Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins-Reid

Sports Fiction. Romance. 

Finally read after buying a copy from the Portland Book Festival. 

Rating: 3.5/5

Pages: 384

Started: 20 December 2022

Finished: 20 December 2022

Summary:

    Carrie Soto's had a tennis racket in her hand ever since she could walk. When her mother was alive, she would watch from the sidelines as Carrie trained with her father, hour after hour drilling the basics. Then, when she died, Carrie's world narrowed until there was nothing but tennis, nothing but training until she was the best. She dropped out of school, started entering tournaments, started winning. Then, at the peak of her career, as she was breaking records at each match, she got injured. Needed surgery. Had to retire. 

    Five years later, a new tennis player is primed to beat one of Carrie's prized records. And Carrie can't watch that happen. So, at 37, she comes out retirement. Determined to win.

    

Thoughts: 

    This book was sports fiction, plain and simple--there was so. much. tennis. That being said, I quite enjoyed it; I read the book as fast as I read Jenkins-Reid's others. Carrie was an unlikeable person but a fun character, and it was satisfying to watch her be so good at what she loved. The book was quite predictable--I had every bit of the plot about Carrie's father figured by the fifth page--but again, it wasn't bad or boring, either. There was one plot point that I thought was going to happen but didn't: I was certain that Carrie and Niki were going to end up at least making out once, but I was sadly incorrect. With the exception of that disappointment (I love a good rivalry romance) the relationships in the book were cute, and the winning was exciting. And getting such a competitive athlete's genuine perspective on the sport was cool--it had the same feel as Daisy Jones in that sense, especially since it combined a POV with news articles to create a whole picture. It was overall an exciting and fun read, despite the extreme amount of tennis, and I look forward to seeing what other books Jenkins-Reid writes in the future.