Carrie Soto Is Back

If you pick this book up, I hope you like tennis, because at least half of its chapters portray tennis matches in minute detail, including strategy and technique for just about every point. I skimmed through those parts, and found the rest of Carrie Soto is Back to be standard bio-pic of a tough-as-nails athlete trying to make an unlikely comeback at age 37, and recalling everything that brought her to this point.

I don't mind unlikeable heroines if they have some depth or nuance, but Carrie Soto is basically one-dimensional. She lives for tennis, doesn't suffer fools gladly, and refuses to let anyone get close except her father/coach. There is no character growth until the very end of the book, and we barely get to experience the impact of that change. YMMV if you are a tennis fan and can wax rhapsodically about how it feels to serve the perfect ace or break your opponent's serve.