3.5/5 stars


Backhanded Compliments had some interesting moments, particularly the exploration of the idea of soulmates. However, the detailed descriptions of tennis matches and play felt overly prominent and detracted from the rest of the story. Unfortunately, the soulmate concept didn't quite resonate with me either, but I didn't hate it.


I was hoping for a tennis story that would use the game to reveal character, like in Martin Amis' "Money". Instead, the tennis here felt more like a straightforward plot device. An okay read, but not entirely my cup of tea.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of those books where everything is technically fine (characters, plot structure, romance), but there also isn't anything memorable about it. I felt like I was just going through the motions, waiting for something to really capture my interest, but sadly never got there.

I think it's the writing style. It's overly mechanical. I'm not going to say this book doesn't have voice, because all books do, but the one in this book feels particularly flat. Not a lot of variation in sentence structure. Lots of over-usage of character's names. Higher focus on external descriptions than internal ones. This is most apparent during the tennis scenes, which is disappointing since this is the main pull of the novel. I wanted to feel engaged during those highly competitive moments, yet the whole time I was waiting for them to end.

As for what I did like, Juliette's character development was nicely done, both with tennis and her stance on soulmates. I actually think the book would've been stronger if told solely from her POV. Also, her relationship with her sisters was precious.

This story wasn’t my favourite, but it also wasn’t bad. I found it a bit difficult to conceptualize a world in which both magic soulmate tattoos and Twitter exist, but the fan tweets sprinkled throughout the books were quite funny. I enjoyed the style and the voice of the writing, as well as fast-paced setting of the WTA tour.

I definitely connected more to Luca than I did to Juliette, and I really appreciated Luca’s growth around her anxiety. It was very vulnerable and real. On the other hand, I often found Juliette frustrating and I can’t say I really felt the chemistry between the two leads.

The family dynamics between the Ricci sisters were interesting, however I would have liked to either get to know them more or see less of them on page. There were lots of tidbits dropped in but never really fleshed out, making it difficult to distinguish what was important.

Overall, it was a fun sports romance with a magical twist and I enjoyed reading it over the weekend. Thank you to Atria Books for providing this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of Backhanded Compliments.

Backhanded Compliments is a rivals to lovers sports romance following Luca and Juliette, with a speculative twist. The twist being, people have a “soul mark”, their soulmate’s name on their inner wrist as a tattoo. Except not everyone has them, and we don’t know when people get them, or how they get them, or literally any single thing about this magic embedded in the book’s otherwise normal reality.

The concept is very interesting, but the concept is not fleshed out kind of… at all? All I found myself thinking was if the next chapter was finally going to provide background to the idea that the entire love story revolves around, but it never happened. Unfortunately, this disappointment ended up coloring the rest of my reading experience :(

Thank you again to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of Backhanded Compliments in exchange for my honest review.

My favorite thing about this book was the title and cover. But to be fair, I really, really like the title and cover, so that’s not a total knock to the book! A sapphic romcom set around tennis is automatically going to be right up my alley. I really liked both of the main characters, as well as their supporting families/coaches. There were a handful of characters who showed up for a scene or two and didn’t really have a backstory or future story, so that felt random. But if you just kind of forget about them, the characters were great.

The book did include soulmate soul marks. I had never read anything with this in it before and it was not really explained in this book, so I had to look up what they were talking about. I didn’t think this storyline was necessary or value added. I think a traditional enemies to lovers would’ve been better.

At times I felt the book was going on too long. More pages could’ve been cut. Overall I did enjoy the journey of the two main characters, but I wish there had been more editing.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest rating and review.

For those people who have been craving a happy tennis romance in a post-Challengers world, this is a perfect sapphic romance. I really think this shines and will thrive within the sports romance genre– it hits all the right notes while being inventive in key and engaging new ways. I highly recommend it.

This book was a bit of a struggle for me to get into and I DNFd it at about 30%. I struggled to like Juliette as an individual character and the dislike between the characters wasn’t fueling the slow burn for me as much as it was simply giving “mean girl”. One pet peeve I personally had was the back and forth of how they referred to the characters via first or last name. I found it a bit difficult to follow because of how this changed each chapter based on the POV the story was being told from. I do think the concept of soulmates was a really unique element to the story to differentiate it from other stories with similar plot lines.

thank you to the publisher for this arc! 🎾
cute, fun and perfect for sapphics who loved challengers

i’m not typically a fan of contemporary romances, so maybe my three stars is just a reflection of that. i had a lot of fun reading this but it was a little hard for me to care about the characters. the lack of depth is typically my issue with contemporary romance but i’ve felt that way about books that a lot of people love, so don’t let that dissuade you from giving this book a try.

Okay I get this is supposed to be a tennis romance with speculative twist but this was just pure boring tennis in the 15% I read with very little magic or romance. DNF out of pure boredom

I loved this book! I’m a big tennis fan and enjoy an enemies to lovers trope. I must not have read the synopsis closely enough because there was a whimsical element introduced right away that I wasnt expecting but that I enjoyed! A cute twist on the usual in this genre. Well written, flawed characters. One of the mains was definitely harder to root for than the other. I’m not sure I ever came around fully but the other I adored and empathized with right from the start.

First, thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing me with this arc! This was my first one and it could have not been more perfectly suited to me. Lesbian tennis players in Italy with a hint of fantastical realism??? Count me in!

This book follows Luca and Juliette, two of the top tennis players in the world, after they discover they wear each others name on their wrist, marking them as soulmates. As they are constantly being pushed together by fate and their careers.

This would have been a 5 star read for me but I found myself frustrated with Juliette more than I was empathizing with her because I know that I would not have been as forgiving as Luca was at times. This was just my personal biases, however, and I thought this made for a super fun read!

the book started with an intense tension and chemistry between luca and juliette. they both played some games together and then ended up in the same team, house, room… i definitely enjoyed the banter and drama happening at the beginning, however, after the 50% plot became too repetitive and flat. there was no conflict between 40% and 80% which made me almost dnf the book.

i couldn’t connect much with either of main characters. both girls gave mean vibes and even after getting together, those vibes never went away. in my opinion, both main characters didn’t fit much together, their relationship felt kind of pushed and the “soulmates” trope was the only thing keeping them together.

phrase, word, sound or whatever “Erm” means appeared too much throughout the book. it comes up every second page and it was definitely annoying.

Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for an arc in exchange for an honest review!!

I was really hoping that Backhanded Compliments would give Carrie Soto meets Cleat Cute. Chandler did an incredible job with the tennis aspect of this book, and I enjoyed reading about the matches and seeing our characters navigate this world. Our two main characters are tennis rivals, and the book begins with them in a heated match. After this, I felt like Juliette came off a bit like a sore loser during the first 20% of the book. She sorta 180’s after this point for the purpose of developing a relationship between the main characters. I will admit that the back two-thirds of the book struggled to hold my attention.

As other arc reviewers have mentioned, I think this book would’ve been better without the soulmates thing. Our main characters have each other’s names on their wrists, and they suspect going into the opening match of the book that they are soulmates. This definitely created the tension the author was going for, but I felt confused about how Juliette could be so mean to her soulmate. This trope was also very out of place in a contemporary sports romance. I feel like the more soulmates were discussed in the book, the more confused it made me. Spoiler-ish: soulmates have a healing touch for the other one?? Also being able to choose to reject your soulmate seems a little antithetical to the whole concept to me. Also how are you gonna third act breakup with your SOULMATE?

DNF.
Really interesting premise that I was exciting to get to.
However, found the tennis talk to go a bit overboard and genuinely didn't understand why these two would be together outside of the marks.

Immediately when I saw “challengers but make it sapphic” I was excited. I love a good sports romance and the magical realism concept was a welcome addition to the typical romcom vibe.

Reading the chapters as it was switching POVs without any indication of whose pov it was was a little jarring. Especially when the characters referred to the other by both their first, last, or nickname made it confusing. I thought there were a lot of names thrown around that didn’t seem relevant, but I could see why the author would use them to help establish the tennis world (?). Again, I love a sports romance, but this was hard for me to follow since there was a lot of tennis match play by play that I didn’t understand.

I wanted to get attached to the characters but the constant pov switch made it difficult to be invested in either one.

Final thoughts: more sapphic sports romances!!

I am not really a fan of books marketing themselves off of whatever may be trending at the moment (Challengers) but honestly I was even more disappointed with the tumblr-esque soulmark bs

This sapphic romance about two tennis rivals turned lovers was very cute and creative. I’ve never personally read anything that involves “soul marks” and I also do not know anything at all about tennis, so while I did enjoy those elements, I also felt a little lost at times. There were a lot of very descriptive passages about tennis matches that were a little overpowering for me, especially not having much knowledge about the sport. However, I really enjoyed the concept and it felt a little like a learning opportunity for me. I definitely finished this book feeling interested in tennis. The soul mark aspect was interesting, and like I said new to me. Because it’s not something I’m familiar with though, I did want just a little more about it to ground me in the story.
I enjoyed the characters and their journey. Juliette was a frustrating character at times, but in the way that leads to her development throughout the story. I really enjoyed her family dynamic, though, especially with her sisters. Luca’s character was more sympathetic, and I almost wanted just a little more about her history and family to further those feelings towards her. She had a friend, Nicky, that I felt was a little underdeveloped. He popped up once in a while and was mentioned here and there. I really wanted more from that. He plays a major role at one point in a scene, but then just disappears. It felt like a conversation or scene with him was missing. It wasn’t a major plot hole, it just was something that felt unfinished and brushed over.
I was very excited to receive this ARC, and I enjoyed Chandler’s writing style.

This was so much fun and now I feel like I need to pick up tennis or pickleball or just a sport, the banter was cute and the dynamics of the characters were a lot of fun.

I love tennis, I love the WTA, so this is right up my alley.

In a profession where love means nothing - what happens when you find your fated soulmate? It is a question that Juliette and Luca have to deal with when they discover that the names of their fated soulmates are each other. And - Juliette, in particular, does not care much for love or Luca. Just because you know who your soulmate is, it doesn't mean you have to love them or have anything to do with them.

I loved the tennis aspects, the extensive cast of characters, and the whole concept - are we bound by fate or our own choices?

It would have been an easy 4 star review had it been in one POV. There were a few times that I got mixed up/confused on whose perspective I was reading.

I realize this was a sports romance but my god there was too much tennis talk. Also are we not going to tackle the fact that they had soulmate scars? I get it was supposed to be magical but yikes it felt like an unneeded factor.
I will say the sex scenes were well written and it’s clear the author has had wlw sex before