Book Review: Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

“Maybe it’s a lie that you have to keep doing what you have always done. That you have to be able to draw a straight line from how you acted yesterday to how you’ll act tomorrow. You don’t have to be consistent. You can change, I think. Just because you want to.”

Taylor Jenkins Reid, Carrie Soto is Back

Review:

I had been so geared up to read this book when it was first published (after reading Malibu Rising), but I kept putting it off for some reason. I wish I hadn’t now, because I felt like I was reading it out of a sense of duty to my past self, despite the fact that my excitement for it had long worn off. 

First introduced in Malibu Rising, this book focuses on the life of Carrie Soto, a competitive tennis player who will stop at nothing to win, including coming out of retirement in a shot to reclaim her title. 

I really enjoyed the father/daughter aspect of the story. Everything else was secondary to me. I didn’t care much about the romance, and while it was interesting to learn more about tennis, I grew bored with it after a while. It was done fantastically, I’m just not a sports person (try as I might). I do wonder how I might have perceived this book had I read it back in 2022. 

Likes & Dislikes:

What I liked:

• How the tennis theme was implimented.
• Captured the decade well.
• I loved the father/daughter focus.

What I didn’t like:

• I wasn’t into the romance at all.
• Though I did find the tennis element interesting, it simultaneously bored me.

Afterthoughts:

Sadly, I feel as though I’ve moved on from my TJR era. I enjoyed it while it lasted.

Where to buy the book: