggles with perfection and her mindset about not making mistakes is something I think a lot of people could relate with.

I really enjoyed the slow unveiling of Carrie's relationships with secondary characters like her father, her manager, and fellow tennis players. It added depth to the story and more perspective about Carrie. My only complaint is that the tennis lingo during the matches got to be a little much for me at times. There was just a lot a didn't understand.

Out of all of TJR's characters, I find Carrier's story the most relatable and this really made me love this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for an honest review.
Would you believe it if I told you that I haven't read an e-book in well over a year? Everything I've read has been in audiobook form because I can listen while I work.
Well, I read this one. Actually read it! I enjoy Taylor Jenkins Reid enough that I had the motivation and desire to read it and this book did not disappoint.
This book starts out cold and takes time to slowly blossom into the wonderful story that it is. That is who Carrie Soto is in the beginning and becomes so much more as the story progresses. We're not supposed to like her in the beginning because tennis is her life and that's it. We learn about her tennis history and it's impressive. She is a beast to say the least. She dominated the tennis world but that's it. She made very few friends and had a reputation for being cold-hearted. TJR clearly took the time to learn about the game of tennis and break it down set by set. The love of the game is apparent on the page through Carrie and through her words.
When Carrie decides to come back to defend her title, nobody believes in her but her father and herself. Everyone has written her off as too old and thinks it's just a stunt. The tennis world is not ready for her hard work and determination. I absolutely loved seeing her improve her game and get even better with each game. Then Bowe Huntley returns to her life to help her out and things are icy between them for a while. He's ready to retire but wants one more season. Their playful rivalry becomes so much more. They improve each other's game and motivate each other to get better and better. Bowe is playing the best he's ever played because he's training all the time with her and has her father coaching him. Their friendship feels tangible and you just want so much more for the two of them because they are putting in so much work. No matter how far they get in their game, you're on the edge of your seat rooting for them to succeed.
Carrie's relationship with her father is really something special. There's so much love poured into those pages and I just love everything about the two of them. He's a fantastic coach and an even better father. He knows how calculating and ruthless she is with her game and while he wants her to succeed, he also wants her to find the love of the game again.
There's so much to enjoy about this book. It feels emotionless in the beginning and then you are so invested in every kind of relationship Carrie develops with those around her. From her father to Bowe and even to her agent, Gwen (who I loved), everything just falls into place. This book left me wanting more but I was also happy with how it ended. I could probably go on even longer about what I enjoyed about this story but I think I would rather just recommend it to anybody who is a fan of tennis or Taylor Jenkins Reid books.

I loved this book.

This is my first Taylor Jenkins Reid that I actually read (I've listened to two on audiobook), but it was a fabulous, quick read with a story that pulled you in. It was heavy on tennis--which is fine with me since I played tennis and enjoy the game--but I think it's still a story that a non-tennis aficionado would enjoy.

A great cast of characters, including Carrie, who developed from someone I couldn't stand at the beginning to a woman who grew and changed by the end.

I'd definitely recommend this to others.

I received this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

**Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House-Ballantine, and Taylor Jenkins Reid for an ARC of this book!**

"People act like you can forget your own name, but if you're not paying attention, you can veer so incredibly far away from everything you know about yourself to the point where you stop recognizing what they call you."

Part sports fiction, part romance, part family drama, part historical fiction AND even part bildungsroman, Taylor Jenkins Reid manages to SERVE up everything I was hoping for in Carrie Soto Is Back!

Carrie "Carolina' Soto grew up dealing with heartbreak, the sort of pain that can turn into fuel if you can learn how to channel it. After losing her mother at an early age, she learned the ways of the racket from her coach (and father) Javier...and also learned that failure was NOT an option.

She also then decides that she was going to be the best. Period. EVERYONE will know her name. And like her or not, she's going to MAKE IT.

20 Grand Slam wins later...she's racked up titles, fame, and acclaim...but has also been named "The Battle Axe." Reputation aside, Carrie doesn't let the judgments stop her and chooses to retire on this high note. She's content with her choice...until newcomer Nicki Chan starts to claim her turf as new champ, and Carrie isn't having it. Poised for a come back, she decides to come out of retirement and REMIND everyone who she is and that she hasn't gone for good. But in this new landscape with younger, faster players challenging her body, emotional conflicts and family troubles troubling her heart, and the critics and naysayers plaguing her thoughts, will her bravada hold up? Or has the world already seen the best Carrie Soto truly has to offer?

When I heard this book featured Carrie Soto from Malibu Rising, I was a bit surprised she was going to get her own book and also nervous that I wouldn't be a huge fan of this book. I thought this was going to be a sort of complement to that book, and I was a bit baffled as to why one would be needed. I had an especially hard time connecting with the characters in Malibu Rising, for whatever reason, and truly appreciated the time period the story was set in more than anything else. HOWEVER, TJR herself is 'back' in this one, with fully fleshed out characters who jump right off the page (whether it's their serve or not!) and plenty of emotional push and pull to keep the reader invested.

Carrie herself is a pistol. She's the type not to hold back, and I appreciated the honesty of her character, so driven by the need to win that little else matters. What TJR does so well in Carrie Soto is to give a voice and a heart to the conflict that I'm sure so many athletes struggle with on a daily basis: how much of my competitive nature is inherently ME and why do I have a compulsive NEED to win? My husband is incredibly competitive in his gaming, and while it's not something I relate to personally, it was so interesting to peel back the curtain on why Carrie might feel this way and if her competitive nature informs her character...or vice versa.

This was a lot less on the historical fiction side of things than some of Reid's other books, which to me which somewhat sad since I love looking for all the references she always includes in her books. Most of the novel also takes place in the 80s and 90s and since I grew up during this time, I was hanging on every reference...I just wish there had been more! I do love that TJR always manages to weave in different stylistic bits in her prose, from news articles to interviews, and makes everything feel SO authentic, you often forget that her characters aren't real. (There's also a tiny nod to Daisy Jones that made me smile!)

Obviously this book is FULL of tennis. If you really hate tennis for some reason...don't read it. I've always been somewhat of a casual fan, so I was worried so much detail about the game would get boring or repetitive (or whiz over my head like a very fast serve) but luckily Reid always knows how to keep things moving and I didn't feel it was too bogged down with extraneous details. Fair warning, there is a good amount of Spanish spoken between Carrie and her father: some of it is easy to figure out through context clues, but I found myself looking up words from time to time. (For example, the translations I found of 'pichona', which Javier uses as sort of a pet name for Carrie, ranged from "pigeon" to "tart"..so perhaps Google can't really settle that debate...and also, maybe it shouldn't!)

Perhaps you think you already know the end to Carrie's story before you begin...but when it comes to endings themselves? Through her character Gwen, Reid serves up a PERFECT outlook:

"Falling in love is really quite simple, " she says. "You want to know the secret? It's the same thing we are all doing about life every single day."

"Forget there's an ending."

And like the legendary Carrie Soto herself, Taylor Jenkins Reid is ALWAYS aces in my book!

4 stars

This book was wonderful. Taylor Jenkins Reid has been hit or miss for me in the past, but Carrie Soto was phenomenal.

Carrie Soto is Back is my TOP read of 2022. It was fantastic! The entire book reads like a vicious volley between the world’s best tennis players; it’s fast, intense, powerful, and relentless. I mean it when I say the pace of this book is so fast it had me reading at a speed I’m not used to experiencing in modern day women’s fiction. There are no pauses. It’s purposefully page turning at breakneck speed. There wasn’t one moment, one part, where I thought to myself, “ok come on, let’s get back to the good part.” THE ENTIRE BOOK IS THE GOOD PART!! Even the back story is written like a freight train derailed.

You’re probably wondering if you have to be a tennis fan to love this book. You don’t. You have to be a fan of really incredible writing and nail biting inner monologues. I’m not really a fan of tennis. I’ve seen enough matches to know what a forehand looks like, compared to a backhand and a serve. That’s it. And I LOVED THIS BOOK!

This was my first book by Taylor Jenkins Reid but it won’t be my last. I’m not quite sure how the rest of her books will live up to Carrie Soto in my mind, but I’m really excited to find out.

3.5⭐️
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Thank you to @Netgalley & Random House Publishing for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
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I want to start this review by saying that Taylor Jenkins Reid is one of my favorite authors of all time & nothing can ever change that.
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Carrie Soto Is Back tells the story of Carrie making a comeback with a goal to reclaim her world record of holding the most Grand Slam titles.
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This is a character driven story! Carrie is a very complex character with multiple layers. We see her as a child and how she becomes who she is. We see her reach her goals and then come back for more, obviously.
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This book has a lot of Spanish dialogue! I did need to use my translation tool quite a bit, which I was not expecting.
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I really enjoyed this book & it did give me the feels, as TJR always does.
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I just didn’t love it. Please don’t hate me, as I’m sure this will be an unpopular opinion. This book has a lot of tennis lingo. The author does a good job with teaching you just enough, but I felt a little overwhelmed by how much I didn’t understand.
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I feel so conflicted by this book. I’m very interested to see other’s opinions as well!

Going into this book, I didn’t have high expectations. Malibu Rising wasn’t my favorite, so I went in with mediocre hopes.

Boy was I blown away! I loved, loved, loved this book. Carrie Soto felt like a real person. I loved her story, her self-awareness, her fierceness, her relationships, all of it. Taylor Jenkins Reid has a way with bringing her characters uniquely to life.

Love tennis? Read this. Hate tennis? Read this. Don’t know about tennis? Read this. Just want to read a good book? Read this!

I am a huge TJR fan but Carrie Soto has quickly become my favorite TJR novel. This novel of greatness and the comeback of all time captivated me from the start. The relationship that Carrie has with her father as complicated as it may really made this such a powerful story and their dynamic played a huge part in the book. Watching Carrie grow and then continue to follow her dreams as she prepares to make the ultimate comeback in her tennis career. This book had me engaged from the start and I felt every emotion possible as I both read and listened. I loved the format and the way the chapters were named.

This is a very sports-heavy, character-driven book and I loved it. Carrie was complex with relatable flaws - she is competitive and cutthroat when it comes to tennis and not well-liked as a result. I can see why some people would hate her but I think she definitely matured over the coarse of the novel and as someone who loves sports (although not really tennis) it was a lot of fun following her decades-long career with its ups and downs as well as her relationship with her dad/trainer. The romance with Bowe was great, too. This was a solid 5 star book and the first one I've read by TJR but I will definitely read more. I don't think it's necessary to read Malibu Rising before this one, even though Carrie is a minor character in that one. This is just a very well-written novel that fleshes out the character of Carrie brilliantly. I loved it.

Loved this book so much, definitely my favorite by this author so far. Fast paced story about a tennis phenomenon and her father who is also her coach. Carrie lost her mother at a young age and never really made many friends, but what she did have was her love of tennis. With her father who is already a successful coach and a determination that is unrivaled, Carrie carves a path through the tennis world so that everyone knows her name. But as she ages and sustains injuries it’s not as easy to keep her titles. Fast paced, exciting novel that is impossible to put down.

LOVEEEED! I think this has kicked Daisy Jones out of my #2 favorite TJR novel spot (Evelyn Hugo will always be #1 in my heart). I just really related to the drama and pressure of high expectations and being so hard on yourself. I also think that the depictions of grief were insanely beautiful and heart breaking. A summer must read.

After getting a glimpse of Carrie Soto in Malibu Rising - it was so fun to explore a different character (that's not Mick Riva) in the TJR universe.

Carrie Soto is in fact back & better than ever. I really enjoyed getting to read about Carrie who is unapologetically herself and a spitfire. Her relationship with her father Javier was such a joy to watch unfold and I loved everything about their relationship.

The relationship that truly surprised me though was the one between Carrie & Nikki Chan. I loved their banter, their mutual respect for each other, & their cutthroat ways. It made for such an interesting & enjoyable dynamic. Truly loved watching their friendship blossom.

Even for me a sports fan (who isn't really a fan of the game of tennis) there was A LOT of tennis talk. I didn't mind it and TJR did a good job in the beginning of the book trying to explain the basic rules but I definitely don't know if everyone would be able to fight through the tennis talk. Because I work in sports it was interesting to have the perspective of the sportscasters and radio hosts talking about Carrie and how they talked about female athletes.

Overall I really enjoyed this book but it didn't captivate me the way other TJR books do. I'm very curious to see what character we get next in the TJR universe.
Is it Bowe? Is it Nikki Chan? Is it Javier? We will have to wait to find out.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this arc. Carrie Soto is back hits the shelf on August 30th!

GET IT, READ IT, LOVE IT!

Right NOW! Go! Run!!

TJR has seriously outdone herself with Carrie Soto is Back! As soon as I turned the last page, I just wanted to pick the book back up and read it again, just so I could experience the emotions all over again. The depth and emotion that went with not only Carrie’s character are just beyond words. Jenkins Reid is truly a master when it comes to developing complex characters that are real, flawed, and will still tug on your heartstring’s even during their unlikeable moments.

I was so fortunate to have also read this with Kaley. We had so much to discuss about the characters, what we thought would happen, and all those moments we were tearing up and grabbing a box of Kleenex.

This is a story that will stay with you for life, and I cannot recommend it enough. Just an absolutely stunning and moving story. ALL THE STARS!

Thank you, Ballantine Books, for this gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

I haven't loved TJR's previous works. With Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones, I just didn't want to read about fake people and they were predictable and lame. However, I somehow really enjoyed this book about fake tennis star Carrie Soto. (I have never been passionate about sports, so that helped I think.)

The major theme here is toxic perfectionism, which is something I relate to deeply. Carrie wants to be the best, she wants to crush everyone, and she can't let go when her record is broken and she is no longer "the best." She is known as "The Bitch" and no one in tennis will even practice with her when she decides to stage her comeback. Her doting, devoted coach/father dedicates his existence to her and yet is scared he will say the wrong thing and Carrie will never talk to him again.

I was cheering for Carrie and raced through to the predictable, tidy, yet heartwarming ending.

I had this crazy feeling that I would love this book by TJR. She does amazing work, we meet Carrie Soto a tennis player recently retired, finds out that a young woman by the name of Nicki Chan is about to beat her record of all time and this woman was NOT HAVING IT! And the story begins, I can say this though, Carrie is a hard woman to like, and even though there is not a lot of struggles that we Hispanic women have gone through in those times depicted in this book, you see that Carrie had to work twice as hard to get to the top and her father was quick to push her there.

Aside from the topics coming up on social media about TJR and using Latina MC’s in her book, I can say I love how she makes them all strong, and gorgeous, resilient, and ball busters. They are “take no nonsense” type of women, with Carrie I feel it was a little too much. I started to love Carrie at the end of the book when we get a very sweet surprise in her change of course. I loved the tennis in this book, not a fan of the sport but loved how TJR did her thing in describing it to us. And her relationship with her dad made me love the book even more, her dad was the best! (Loved the crossing of characters with the main characters from Malibu Rising) Thanks Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I always trust that I'm going to enjoy TJR's stories. Carrie Soto was a hard character to like, but the way she represented a strong, driven woman against the backdrop of 80s-90s misogyny.
As I finished the book I became aware of a conversation about TJR using a Latina main character. I have to say that I didnt find the characterization problematic or offensive (I am Peruvian-Ecuadorian-American myself).

I enjoyed the sports writing, even though I am not a tennis fan, and I enjoyed the transcripts from the sports talk shows. In real life I often dissect sport commentary for my husband to point out the racism and sexism that exists within it, and TJR really captures that.

I received this novel as an advanced reader copy from NetGalley. I love Taylor Jenkins Reid and her latest did not disappoint. Carrie is such a likable character despite her flaws and her complex relationship with her father and the people around her and the sport of tennis kept me eagerly reading. Highly recommend.

Holy Tennis Balls! This was so good. I also received an advanced listening copy and the audiobook was perfection. I can't wait for friends and family to read this... and now I want to watch tennis.

NO WORDS. There are NO ADEQUATE WORDS. How does one review this book!? I cannot. I would read the telephone book if Taylor wrote it. I'm such a fan. Forever. I love that this story rounded out the quartet. Chef's freakin' kiss!