Review: Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Book Info & Summary

I have to give TJR major props because when I heard she was coming out with a full-length novel about Carrie Soto I was skeptical, to say the least.

We first met Carrie in Malibu Rising as the fellow tennis player with whom Nina Riva's husband was having an affair. Now, Carrie didn't cheat on Nina - she wasn't married and unfaithful, but she knew Brandon Randall was married and conducted an affair with him anyway, so I was convinced that nothing could make me care about her or root for her as a protagonist.

But damn it, I was wrong.

Let me be clear - I do not like Carrie Soto. She was not a likable character but she was one I found myself rooting for. But thats also the point - Carrie isn't likable and she really doesn't have to be. We don't have to like every character we read about in order to root for them (and let's be real, most criticisms of likability only get brought up in reference to female characters). I wanted Carrie to win, I wanted her to become a better, more vulnerable person and I wanted her to open herself up to the possibilities and joys of the world around her. I am also endlessly impressed by her professional accomplishments within this world. There is no denying that she is the best of the best, and not just in women's tennis but in tennis as a whole.

I should also make a note that I like tennis. I went to a golf and tennis camp for several summers as a kid and have been thinking about trying to learn again just for something to do, so the technical aspects of the novel were really interesting to me. If you do NOT like or even care about tennis it might be difficult to read through all the matches and trainings (of which there are many.)

Carrie's relationship with the press, the camera and her fellow competitors was a real doozy. Her cold and distant manner with her opponents earns her the nickname "The Battle Axe" during her rise and reign as tennis's top athlete, and it seems like Carrie doesn't give a shit. But does she? Carrie's fight to be taken seriously as a person and an athlete will be familiar to women everywhere. She not only has to be good at what she does but she has to be modest and demure and attribute her success to everything in the world except her own skill and ambition. It only gets worse when she comes out of retirement to defend her record at the ripe old age of 37 (oh no! A withered crone!) And that very rightfully pisses her off.

But while tennis and was a major focus of the novel it wasn't as central as the relationships in Carrie's life. The thing about Taylor Jenkins Reid is that she's going to make me cry and 9 times out of 10 it will be because of the father/father figure. Carrie's relationship with her father, 1960s tennis player turned club instructor turned coach Javier "the Jaguar" Soto is beautiful and messy and endearing and frustrating. This relationship is where the novel really shines, as well as the friendship between Carrie and her agent Gwen, and the potential second-chance romance with former flame and fellow tennis pro Bowe Huntley.

Carrie won me over, slowly but surely, and I think if you give her a chance she can do the same for you.