Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

FRIDAY FAVE~CARRIE SOTO IS BACK

How does @tjenkinsreid do it? How does she make us so invested in characters that we stay up into the early hours, invested in a fictional tennis players comeback? I mean we are not exactly avid sports fans.

The hugely successful author behind the likes of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones, her newest book was published this Tuesday and it is surely going to be another international bestseller.

Reid is in our view a hugely talented writer. It’s just so subtle, she builds pace and creates characters that you just become invested in, explores themes but lightly so you don’t realise until half way through because you cannot put her books down.

Honestly, this is on par with Evelyn Hugo for us. Carrie Soto is the most successful tennis player, winning global tournaments before retiring from injury. When her record is threatened she drags herself out of retirement to ensure her legacy continues. 

With chapters taking us back to her childhood and training, we watch the monumental dedication, the sheer determination and sacrifice it takes to become a champion. She is competitive to a fault, uncaring about public perception. 

We found ourselves racing through this, it’s about family, the huge disparity between how men and women can behave in sport, how female ambition and arrogance is perceived and how destructive it can be to want to win at all costs.

Without huge passages of descriptive prose, Reid is able to set the scene and create an immersive, vivid reading experience. There is just enough detail about tournaments and the technique and strategy behind Carrie’s game to make this feel authentic without feeling saturated by detail. 

Our main character is superbly unlikeable at times but therein lies Reid’s strength in forming layered people within a very commercial, broadly appealing book.

Maybe we are tennis people now? It’s game set and match for us (sorry couldn’t avoid it please don’t hate us). 

Ad:PR Thank you @hutchheinemann for sending over an advance copy that will surely be a collectors item in a few years.

Order your copy here.