A fierce, aging champion chasing one last record — and a full-cast audiobook, with real tennis broadcasters, that plays like a live Grand Slam.
Carrie Soto is the greatest tennis player the world has ever seen. By the time she retires, she's shattered every record and claimed twenty Grand Slam titles — and her ruthless will to win has made her one of the most disliked figures in the sport. But six years into retirement, at the 1994 US Open, Carrie watches a brutal young player named Nicki Chan break her record. At thirty-seven, with a body that no longer moves the way it used to, she makes a monumental decision: come back for one final season and reclaim her place in history, coached once again by her father, Javier, who has trained her since she was two. It's a story about the cost of greatness, the weight of a legacy, and the fierce, complicated love between a father and his daughter.
This is a full-cast production, and it's one of the most inventive audiobook designs Taylor Jenkins Reid has attached her name to. Julia Whelan — the narrator behind so many of Reid's and Emily Henry's biggest audiobooks — anchors the cast, but the masterstroke is the tennis. The matches are voiced like real broadcasts, complete with commentary from actual legendary announcers Mary Carillo and Patrick McEnroe, so when Carrie steps onto the court you feel like you've turned on ESPN. Interlude music and a rotating cast of voices for the press and broadcasts give the whole thing the texture of a sports documentary. It's the kind of production that only works on audio, and it turns an already-gripping story into an event.
Taylor Jenkins Reid fans, listeners who love a fierce and morally complicated heroine, and anyone drawn to a great father-daughter story. Fans of full-cast audio and sports narratives will get an extra thrill — and you truly don't need to care about tennis going in.
If you prefer a single, intimate narrator over a full ensemble, this is deliberately theatrical. And Carrie is abrasive on purpose — if you need a likable protagonist, she may test you (though that's rather the point).
Listen to it. A Goodreads Choice winner and one of Reid's most emotional stories, elevated by a full-cast production that plays to every strength of the format. If you've done Daisy Jones and Evelyn Hugo, this belongs next.