"Carrie Soto is Back," by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was SO excited when I discovered a new book was coming from Taylor Jenkins Reid. Then, when I saw the title, I couldn't place Carrie Soto in my recollection for previous novels. It turns out that she was only a mention and a side character in "Malibu." But she becomes a full and memorable character quickly.

Carrie is a tennis phenom, thanks to her father Javier who was once a gifted tennis player himself but realizes his full potential as Carrie's coach after her mother dies young. They are a close father-daughter duo, but from the outside looking in, it's painful to see young Carrie singing for more of a connection to her mother and her softer side, denied by Javier. There is no shortage of love, but the end result is that Carrie hardens to most emotions that aren't about tennis and her drive to be the absolute best.

It is an entertaining read to go on this journey with Carrie. After the first third of the book, I felt a little dismay that so much of it was about tennis, but the second and third parts of the book develop her character fully and we are invested and immersed in her journey to the top....and beyond.

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"Other Birds" by Sarah Addison Allen

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I would like to live in a world imagined and written by Sarah Addison Allen. There's a little shimmer of the mystical and magical that offsets the ordinary and it is lovely.

In this new novel, we spent time with a cast of characters that are brought to the Dellawisp Condos by chance...or is it? Zoey inherits her condo from her mother who died long ago and who Zoey longs for a connection to. Charlotte found her way there while on the run from a traumatic childhood, and while fulfilling the wish list of an old friend. Lizbeth and Lucy didn't travel far to get there and are a few doors apart, but really a world apart from one another. Mac is looking for someone else to love besides his deceased and adored caretaker, but he doesn't really know that. Oliver has run away from the Dellawisp, looking for another place to belong.

Birds are special to me and they have a special place in this book too. From the beginning, I envied Zoey her Pigeon.

My only complaint about "Other Birds" is that it ended too soon. I look forward to the next book by SAA!

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