Carrie Soto is the most successful tennis player EVER. But after her retirement, her record is in danger so she resolves to do the impossible and reclaim her crown…
Carrie Soto Is Back is possibly the only sports themed book I have ever read! I LOVE tennis and first became interested in the 1990s which is when this book is set.
Carrie is single minded and determined. This has given her an advantage in tennis but once she retires she feels a bit lost. She finds relationships tricky as her whole life has always been tennis. Her attitude is ruthless at times and she isn’t always easy to like. Her father is also her coach but the boundaries between the personal and professional are blurred. There are some difficult emotions involved and negotiated with sensitivity by the author.
Sportsmen and women have a limited career and it was fascinating to see Carrie defying the odds, her own age and society’s expectations. I did wonder about the nature versus nurture debate: would Carrie have succeeded with different parents, how much of the game is strategy rather than natural athletic talent.
The audio narration pefectly matched the writing style and I was completely engaged with the plot and characters. I enjoyed the use of multiple sports commentators in the audiobook to add extra context and authenticity.
I really didn’t want this book to end and, when it did, I wanted to know what happened next in Carrie’s personal life. Carrie Soto Is Back was excellent from start to finish!
Book Blurb:
Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular.
By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. And if you ask her, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach.
But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan.
At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked the ‘Battle-Axe’ anyway. Even if her body doesn’t move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.
In spite of it all: Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells a story about the cost of greatness and a legendary athlete attempting a comeback.
