Title: Carrie Soto is Back
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Publisher: Hutchinson Heinemann, London
Publication date: 2022
Genre: Adult Fiction
Reviewer: Peta Browne
Carrie Soto is back, this time as the main character in one of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s fabulous novels.
Carrie retired from her tennis career as the greatest of all time and with 20 Grand Slam titles to her name.
However, six years into her retirement, she is watching someone else equal her record.
Nicknamed the “Battle-Axe”, the formidable determination and need to win that carried her through her career and shaped her identity won’t let this stand. At the age of 37 Carrie Soto returns.
She comes out of retirement, with her father again as her coach, to defend her Slam record.
Through everything Carrie’s brick is her father, Javier.
I loved Javier. His attitude and outlook were awesome.
Despite some of the lessons he inadvertently taught Carrie, he was her father first and foremost and her coach second.
Carrie’s success owed as much to his love and patience as to her hard work. But I also loved Carrie and her journey. She had a depth of character and was very likable even with her steely focus.
Carrie’s journey is compelling. It’s about how you learn to be enough without the one thing that defines you, how you make room for other things when you’re so focused on one single thing, and how you cope with not being perfect when you think perfection is everything.
It’s entirely relatable, even for the non-sports champions among us.
Carrie Soto is Back is available to borrow from Bundaberg Library.
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