3.5 Stars!

This book was the perfect blend of adorable romance and sizzling sports drama. One of the female characters had a bit of a prissy vibes at the start, but that only made her transformation all the more satisfying by the end.
If you’re a fan of sports romances with a sapphic twist—and especially if you’re hungry for more tennis-centric tales—this one hits the sweet spot and is totally worth diving into!

I went into Backhanded Compliments by Katie Chandler with high hopes. I love a good romance and the background sports is usually a winner for me. I knew from the blurb that they were supposed to be soulmates but I guess that the magical realism angle wasn't clear to me. But my biggest issue is that I really didn't care what happened to these characters. Part of the issue may have been due to the constant distance and use of the characters' names (perhaps a first-person narrative from each of their points of view would have worked better?).
All in all, not my favorite read.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this almost magical realism romance. When I went into this I was just anticipating a tennis romance so when they started talking about soulmates I was thrown for a second, but I loved it. I always love the angst that can come with a soulmate story and this book delivered. Two girls in a tennis rivalry that find out that they are soulmates, it was great. I do feel though at some times it was a little much with the back and forth of how they treated each other. Going from despising each other to wanting to touch each other to not wanting to see each other over and over got a little repetitive. All in all I enjoyed this book.

I had such high hopes for this one. The opening screams Challengers, but the intertwined fantasy element doesn't fit the story. Juliette is exhaustingly juvenile, her emotions running hot and cold to the point that it's dizzying, while Luca is a bit repetitive. There's very little plot, the 3rd person POV doesn't work if you want any real emotional impact, and the tennis matches have too much jargon (this coming from a tennis player).

Soulmark
Sapphic
Tennis Rivals
3rd Person Dual POV

Backhanded Compliments tells the love story of two rival tennis players, Juliette and Luca, who also happen to be soulmates.

Where to even begin…

This was not my favorite and *quite honestly* I really struggled to get into it at all. So here are my list of complaints for consideration:

1) 3rd person POV for this was absolutely awful. Terrible. Should have never even been considered. The author did a good job writing it grammatically correct - I’ll give her that. But when you have 2 female main characters, the constant renaming of said character when switching who you’re talking about makes for the most irritating repetition of their names EVER. Did you know that each character’s name is written OVER 1,000 TIMES in this book? It was too much. This really needed to be written in first person or something. It made any actual attempt at reading physically painful at times.

2) Right out of the gate, I didn’t like the soulmates angle. It made no sense and felt so random. It also made their relationship feel forced - especially when Juliette wanted to chose who she loved…why not just give them a better reason to be together than the soulmate thing? Idk it just seemed weird.

3) I know that covers aren’t always accurate, but the vibes of the character art on the cover are completely opposite. I also felt like the way I perceived the characters vs how the author did were totally different. It made me feel like I was missing something. Like Luca was supposed to be this cold, borderline intimidating person but she was actually so shy and sweet. Idk.

4) Plot? Where? These two just ran circles around each other. Eh.

5) The tennis matches were a lot sometimes. Like pages and pages and pages. Just no.

Did I love it? No. Did I hate it? Eh. Mostly no. It was just meh in need of some serious help.

This book was one of my favorites that I read this year. I loved the band her between our two main characters and I love the romance even more if I could read this book over again I absolutely would five out of five stars 10 out of 10 would recommend.

Thank you NetGalley for the Arc!

i was so exited for this book because the description sounded so interesting.

I came into this knowing there was a fantasy premise behind it.

I really liked the tension and the chemistry between Luca and Juliette. Turns out that just because you’re soulmates doesn’t mean you have to like each other. I definitely enjoyed the all the drama and bickering that happened in the beginning but somewhere around the 40%-50% mark everything started to become flat and very repetitive. Not only that but where did all the conflict and drama go? It’s like it all disappeared up until the last 25% or so.
I struggled to connect with either FMC and after they got together they both turned into the typical mean girl. I feel that they only got together and stayed together due to the soulmates thing.

Overall the book fell flat for me but other might enjoy it.

Overall it is a good book and I enjoyed how both characters grew. However it would have been nice of see Jules win against Luca to explore how Luca would deal with that loss. Maybe that could be a bonus chapter.

DNF @51%

I hated this. I should have dnfd it way earlier. I think the worst part of it was Juliette. She acted like a child throwing temper tantrums. I thought she was getting better, but she didn't.

3/5 stars: This is Chandler's 2SLGBTQIA+ Paranormal Romance stand-alone that follows reluctant soulmates and bitter tennis rivals, an Italian and a Croatian, find themselves growing closer despite their personal and professional clashes over the most important season of their careers. With the pressure of the world scrutinizing their every move, they'll have to decide what’s more important – being together or being number one. Written in dual POV, Chandler's writing and character work are well done; the characters are well-rounded, complex and yet remain likable. Juliette and Luca are tough, determined competitors and I enjoyed seeing the two of them come to terms with their individual issues so that they could get to a place where they get their HEA. This soulmate/rivals-to-lovers romance has plenty of taut chemistry with steamy OPS scenes. The paranormal elements are slight (your soulmate's name appears on your inner wrist tattoo-like and a soulmate's touch cures minor ailments). The tennis matches and shot by shot game descriptions were incredibly well written and put me courtside for every set Juliette and Luca played. Chandler touches on some serious subjects; so take care and check the CWs.

I received this eARC thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books in exchange for an honest review. Publishing dates are subject to change.

This book was tough to get through. I thought this was your typical cute sports romance. I was wrong. The tennis parts are super in depth and not in a way that is easy to follow. I found myself stopping throughout the story to look up the tennis terms. Aside from that, I was unaware of the “magical” element so to speak. Essentially, in this world you have a soulmate and their name is branded on your arm??? What? It just didn’t fit into this story for me. Especially with no other element of magical factors.

not sure where to start...
i really was excited for this book because duh it is a sapphic tennis rom com and as someone who loved the challengers and the tennis rennusaunce it was completely up my ally and something that i would naturally enjoy... wrong.

it feels like the author just took challengers and the tik tok trend about your soulmates name being written on your arm and created a story out of it... this was definitely not for me but could be for someone else.... it also felt a bit insta lovey... not enough yearning

BRING BACK YEARNING

DNF @ 53% completion. (1.5/5)
I am not usually one to DNF a book, but I've been trying to finish this book for 2 months with no success. I think the first place this failed was the marketing. I got an email telling me about a book that was "challengers but make it sapphic". The only similarity here was the fact that the two characters were tennis rivals. The part I didn't expect? The fantasy concept. If I had known, I probably wouldn't have read this book. I did not enjoy the soulmate fantasy aspect of this book, because the whole book was centered around two names written on a wrist. Since the pair were pretty much introduced as soulmates, their fate was inevitable, and it made me not want to read further because I already knew how it would end. They were trying to resist their fate but gave in only a few chapters later. And quite honestly, they seemed like a terrible pairing. I had little to no reason to keep rooting for a pair that seemed to only have conflicts because they were having hissy fits over their soulmate status.

It felt like too much going on, the random soulmate aspect was hard to wrap my mind around in an otherwise normal universe.

I’d put this at closer to 3.5 stars than 4… but overall I enjoyed it. I’m personally not a big fan of having a single fantastical element in an otherwise totally grounded universe (soulmarks here), which definitely took some points off for me. However, I love tennis and it’s clear Chandler does as well. I do feel like there were a few secondary threads that were dropped, but the main storyline was propulsive - like the tennis season. Were the main characters somewhat overly driven and occasionally unlikeable because of it? Yes. Is that unexpected? Nope. If you love tennis and romance, absolutely give this book a shot!

DNF at 18%

Juliette is one of the most unlikeable characters I have ever read. She’s mean, spiteful, bratty, and has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

I haven’t gotten to the part where the romance starts, but for Luca to overlook everything and be with Juliette anyway tells me that she actually has no self esteem/respect because she doesn’t deserve to be treated the way Juliette has been treating her.

This was a fun sapphic sports romance with a touch of soulmate fantasy that I really enjoyed! I didn't realize the soulmate aspect at first, and when I got to that part on the synopsis I dived in right away. It did not disappoint.

Another sapphic romance for the winnnnn!!! I loved this book! I haven't read many tennis romances so this one was so so fun!

Backhanded Compliments by Katie Chandler was such a fun read! Soulmates have always been one of my favorite mechanics in a romance story, so to read a sapphic soulmate story is everything.
The love story between Luca and Juliette is a bit hot and cold at first, but it soon blossoms into something beautiful between the two girls.

There was some development for the background characters, but most of it fell flat for me. I don't feel like I know Juliette's sisters, or any of the other tennis players. I also wish there had been more explanation behind the soulmate mechanics.

This book would be a great addition to anyone's summer reading list! Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books, for providing me with an advanced reader copy to read and review.

Thank you Atria books for this opportunity.

This was not for me - I mean the concept of a Sapphic sports romance is for me, but this writing and element of 'soulmarks' was not for me.
The dual POV is appreciated - but having both POV's in the 3rd person got confusing at times.