Carrie Soto is Back - Book Review ★★★★★

The latest of Reid’s novels ‘Carrie Soto is back’ was released on 25th of August 2022. Reid gained popularity as an author after she released her hit novel in 2017; The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. She then added to her success with the release of Daisy Jones and the Six, an interview style novel that tells the story between a singer and the band. Three of her books are New York Times bestselling novels.

Carrie is first introduced in Malibu Rising. Soto is portrayed as an unfriendly, arrogant tennis player who is cold towards other players.

The novel follows Carrie Soto in her journey to become a record holding tennis player. The book starts off following young Soto training with her dad and finding her love for tennis.

We follow Carrie through her adolescence and young adult years where she becomes an incredible tennis player and goes on to set the record for the most Grand Slam singles titles won before she retires.

Nicki Chan then comes along and threatens this record, so Soto comes back from retirement in hopes to defend her title. 

Soto’s determination and arrogance is shown throughout making her a tough character to love.

However, as the book develops, we see Carries soft side when she develops a love interest. Bowe Huntley is a man Soto almost opened up to when she was young. He’s still playing when she comes out of retirement and Soto has to swallow her pride and train with him because no one else will challenger her like he does. 

The book is a bit slow to begin with and I found it hard to get into. It took me about a month to read the first 100 pages as I kept putting it down because it just wasn’t interesting to me. 

However, after these initial 100 pages the storyline picked up and more about Carrie was revealed. I think that the character development and the witty comments Soto makes really makes you fall in love with her character.

Her hate and distrust of men in the beginning is also very relatable to a young adult girl reading the book because we’ve all been there with men.

 The book is frustrating at times as Reid portrays the way male reporters are unpleasant describing Soto as ‘the Bitch’ when her nickname was ‘the Battle-Axe’. Reading Carrie be degraded by the media could be a hint to how female tennis players are spoken about in real life commentary.

Carrie is labelled as ‘the Bitch’ because she keeps herself to herself and sometimes is quite rude to her opponents. 

Reid also portrays double standards extremely well as Carrie is slandered for letting out emotions on the court when she loses, but the male players are praised for showing emotion. 

Carries love for tennis is shown on every page as she comes out of retirement to defend her record, her passion and determination is shown because she never gives up playing against people half her age and putting in her all.

I read the book knowing nothing about tennis, but Taylor Jenkins Reid has made me understand and want to watch the sport because of how beautifully written the novel is.

Carrie Soto is Back is the perfect addition to the Taylor Jenkins Reid Universe, sticking to Reid’s gripping, fast paced style. Carrie Soto is Back is the perfect read for tennis lovers wanting to find a new love.