Book 13/30.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was Enchanted to start my fifth Taylor Jenkins Reid read for book 13 (because me 🤝 Taylor Swift 🤝 triskaidekaphilia 👯♀️) of my 2024 reading challenge on April 19th aka THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT 🤍 release day because, just like Carrie Soto, Taylor Swift Is Back!!!
We live in a world where exceptional women have to sit around waiting for mediocre men.
At age 37, former tennis champion Carrie Soto is back in the game to establish her legacy, defeat her young rival, and prove some things to herself and everyone else.
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 single one of them as, with her father as her coach, she sacrificed nearly everything to become the best.
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 does not 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.
Carrie Soto Is Back is a riveting story about the cost of greatness and a legendary athlete who, despite it all, is back for one epic, final season. It is also a story about being a woman in sports– the sexism, the double standards, the focus on her likability (or in Carrie’s case, lack thereof), the trivializing of her achievements by male tennis players. I am not a tennis fan, but I learned so much about the sport from this novel and I remain in awe of the level of research TJR must have put into crafting this world as the devil was truly in the details. The gruelling training and the ferocious competition were also captured remarkably well and gave me a deeper appreciation for all the G.O.A.Ts, both past and present, across various sports.
Carrie Soto is unlike any other FMC I have ever read. I first encountered her in Malibu Rising and I, to put it mildly, did not like her AT ALL!! To put it less mildly, wow! What a brash bitch she was 🥴 In this book, she is not a likable sports personality as she does not play to fans, is confident to the point of arrogance, rude with how she does not sugarcoat things, and is a sore loser. It took me the majority of the book to warm up to her, but by the end of it I was a fan. I understood her need to be the best and her fear that she might not be. And I appreciated how she was unapologetically herself, and anyone who did not like it could fuck right off.
The bulk of the commentators… They wanted a woman whose eyes would tear up with gratitude, as if she owed them her victory, as if she owed them everything she had.
That said, her character arc was a treat to read as it was endearing to watch Carrie soften some of her hard edges on her journey to reclaim her record. I also LOVED how TJR portrayed the relationship between a woman and a father who is also her coach, cheerleader and number one fan. Javier Soto, and his unconditional love and support for Carrie both on and off the court, was the beating heart of this story. And as someone who grew up with a godawful father, I could not be more envious of a fictional character if I tried 😅 but also 😭
In my review of Daisy Jones & the Six I wrote “Ever since The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo TJR has carved a niche for herself by writing about badass women in highly patriarchal industries, and this was no exception as all the women in this book are so powerful and dynamic.” But Carrie Soto Is Back made me understand that the reason TJR stays winning the Historical Fiction category in the Goodreads Choice Awards is because her books are fiction but do not read like it. Instead they read like a compelling narrative about a real piece of history written about real life characters.
** A guide to ratings **
1 star – did not like it
2 stars – it was okay
3 stars – liked it
4 stars – really liked it
5 stars – it was amazing
Lwile the Leo 