It is not often that a book about sport manages to hold my attention the way Carrie Soto Is Back did, and I say this as someone whose knowledge in tennis has been limited to just one word: Wimbledon.

Taylor Jenkins Reid creates a world so vivid and emotionally textured that you forget you are reading about things you may not have cared about before. Suddenly, the game matters. The stats, the strategy, the aching knees and bruised egos. You feel it all.

Carrie Soto is intense and often hard to like, which is exactly why I found her so refreshing. There is something charming about watching a woman be excellent and own it, even when it makes people uncomfortable. And there is also something deeply human about watching her wrestle with the toll of building your entire self around being the best.

The pacing of the novel is tight; each match felt like a mini climax, each chapter a step closer to something more vulnerable. Reid does not just write about tennis; she writes about what it means to return to something you thought you washed your hands off. What it costs to chase greatness, and what it might mean to let go of it.

What I did not expect was how much I would love the romance. Carrie and Bowe are not your usual love story (they are older and wearier). But there is something deeply moving about how they find their way back to each other as companions and not as a solution or a fairytale ending. Their connection becomes a source of strength, but not the point of the story. And I loved that.

Would I recommend Carrie Soto Is Back? Absolutely. You do not need to be a tennis fan — the book captures the intensity of sport as metaphor for life, loss, and resilience.