Taylor Jenkins Reid strikes again! This book is a gorgeous tale of how, even though you may be older, you may still not have evolved to be a better person. There is always room to change, and sometimes we just need to get out of our own heads and stop holding ourselves back. It is also an exceptionally fun read as Jenkins Reid really gets the ready involved in teaching the reader about tennis in a way that isn't preachy or boring. There are some central themes that tend to show up in a lot of Jenkins Reid's books, family and internal character struggles are two major ones, and this book has both. I highly recommend this to readers of Taylor Jenkins Reid, and will recommend this to others who enjoy books with a strong female character, drama, and enjoy being drawn into the characters world.

Taylor Jenkins Reid whisks readers off to the world of competitive tennis in Carrie Soto Is Back. While this book isn't without some controversy, I don't care anything about tennis, and I found myself rooting for Carrie Soto.

TJR has a knack for creating complex female characters, and Carrie is no different. I also enjoyed the push-and-pull of her relationship with her father/coach (or coach/father some days). And, there is of course, also a love story.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

Another amazing book by TJR! This was fun to read, and really enjoyable. However, the other TJR books like 7 Husbands and Daisy Jones were a lot more my speed. Overall, though, this was a great book.

First TJR book and impressed by the way she weaves a sport like tennis into an interesting plot and makes the technicalities of tennis approachable for all readers. The story of Carrie Soto is nostalgic for any 80s fans but Jenkins-Reid brings it front and center to today's world with an insurmountable comeback from a storied athlete. The weight and focus of family, friends, and fame all while trying to conquer a sport was intriguing. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

Special thanks to Random House - Ballantine and NetGalley for the ARC.

I really enjoyed the last two Taylor Jenkins Reid novels, especially Malibu Rising, which even has some of the same characters, but I just couldn't get into this one. Too much detail to the tennis, maybe.

Alone with the majority of the world this will be in my top 5 books of the year. I care not a single thing about tennis. But this book made me want to be a tennis fan. You don’t have to understand the game to LOVE the book.

This is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her finest. Carrie Soto is one of the best tennis players to ever play the game. She holds the record for the most championships while also being known for her cold demeanor on and off the court. While in retirement, she watches a player match her record and decides to come out of retirement to win a championship and hold onto her legend as the best tennis player ever. The next year of her life changes everything for Carrie.

This is a story of determination and grit. About dreams and the work needed to achieve them. It's about what it is to be a woman in the world today...especially as a minority. It's about the love of a father and daughter and learning to open your heart to friendships and more. Carrie learns about who she really is and who she wants to be. I'm not a huge tennis fan and don't know much about the game but the writing not only brings understanding easily to the reader, it has you on the edge of your seat along with Carrie's father and friends to see if she will really be able to do it. Can she defeat the current reigning champion? I couldn't wait to find out. I couldn't believe how much TJR made me care.

I loved this book. I loved everything about Carrie and how unapologetic she was for who she is. I loved the relationship she had with her father and I loved the relationships she forms with another tennis pro, Beau, as well as her agent. I was so proud of her in the end and only wish that she were real and I could look up to see how and what she is doing today. Read this book. It's exceptional.

I always love a good TJR book. This one did not disappoint. I wished it stepped a little more outside of just tennis, but still really enjoyed it!

When I was young, I was never interested in tennis, even though my mother was an avid watcher, but that changed after I happened to see a Federer vs. Nadal match. I still can't explain it, but I loved the way Nadal played, and that's how I kind of got into watching the sport, which would eventually lead me to reading this. I do think a familiarity with the rules helps—while I wouldn't say the author throws you into the deep end, she also doesn't explain everything. The other thing that's important to know is that there is a LOT of tennis in this book. Everything else ends up taking a backseat. I personally didn't mind it, but if you're looking for a character-driven story, I don't think this will scratch that itch.

Carrie is an unlikeable heroine, not because she's extremely ambitious and competitive, but because she's abrasive, rude, and has no filter. It was hard to root for her when she never showed a sense of sportsmanship, and hid behind a shield of "(brutal) honesty is the best policy" regardless of how that made other people feel. Her motivation at the beginning of the story is clear: someone is about to beat her record of Grand Slam titles, and she's determined to prove to everyone that she was, is, and will always remain, the best in tennis. But as you progress through the story, the way she clings to this conviction makes less and less sense, and it's almost like she's only clinging to it so we have a book to read. There are moments of her starting to realize that what she's doing isn't logical or in her best interest, but every time they simply get pushed away in favor of, "I must win!" This means that the growth we see at the very end feels very abrupt, and not in line with how she was acting for the other 95% of the story.

There has always been a double standard when it comes to women who play sports, and the expectation that they should always smile, and be pleasant, and not say an unkind word to anyone, whereas men receive more leeway when they have a bad day and start slamming stuff. I've never understood the latter—personally, I expect all professional players to show professionalism, which means not breaking rackets on the court, and being polite to the people they work/play with. I understand what the author was trying to do with Carrie, but I think there's a way to discuss this topic without making Carrie as unlikeable as she was.

Did not finish this book. It lacked the charm of TJR's other books and truthfully I don't love this celebrity universe she's created and keeps coming back to. Wish she'd focus on regular modern love stories again.

I loved this book way more than I expected! I really didn't like the glimpse of her character in Malibu Rising, but I loved the transformation of her character throughout this book.

I couldn't really get into this one. I loved TJR's other books, but this one feel flat for me. It could be because I'm not crazy about tennis? I wanted to like this one but I just didn't connect to any of the characters.

I think this could be my favorite TLR book! Carrie Soto is back, with her dad coaching and a few rivals to push her on, and off, the court. Carrie is determined at an older age for the sport to become #1 again. Through the training, the matches, her dads death, she finds that winning in life and opening herself up to love and relationships is harder, but more rewarding than a championship title

Another big success from TJR. Carrie Soto was someone I had to know more about after Malibu Rising and this definitely fulfilled my wishes!!!!

I was a bit disappointed with this one. Although I love the connection and world building between all of Taylor Jenkins Reid's books - this one felt like the least dynamic of the bunch, I enjoy a sports forward novel, but if I didn't this one would have been hard to get through. I can appreciate the trials and tribulations of a professional athlete but I felt that we lost a lot of character growth in this one. It was hard to understand/accept how she changed in the end and became more open because we weren't entirely entrenched in her emotional/mental journey.

Classic Taylor Jenkins Reid! What a fun progression through time. I was never a fan of tennis before this book, so I learned a lot about the game. Not my favorite book by this author, but she still has her spark.

I'm not a big tennis fan but I watched enough of it when I was a kid to appreciate the game. That doesn't mean I understand the scoring though. Carrie Soto is a polarizing character, but I liked her tenacity and drive. If those attributes were in a man, they would be exalted. Ms. Reid is a master storyteller with plot and characters driving the story.

It took me about 50% into this book to be fully invested, but once I was in, I was in! I really appreciated the relationship between Carrie and her father. This was extremely tennis-heavy, so I think that if you absolutely hate sports and won't be able to get past that, I would not recommend this.

(3.5)
This was good. If you are a tennis player or fan you may find more enjoyment in it than I did. Still, it’s Taylor Jenkins Reid. If you are a fan of hers you’ll like the writing style and her characters.
Carrie Soto is a tennis player whose fierce determination to win and bad attitude has made her less than popular. Still, by the time she retires from tennis she is one of the best players the world has ever known. She broke all the records and won twenty grand slam titles. Carrie, if asked, will tell you how she is entitled to each and every one of them. She sacrificed everything in order to be the best along with her father and coach, Javier. Javier was once a champion as well and has been training her since she was just two years old.
Now, six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands during the 1994 US Open as her record is being taken away by a stunning and brutal player, Nicki Chan.
Carrie, at thirty seven, decides that she is going to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one final year in an attempt to get her record back. The sports media openly says how they have never liked “the Battle-Axe” as it is, her body isn’t as fast as it once was, and she finds that the only way she may pull all of this off is if she works with a man she once loved, Bowe Huntley. Just as she is trying to prove herself, he has something to prove as well.
This book was good but I admit I got just a bit bored when the technical tennis stuff was discussed. I’ve just never watched tennis and don’t play it so I was disconnecting a lot with the story. Carrie Soto is also a character that is rather unlikeable for a good bit of the book.
This book is slightly predictable but incredibly well written. The author does pull some characters in at times in a name dropping sort of way. That’s going to be fun for fans of her other books. You’ll find quite a few little “Easter Eggs” throughout the story.
If you are a fan of this author or tennis, I definitely recommend this book.

Taylor Jenkins Reid never fails to hit it out of the park for me every time, and her newest offering is no exception. Carrie Soto is Back made me actually care about the world of tennis. After first, I was not a big Carrie fan...I found her to be totally unlikeable. But she grew on me and she grew up. Her relationship with her father was the highlight of the book for me.