Starred review from August 1, 2022
At the 1994 U.S. Open, retired tennis champion Carrie Soto sits in the stands watching Nicki Chan tie Soto's own record of 20 Grand Slam wins. Chan's victory lights the fire in Carrie's belly again; she begins to train with her father, Javier. Her father had been her first and best trainer, drilling with her repeatedly when Soto was a young athlete and ingraining the fundamentals of tennis in her. Yet during Carrie's pro career, she had gone to another coach after a fight with her father. Now, at the age of 37, long after most tennis players have retired into a coaching career, Javier and Carrie make another run at the Grand Slams. Carrie is a driven athlete with little to no life outside of tennis. Even non-tennis-playing readers will root hard for her to win, then cheer even harder for her to discover who she is without the sport. VERDICT Reid (Daisy Jones & the Six) has written another knockout of a book. Public libraries will need multiple copies.--Jennie Mills
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Starred review from August 1, 2022
From a young age, Carrie Soto wanted to be the greatest tennis player ever. Javier, her father, is a tennis instructor, and Carrie grows up on the courts, where she's her father's star pupil. Her drive and her natural abilities make her a formidable force, and she quickly climbs the ranks of elite players. But her record-setting career ends with a knee injury, and she retires at age 31. Several years later, one of Carrie's records is in jeopardy thanks to phenom Nicki Chan, and Carrie launches her comeback, working alongside her father to get back into the game. Reid captures the excitement of elite sports in her descriptions of Carrie's games, as well as the struggle that women athletes face when their ambition and confidence is "too much." But the most affecting moments are when Carrie lets her guard down and shows the woman behind the myth--a woman scarred by the loss of her mother at an early age and afraid to show her gentle side because she doesn't want to appear weak. It's another triumph for best-selling author Reid, and her growing number of fans will be thrilled to see cameo appearances from characters from her earlier books. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Reid's previous works (like Daisy Jones & the Six, 2019) have been phenomenal hits, so expect no less from her latest.
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Starred review from July 1, 2022
A retired tennis player returns to the game to defend her Grand Slam record. Carrie Soto is the best tennis player in the world, and she knows it. Her father, Javier, is a former tennis champion himself, and he's dedicated his life to coaching her. By the time she retires in 1989, she holds the record for winning 20 Grand Slam singles titles. But then, in 1994, Nicki Chan comes along. Nicki is on the verge of breaking Carrie's record, and Carrie decides she can't let that happen: She's coming out of retirement, with her father coaching her, to defend her record...and her reputation. Carrie was never a friendly player, preferring to focus on both a brutal game and brutal honesty, and now the media has a field day with her return to the sport as a 37-year-old. At times, it seems like everyone is waiting for her to fail, but when Carrie wants something, she doesn't give up easily. Along the way, she reconnects with Bowe Huntley, a 39-year-old tennis player she once had a fling with. Now they need to help each other train, but Carrie quickly realizes she might need him for more than just tennis--if she can let herself be vulnerable for the first time in her life. Reid writes about the game with suspense, transforming a tennis match into a page-turner even for readers who don't care about sports. Will Carrie win? And, more importantly, will she finally make time for a life outside of winning? Reid has scored another victory and created another memorable heroine with Carrie Soto, a brash, often unlikable character whose complexity makes her leap off the page. Sports commentators may call her "The Battle Axe" or worse, but readers will root for her both on and off the court. A compulsively readable look at female ambition.
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