Carrie Soto is the best tennis player in the world. Until Nicki Chan ties her for most grand slam titles won. Although she’s now 38 years old and considered ‘too old’ to play, Carrie can’t just let someone take her title. It’s time to come out of retirement.

Although I played tennis as a child, the sport has never interested me. (I’m a netball girl through and through.) But when Taylor Jenkins Reid writes a book about tennis, I’m interested. She knows how to draw you in, no matter what the story is about on the surface.

You may recognise the name Carrie Soto from Jenkins Reid’s previous book, Malibu Rising. Yes, she’s the woman Nina Riva’s husband left her for! I was so excited Carrie was getting her own story. Her appearance in Malibu Rising left me desperate to know more and Jenkins Reid did not disappoint. Carrie Soto is a complex character. She is cold – ‘the battle axe’ – but beneath her hard exterior is a little girl who wishes she still had a mother. She’s a woman who craves love and who just wants her father to be proud of her.

As with every other Jenkins Reid book I’ve read, I cried. Multiple times. In fact I sobbed. She fills her books with such raw human emotion, taking the harshest and most flawed characters and slamming them with challenges that reveal their deepest vulnerabilities and test their power, endurance, resilience and bravery. They learn and grow from their mistakes, filling the reader with hope for humanity.

Carrie Soto Is Back is a story of loss, on and off the court. But it is also a story of sexism and racism in sport, of families and relationships, and the sacrifices we all make to achieve our dreams. This book is beautiful, and I insist you read it.