Carrie Soto is Back has been on my TBR since it was published, but I’ve been waiting until the paperback was released. When I walked into my local library last week, there it was on the new arrivals shelf. Needless to say, it came straight home with me!

What it’s about?

Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular.

By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. And if you ask her, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach.

But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan.

At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked the ‘Battle-Axe’ anyway. Even if her body doesn’t move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.

In spite of it all: Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells a story about the cost of greatness and a legendary athlete attempting a comeback.

What I think:

Oh my goodness! I never thought for one second I would live a book about sport – but I LOVED this book.

Carrie is fierce, focused, and so successful, but she is also vulnerable and isolated. Sporting success has come at a high price to her personal life. She has a reputation for being a battle axe but she is actually sensitive and lonely.

Carrie’s natural tennis ability and competitiveness are nurtured by her father, a former champion himself. Their relationship straddles father/daughter and coach/player. When his expertise can take her no further she fires him and goes to coach with someone who will.

Their relationship is rebuilt as he helps her come out of retirement and launch a grand slam bid to keep her world record. The odds are definitely against her, but Carrie is determined to prove she is the best in the world.

I loved the relationships in this book – between Carrie, her father, and Bowe, a fellow tennis star searching for a comeback and love interest. There is so much about love, friendship, family, and the complexities of sports psychology.

The book also explores the sexism within the sport and the media. Carrie’s attitude towards tennis is often seen as too male and too competitive, and her reputation means she is often isolated despite her worldwide fame.

I honestly wasn’t expecting to like this book as much as I did. I loved Daisy Jones and Evelyn Hugo and I think this is up there.

I love the fact that Taylor Jenkins Reid has the ability to make so invested in the lives of complex and often unlikeable women. I love the realism and sense that I am seeing these worlds from the inside with the grit and hard work that is behind the glamour and success.

This was a wonderful book – all the emotions! It’s five stars from me.