I had such a fun time reading this! We need more fated soulmates like this! I related to both of the characters and I just want to hug them! Thank you to Netgalley for early access to this one! I can't wait to add it to my collection.

I had a hard time getting through this one. I wanted to love it I really did! But I couldn’t quite get there. I love some magical realism but the whole soulmate plot felt kinda thrown in. The 3rd person narration also really took me out of the story.

This is such a fun sweet summer romance! My main gripe with this book is that I wish it was much longer. I felt like we were setting up all of these interesting characters and plot lines that sort of went...nowhere. I definitely got the vibe that this is going to end up becoming an interconnected romance series just from the way some of the side characters were introduced, but I wanted more time with Juliette and Luca! I would've loved more exploration of their characters and childhoods and to flesh out their motivations and love story.

The ending was very rushed and cheesy which admittedly knocked it down a star for me, but overall what a super fun read!

I was hoping this one would be intriguing and different by adding in the concept of predestined soulmates. Instead it was very predictable and didn't have much depth. I didn't feel much connection to the romance and the drama was quite boring.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

RATING: 2/5 STARS

Another cover and premise that are so cute, but the execution was a letdown for me! I was looking for an exciting, fast-paced, and sweepingly romantic sapphic sports rivalry story but this one I didn't vibe with.

AHHHHH I love love loved this book! I am not a big tennis fan but this book was amazing! It was easily digestible for me and adorable! The soulmate twist was perfect

I am a big sports fan so I enjoyed the descriptions and focus on the sports. It is realistic for athletes but is tough to read if you haven’t read a lot about sports or don’t really understand tennis to a degree. Enjoyable regardless.

Actual rating 3.5 stars

I’m still reeling! It’s a sapphic tennis romance with a magical twist. The rivalry between Juliette and Luca is SO intense, but their chemistry is undeniable. I loved how they went from bitter enemies to soulmates…it’s like the universe decided to play matchmaker. The tennis scenes were a bit detailed for me, but the romance? If you’re a tennis aficionado, it’s either up your alley or you’ll be nitpicky, I don’t know. BUT. Absolutely on point! Luca’s anxiety representation was also really well done. Overall, it’s a fun read, but I wish the world-building was a bit stronger.

Juliette y Luca son tenistas. Durante meses han competido entre sí, lanzándose comentarios agresivos, a pesar de que ambas saben que son el alma gemela de la otra. Ahora, debido a una competencia benéfica, deberán pasar tiempo juntas. ¿Lograrán ignorar sus sentimientos?


~

No me fue para mi; me aburrió, y Juliette me pareció inmadura y desagradable. No entendí por qué incluir el concepto de la marca del alma (que me pareció interesante) si al final no se le sacó provecho.



Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

3.5 stars!

Backhanded Compliments is a cute and easy read. A pleasant to have placed between two other heavier books I've been working on, while it doesn't have a strong rivalry feel to it as i expected there is definitely competetion between the main girls. I enjoyed watching them bounce off if each other and the books set up of switching between POVs. There said when switching between multiple characters within the same chapter it takes a moment to get used to the pacing. Despite that it achieved a flow that reminded me of how fast paced sports are, so that very well could have been the intention. I think there might have been benefit from forgoing the soulmate trope here but it also doesn't particularly hurt anything, and mostly stems from me being picky about that trope. Overall it's a cute read with an entertaining romance, some perfect to sit and read if you have a free afternoon. (For reference I could read this in 5ish hours, and I'm a bit if a slower reader)

thank you so much for the approval- i cannot wait to dive in, this is one of my most anticipated reads of the year! i will be sure to leave a review on GR/retailers to come! 💞

Chandler crafts a cute, if a little heavy-handed, sports romance in this novel. This caught my eye as a big “Challengers” fan, a big lesbian, and an avid believer in innate the homoeroticism of sports. On that front, this works wonderfully. The rivalry turned romance between the two players is the best aspect of the story, and I think the issues I had with the plot are that the relationship outside of that trope felt a little contrived. I never fully bought into the ‘soulmate’s name on their wrist’ conceit, even when I tried to. I would enjoy this a lot more if the characters had fully naturally grown fond of each other. Overall, this was a fun and cute romance, but some of the tropes felt a little more fan-fictiony than I prefer, and I didn’t always buy the characters’ motivations and actions.

what a cute little book!

I am loving the Challengers effect of many more tennis romances coming out. this book was so fun to read! honestly, I really enjoyed it, but the two main complaints I have were regarding the pacing and characterization. there were two parts of the book (the start and when luca and juilette have their fight) that the pacing felt very slow // way too fast. the rest of the book read really well, so besides that it was great.

my other concern was how luca and juliette's conflict was initiated. I think how it was handled during and after was appropriate, but their conflict felt a little forced.

overall, I LOVED the soulmate idea and as a previous tennis player, I was eating up all the tennis references. I was not expecting the amount of detail that Chandler went into the logistics of tennis which was a pleasant surprise. I don't think I've read any sports romance that goes this in-depth into the sport.

lastly, my only technical note is I think there were some punctuation marks missing in the prologue/maybe author's note and on page 82 "effected" should be "affected."

A sweet, steamy sapphic romance with so much heart!! 💖
In this wonderful story, we follow the romance between rival tennis stars, Luca and Juliette🎾
There is a super fun magical element in this world as well - you have an almost tattoo-like mark (they call it a soulmark) on your inner wrist with the name of you soulmate! After an intense match between Luca and Jules, they shake hands and the two rivals names appear on each other’s arms! THE DRAMA OF IT ALL!!
Throughout the novel, the reader is able to travel the world with Juliette and Luca as they compete at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, the US Open, and other tournaments. Along the way, a fun, interesting ensemble of side characters is introduced, adding depth to the world! As someone who doesn’t know a whole lot about tennis, I felt like the tennis jargon was easy to follow and super informative!
This fabulous slow burn is a beautiful mix of “Cleat Cute” for the WLW romance lovers and “Carrie Soto is Back” for the tennis lovers💘🏓
Thank you SO much to NetGalley and the talented Katie Chandler for this ARC! I’m a big fan!

This was a super fun read! I love watching the majors, so it was exciting to read a tennis sports romance. It was tennis heavy so I did get confused at some parts since I am only a novice fan. The soulmate trope had a lot of promise, but I wish it was incorporated more throughout the entire story. Overall, an easy, enjoyable read.

I unfortunately could not get into this, which sucks because I was soooo on board when I read the summary! Sapphic Rivals to Lovers who turn out to be soulmates amidst the professional tennis scene? Right up my alley - but it really fell flat in several key aspects.

Firstly, the plot revolves around Luca and Juliette, two break-out professional tennis stars, who are secretly soulmates based on a magic mark on their wrists of each other's names. Juliette wants nothing to do with Luca as a soulmate - only wanting to finally beat her and win a Grand Slam. Luca, despite being at the top of her game, only wants to know why her soulmate keeps rejecting her.

The plot is fine - you get to travel the tennis circuit around the world in beautiful places with beautiful people and romantic settings. The whole soulmates aspect is underdeveloped in this world - especially since it's been around since the dawn of time, but the world is exactly the same as our's. No changes in history, religion, medicine, all with the excuse that most people didn't meet their soul mate until the creation of social media. Juliette just decides to ignore the fact that Luca is her soulmate over and over without real consequences. The whole concept is the center of the story, but ultimately didn't feel that impactful.

Juliette as a character is also really unlikeable. The narrative knows this, even calls her a brat and jealous several times, but I'm supposed to believe that Luca and everyone else still likes her? These are not isolated incidents, she's a hurtful, self centered person nearly every chance she gets. It's one thing to be driven to win, it's another to act like a complete child all the time. Even her apologies feel fake to me. Meanwhile Luca is too generic for me to really care about, her dialogue is bland and most of her chapters are describing what's happening rather than her thoughts and feelings.

I will say there are some really romantic parts. Mostly in the form of massages. And the fact that settings like Australia, Italy, England, etc. are just fun to be in and are well described. Unfortunately, it's not enough for me to care about the characters in a world that feels underdeveloped. Overall I would rate it 2/5 stars.

i loved the soulmarks!! such a fun concept. i think there was a little too much tennis but i loved the book. i really enjoyed the main characters as well as the side ones.

If you've read Clean Point by Meg Jones then this is right up your alley. However, I DNF'd this book pretty early but I'm providing a review because a substantive part of the plot was already starting to take hold in the book. It felt crowded, the main characters were lacking, and I just didn't feel compelled to stick the story out. I didn't care enough to discover how the story unfolds. I admit, the cover art is what got me with this book and once I got into this it was like pulling teeth.

When you read sports romance based novel there actually needs to be attention given to the sport being featured. In this book it felt extremely surface level. Really sad that I didn't enjoy this but I want to thank Atria Books for the digital arc.

In tennis, you’re supposed to have the memory of a goldfish when you play so you don’t get hung up on any faults you make. I did that for a few things preference-wise—like the soulmates thing (not my thing) and the nicknames (‘Octo’ made me think of Doc Ock). But I draw the line at forgiving someone who broke your heart in the middle of having a meltdown during your match and then living happily ever after. I kept reading, thinking it was a daydream one of the characters had because it was so rushed. I feel like Tyra Banks with the GIF that says, “We were all rooting for you!”

The plot was fun! The characters were great! The spicy scenes were hot! I loved how the author described playing tennis! Being a tennis fan and player, I really got to immerse myself in these characters. But why did they forgive each other in such an unrealistic way and so quickly? Even the side characters conversations felt rushed and unresolved. It bummed me out for a book to end so abruptly like that.

Despite everything, I still enjoyed the book, though I’ll be reimagining the ending differently. Thank you to NetGalley, Katie Chandler, and Atria Books for my advance copy.

4 stars!!

This is such an interesting and cute spin on soulmates. The banter, the chemistry, the spice was so good. The representation of how anxiety and panic attacks effect people in different ways, a very strong, introverted character amongst a crowd of people with their sunshine, outgoing partner. This was so cute, I was trying to guess what would happen along the way and it just kept getting better. The growth between the two characters was amazing to see and realistic in my personal sense. The back and forth, the uncertainty, the exploration. It was really fun to read. I couldn't put it down, I just wanted to know more about them. This is a great read to add to your summer TBR.

In the heat of tennis season, two players meet on the court. Luca, an up and rising star, is convinced her soulmate is Juliette Ricci. When playing against each other in the one of the biggest tennis competitions, Luca and Juliette touch for the first time, confirming each other as soulmates. Luca and Juliette then build an unnatural rivalry against one another, until they can no longer ignore that they are both drawn to each other. Luca learns how to let herself be loved, Juliette learns to put others before herself.

thank you netgalley and the publishers for gifting this book in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, I really couldn’t get through this book which breaks my heart. This had the potential to be so much but between the very heavy and packed writing and the awful childish behavior from the characters made this a very difficult read.