Reid is back with her signature style, writing characters who feel so real that you find yourself shocked when you can't watch old recordings of their tennis games on YouTube! These characters were so perfectly flawed, vibrant, and human to me that I feel like I’ve made new friends. The story has a lot of heart, and captivated me every second, even though I’m not a sports fan I was thoroughly invested in every game! Another incredible piece from TJR!

I just reviewed Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid. #CarrieSotoIsBack

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be published August 30, 2022.

4.5 stars! This is my 4th book by this author and at this point, she’s proven herself to me. No doubt I’ll read her next book.

I didn’t think I’d be that interested given the plot (profession tennis player) but I found it fast-paced, compelling, realistic and wrapped up nicely at the end. It might help that I enjoy playing tennis but I’ve never watched a match on TV so don’t let that stop you. Themes include commitment, training, the media, competition, family and ultimately HAVING FUN!

We have the return of Carrie Soto from Malibu Rising by. Taylor Jenkins Reid brings to life the legend in Carrie Soto Is Back. Carrie has retired at the top of her tennis game, holding every record including the most Grand Slam wins. Carrie has gotten to this point with a great deal of talent and her dedicated father. But when current tennis star Nicki Chan is on the precipice of breaking Carrie’s Grand Slam record, Carrie decides to come out of retirement to win each of the Grand Slam Tournaments. At 37, nothing is the same and she has a great deal of work to return as the comeback queen. But Carrie has given up a great deal to be a tennis star, she is known as a “battle ax” and was never a popular tennis star. Does anyone really want her to succeed.

Carrie Soto is a greatly flawed character, who the reader sees grow throughout the novel. Although tennis is as much a character in the novel, the characters are well developed. Through Carrie’s own growth within herself and those around her, especially her father Xavier, Carrie becomes someone we want to root for.

I love professional tennis and found the inside details to the game to be fascinating. Reid really brought the games and teaching to life. Throughout the novel I could easily visualize the matches and feel Carrie’s emotional and physical growth. Taylor Jenkins Reid serves up another terrific novel. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for this ARC.

I was thrilled to be chosen for this advanced copy. TJR is one if my favorite contemporary writers and I was thrilled to see Carrie Soto get her own novel. Determined, fierce and uncompromising, we see Carrie grow up and what it means to be the best of all time. A stunning novel that I couldn't put down.i only wish it were coming out in the summer..as it has beach book all over it!

I first fell in love with Evelyn Hugo, and not long after I fell in love with Daisy Jones and Nina Riva. Now I have fallen in love with Carrie Soto. Taylor Jenkins Reid knows how to create stories that feel real. Her characters feel like they could be real people. Carrie Soto Is Back was an amazing read and I truly enjoyed it.

What do you do when you get an ARC of the newest book by one of your favorite authors? Obviously, the answer is drop everything, start it that day, and finish it within 24 hours.

Taylor Jenkins Reid’s latest, coming out 8/30/22, is about tennis player Carrie Soto, who had the tiniest cameo in TJR’s last book, Malibu Rising (but don’t worry, it’s a stand-alone). The book begins in 1994 when she is 37 and contemplating coming out of retirement to defend her grand slam record which is on the verge of being broken by a younger player. The book then flashes back to her childhood and earlier career, before picking back up where the book started as she pursues her comeback with her dad as her coach.

This book was VERY heavy on the tennis, but luckily I am a huge tennis fan so I understood everything that was going on and enjoyed all the details. I am definitely curious how it will be received by non-tennis fans though. But there are also a lot of other interesting themes that came up along with the tennis, including the father-daughter relationship, sexism, the pressure to be perfect, how and why Carrie is unapologetically herself, and more. It was not my most favorite TJR book, but still an extremely solid great read.

“Carrie Soto Is Back” tells the comeback story of (you guessed it) Carrie Soto, arguably the best tennis player of all time. After years of retirement, a new challenge to her reign pulls Carrie back into the world of competitive tennis. Never a fan favorite with her win-at-any-cost approach and her refusal to pander to anyone, Carrie enlists her father and longtime coach, Javier, in her efforts to cement her place in history.

When I first started this novel, I found it to be a bit dry and too heavily focused on the details of tennis for my taste. I also found it difficult to connect with Carrie herself. As I continued reading, I realized that was exactly Taylor Jenkins Reid’s plan. Carrie is first and foremost a tennis player. That is the lens through which she experiences life. Her entire world revolves around tennis, even her relationships with the people she cares about.

On the surface, this story is a straightforward description of a comeback and the impact it has on one athlete. Yet on a deeper level it is a reflection on what drives us, and the people and experiences that challenge who we are and make us better. It is a commentary on aging and sexism, an homage to women in sports, and an insightful examination of the complicated relationships between parents and children, as well as between lovers and competitors. We meet a character driven by her need to be the best, to win at the game she has come to believe is more important than anything else. Through the course of the novel, we watch her evolve and open herself up to the possibility that there may just be more to life than winning after all…or perhaps just different definitions of winning.

Yet again, TJR immersed me in a world I’ve never experienced and made me care about the people in it. I read the last few chapters of this book with tears in my eyes. Carrie Soto IS back, in all the ways that matter. Love-all.

I don't know how to review this book! 75% of the time I was annoyed by all of the minutiae about tennis... it really felt like TOO MUCH. The other 25% I was enjoying the bit of personal-relationship stuff we got, but I wanted more! I understand that tennis is most of what Carrie is about, but as a reader who doesn't enjoy sports, I found it tedious. I also understand that the relationship stuff had to come more towards the end because of Carrie's growth, but it felt like not enough reward.

I loved this so much. We don’t get a lot of Carrie soto in Malibu rising but we learn so much about her in this book and I loved her. Carrie is definitely not warm and fuzzy and that’s probably what I loved the most about her. Also Reid’s writing is just so good I was so sucked into this story and I don’t even care about tennis.

Received from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Look, the thing about Taylor Jenkins Reid is that she’s very readable - I read this in a couple days. I’ve read all her books, each in a couple days. There’s not always a lot there, but they’re fun and good at the time, but I don’t think about them much. Other than Evelyn Hugo, I’ve enjoyed her earlier books the best, and could do with more of those and less of these focused on famous people. That said, you’ll definitely enjoy this if you’ve enjoyed her other books.

If you’ve read Malibu Rising, you know a little of Carrie Soto. But here, here you get her whole story.

I loved Carrie, even when she’s hard to love, and her father, Javier. I loved watching her relationships with other players (Bowe and Nicki Chan foremost) grow and change. Some of these changes I saw coming, others I did not at all.

I know earlier I said there’s not always a lot there, and I do stand by that - I don’t know how much I’ll think about Carrie now that I’m done - but there’s still so much to take away from this book.

I loved watching Carrie grow and change. She’s a tough person to be in the head of. I wanted to yell at her to be nicer a lot. But that makes for a nice change when she begins to soften and relax into who she is now.

I don’t read many new books, but Taylor Jenkins Reid is an author that I always look forward to new books from. If you like her books, read this. If you don’t, you still might enjoy this. Who’d’ve thought I’d enjoy a book about a tennis player?!

<i>Carrie Soto Is Back</i> focuses on the return of tennis great Carrie Soto to the sport. With her father acting as her coach and a hitter whose reputation precedes him, she is determined to reclaim her tennis records no matter the cost.

I'll be honest: this was not the book for me. I came into this read starry-eyed from <i>Evelyn Hugo</i>, not having read Jenkins Reid's other novels, and was expecting something just as marvelous from <i>Carrie Soto</i>. Unfortunately, as refreshing as I found the former, the latter ended up being just the opposite.

<i>Carrie</i> commits all the deadly sins in my book. The first quarter of the novel focuses on a summarized version of Carrie's career up to her initial retirement - a huge chunk of the book, all things considered. The direction of the plot is clear from the set-up, and it does not waver from the path beaten to death by so many other books dealing with the same topic. The love interest is clear from the beginning and seems to see something in Carrie that I can't for the life of me fathom. And Carrie herself is an obnoxious protagonist, but not in the way one can actually root for; her "bitchiness" is not just a figment of the imagination of the men in this book, as much as the novel tries to hammer that home to the reader.

And therein is the narrative: a headstrong woman being called a bitch by the men in her industry when really she's just determined and ambitious. It's clear that is the story Jenkins Reid wants to tell, but it's so incredibly formulaic and without nuance given that, yes, Carrie is in fact a jerk and pretty darn unlikable! Those close to her either encourage this or tell her it's cold-hearted, though it's clear the reader is meant to always side with Carrie even in her dark moments, and frankly? I just couldn't deal with her. I wanted to put the book down so often because I was just so <i>done</i> with the combination of the well-trod plot and Carrie's dramatics.

The one beacon of light in this novel is Nicki Chan, Carrie's biggest competition on her return to tennis. Nicki, though a side character for much of the story, is fantastic, and she is proof that Jenkins Reid is capable of crafting complex, unique characters - which makes Carrie herself all the more disappointing in her shadow.

I can see why others might want to pick this up, if you're looking for a read that doesn't demand too much of the reader and can be inspiring for other headstrong, determined women. Sadly, that alone just doesn't cut it for me, and neither does <i>Carrie Soto</i>.

Thank you to Ballantine and NetGalley for providing a copy for review.

4.5 out of 5. I got this ARC last week and needed to get straight to it. I love all of her books, Evelyn Hugo is amazing and one I recommend so much ( a book i gave 4.5 stars that really should have been 5 in hindsight as I was being quite stingy with my stars last year). This is a really good book just not quite as engaging as Evelyn. I loved the middle and the end, the start was a bit slow. I love that she ties all the books together, as Carrie Soto makes a cameo in Malibu Rising. I feel that to get to the core of the book a lot of description and buildup needs to be put in place that maybe was a tad slow. But when it gets going, it gets going and it is wonderful. I went from not really understanding or liking the character to shedding tears with her by the end. Such powerful character development. Also there are some mayor points to be had in this book as to how well the author conveys in writing the thrill of a tennis game. It could have been boring or repetitive, but no, I as on the edge of my page (pun intended) waiting for the game results and it was as effective as if I was watching the game on TV. This book, although great as TV, would be so good as a movie, it just has so much visual to it.

When I read the editor’s introductory comment that Carrie Soto is her favorite of TJR’s women, I knew this book was going to be epic. And it was!! I didn’t remember Carrie Soto as “the other woman” from Malibu Rising, but the connection was here and gone quickly. I’m glad of that because, while she loved reading about celebrity gossip, Carrie fought to be recognized only for her skills on the court.
This book was a love letter to tennis, and fathers, and little girls who just want to be the best at any and every age. Even though this wasn’t a “funny” book, I laughed so much at Carrie’s comments to other people. She was hard on others and even harder on herself. She gave, and took, no craps.
The layout of this book was perfection. I’m tired of trying to solve the jigsaw puzzle formats in fiction these days. It was so refreshing to have the book set up at the beginning and then be able to sit back and just enjoy reliving Carrie’s experiences in a linear fashion. I especially loved the Grand Slam descriptions. Each time a new match began, I felt anticipation and eagerly followed the play by play as if it were all actually happening.
Most of all, I loved this book because Carrie was unapologetically her authentic self from start to finish, especially when she was able to learn so much about herself in the final comeback year. As hard as it was to get her body back into elite fighting shape, she also had an emotional journey of reconciliation and self-discovery. I liked Carrie at the beginning of the book, but I loved her by the end. I wholeheartedly agree with the editor that she is my favorite of TJR’s women. And I can’t wait to see who’s next!
*Thank you to Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for this advance reader’s copy.

Masterful storyteller Taylor Jenkins Reid serves her readers a healthy dose of love and drama on and off the courts in Carrie Soto is Back. 🎉🎉🎉

Carrie fights for all of her tennis titles but refuses to be a media darling. If she's tough (shrug), that is on you. She can't be friendly and kick your ass at the same time. Her nickname, Battle Axe, was won through her ruthless game.

After winning every title (and facing an injury), a girl should just enjoy retiring. Right? Well, Carrie refuses to take take the easy road. She jumps back into training and challenges her body beyond its capabilities to try to win Wimbledon again. She also discovers that it is okay to be loved and needed by others along the way.

This is CINEMATIC in nature and pure book club catnip. Sweet, but never saccharine. Bitingly feminist-forward. It asks us to examine how we think about women in sports. Why must we be likable? Why are men held to different standards? What does it mean to age out? How can we find joy in the later years?

I held my breath through tennis matches when I care nothing about sports. I snickered through trash-talk. I ugly-cried through the ending and then cried again that this was over. I am trying to be measured with praise and I can't.

Reid has written another fully fleshed character that makes this book feel like a memoir. Was Carrie real? Is there a Wikipedia page on her?

This, to me, feels like TJR's best work yet. I have followed her career since her debut and have read her entire backlist in real-time. I did my homework, and I'm telling you, it is that good.

This book is highlighted with passages that made me laugh, cry, and challenge me. I am shooketh. This makes my top ten of all-time books.

My experience with tennis is mostly limited to watching it on weekends while cleaning my room on a teeny tiny antenna tv because it was the only thing that would come in; that is to say, interested in only the most passive way possible. Usually that would make me hesitate to pick up a book that centers so heavily on the game, but I trust Taylor Jenkins Reid to bring me into the world, and I was NOT disappointed, devouring this book in a single weekend.

Carrie Soto is an engrossing and engaging study in performance, greatness, family, and relationships. I learned a ton about tennis - enough that I'm much more interested in watching a match - but that knowledge and background was expertly woven into the story and character development so that it didn't feel forced or stilted. It reminded me the best fantasy world building, it's just that the rules of the world she's described are based on a real thing.

Not that there was really much doubt going in, but "Carrie Soto" cements that I will read, love and recommend absolutely anything that Taylor Jenkins Reid writes.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy of this book.

TJR fans will NOT be disappointed in this gem of a book! And if you are new to Taylor Jenkins Reid, are you in for a treat. I have devoured all of her books, and this was no exception.

Set in the mid-'70s to mid/late '80s and fully immersed in the world of professional women's tennis, we are introduced to Carrie Soto. Fans of Malibu Rising will remember Carrie from that book, but this goes into her whole life story, and what a fascinating story it is. She could be the most likable UN-likable fictional character I've met.

While only a casual fan of tennis when the book started, I now cannot wait for Wimbledon! I feel like I know so much more about the behind-the-scenes world of professional tennis, and I would love for a real-life Carrie Soto to arrive on the scene.

The one thing I kept thinking while I was reading this was how often women are labeled "b*tch" just for doing the same things men do, saying the same things men do. She speaks her mind and has the utmost confidence in herself - something I know I wish I was better at!

I loved the exploration of her relationship with her father, with men, and especially with the other women on the tour. I also looked at the way the media treated her and was reminded to think about this perspective when reading/hearing about real professional athletes, and how there is so much more going on than what the public sees.

I can't recommend this book enough -- you'll want to read it the day it comes out (just in time for Labor Day Weekend beach/pool reading!

TJR has yet to disappoint. She has a talent for taking unique stories and pairing them with strong female characters you want to root for. Carrie Soto is no different. While it is VERY tennis heavy (I do not play nor do I care much about tennis), TJR still has me hooked through her description of Soto’s grit, growth, and determination. TJR remains on the top of my “must read” list!

“But of course there are no absolute morals or lessons. Only perspectives. One man’s bitch is another woman’s hero.”

I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know much about tennis and have never found myself interested enough to watch it being played. That being said, I was immediately sucked into the tennis world of this book and loved seeing the sport through Carrie Soto’s eyes! There is a lot of technical information, which I worried would be a bit of a slog for non-tennis aficionados. But this is Taylor Jenkins Reid we are talking about here, and she had me devouring this book and enjoying the tennis mechanics and rules and locations throughout! The different matches feel just as exciting as watching a live game, and it truly made me want to go find some tennis to watch, to see the adrenaline coursing through the players, to imagine what they’ve gone through to get to this place and this court and this tournament. I don’t know how accurately this book reads to someone who competes in this sport, but it looked amazing from the the perspective of a tennis outsider!

And just like any TJR book, this one has drama and humor and quick wit. There are huge character flaws and beautiful character development. I grew to love each of the characters, and I absolutely adored the relationship between Carrie and her father. The author is SO good at bringing tension and drama, but the relationships she details are my favorite thing about her writing. The character depth in TJR’s writing is always a draw for me as well, and this book is stunning in how layered our fierce protagonist is.

“You think you’re so tough, but you’re not, Carrie. I can see right through you. To all the raw, scared bits you think you’re hiding.”

Whether you care about tennis or not, if you’re a fan of layered characters, dramatic encounters, and nuanced relationships, this is a wonderfully entertaining read!

Absolute perfection from Taylor Jenkins Reid.

Carrie Soto is a determined, strong athlete who tends to be more about perfection and performance than finding joy. As she’s making her comeback at 37, she has to learn how to face her weaknesses, find her peace, and learn to open herself up.

For some, this might be a LOT of tennis. For me, I saw myself reflected in Carrie’s character as she’s striving to be the greatest tennis player of all time and struggling to be good enough in her own eyes. I scream-cheered for Carrie so much in my head today and just didn’t want this book to end… even though I don’t think I’ve ever watched a real tennis match in my life!

Relationships are the best part of this book: not only Carrie’s relationship with herself, but also with her incredibly lovable father, her assistant, her love interest, and even her main tennis rival. And let’s not forget the sweetest bond formed between her dad and love interest. I love where the characters wound up in the end and I just think Carrie’s character development over the course of the book was excellent. All the stars and praise for Taylor on this book.

Thanks to Random House - Ballantine for the copy of this book!

I definitely feel like part of my identity is loving everything TJR writes and Carrie Soto does not disappoint. It’s remarkable how three dimensional all of these characters are. I did find myself whenever someone was mentioned wondering is this the next main character?