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bymicaelacain 's review for:
Carrie Soto Is Back
by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The QUEEN Julia Whelan is one of the narrators, so we know this is going to be good.
This one follows Carrie Soto, a famous tennis player working toward winning her title back after coming out of retirement at 37. It’s a story about perseverance, sacrifice, and learning how to fail. Carrie is a winner to her core, but that drive isolates her from the world. She doesn’t have close friends, she’s terrible at finding love, and she can be icy, blunt, and competitive to a fault. I hated her at times, but that’s what made her so great. She felt real.
Something that hit me on a personal level is how much the book captures the “ball is life” mentality. I didn’t grow up being the star athlete, but I come from a sports family. My dad played baseball growing up, and while I leaned more toward art, my siblings played sports for years. Between their games, practices, and traveling leagues, our family schedule was often built around sports. Even though I wasn’t the one competing, I saw firsthand how consuming that world can be, and how much it shapes everything else. Reading about Carrie’s sacrifices and tunnel vision brought me right back to that atmosphere 😏 just amplified to a professional level.
This was definitely not my favorite TJR read. I love a good character study, but I just don’t think I loved Carrie in the same way I loved Evelyn or Nina. Still, I appreciated how raw and unflinching she was, and how TJR didn’t try to soften her edges for the reader’s comfort. I also love that her FMCs are women of color, and that I had to do a little translating for the Spanish throughout the story.
Some favorite lines:
🎾 “We live in a world where exceptional women have to sit around waiting for mediocre men.”
🎾 “You don’t need to show them, you just need to be.”
🎾 “My heart hurts when you hurt because you are my heart.”
🎾 “I have always known there is no mountain you cannot climb, one step at a time.”
🎾 “They can’t make us go away just because they are done with us.”
🎾 “We live in a world where exceptional women have to sit around waiting for mediocre men.”
🎾 “You don’t need to show them, you just need to be.”
🎾 “My heart hurts when you hurt because you are my heart.”
🎾 “I have always known there is no mountain you cannot climb, one step at a time.”
🎾 “They can’t make us go away just because they are done with us.”