Tag: taylor jenkins reid

Book Review | After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Posted September 6, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid

When Lauren and Ryan’s marriage reaches the breaking point, they come up with an unconventional plan. They decide to take a year off in the hopes of finding a way to fall in love again. One year apart, and only one rule: they cannot contact each other. Aside from that, anything goes.

Lauren embarks on a journey of self-discovery, quickly finding that her friends and family have their own ideas about the meaning of marriage. These influences, as well as her own healing process and the challenges of living apart from Ryan, begin to change Lauren’s ideas about monogamy and marriage. She starts to question: When you can have romance without loyalty and commitment without marriage, when love and lust are no longer tied together, what do you value? What are you willing to fight for?

This is a love story about what happens when the love fades. It’s about staying in love, seizing love, forsaking love, and committing to love with everything you’ve got. And above all, After I Do is the story of a couple caught up in an old game—and searching for a new road to happily ever after.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Reading Challenge

The Reason

It’s Taylor Jenkins Reid! And it’s Julia Whelan narrating! I don’t need any other reasons.

The Quotes

“Isn’t it nice … once you’ve outgrown the ideas of what life should be and you just enjoy what it is.”

“Here is what I can tell you. All that matters in this life is that you try. All that matters is that you open your heart, give everything you have, and keep trying.”

“I know it will be OK because everything is OK in the end. And if it’s not OK, it’s not the end.”

“I’ve come to realize that resentment is malignant. That it starts small and festers. That it grows wild and unfettered inside of you until it’s so expansive that it has worked its way into the furthest, deepest parts of you and holds on for dear life.”

The Narrator(s)

Julia Whelan. She’s the GOAT!

My Thoughts

TJR is so good at writing about relationships and family. While reading this book, I kept thinking that she really knew how to capture the essence of relationships, the everyday things that make up a life together, and it’s just so relatable. I don’t necessarily agree with some of her take on relationships, but I do feel that she definitely captures them well.

This book isn’t my favorite from TJR, but I did like it and it made me appreciate my own relationship with my husband very much. We’ve got our own ups and downs, but I think the one thing we do right is that we are always interested in each other. We talk all the time and it never gets boring, we play together, we listen to each other and never take the other for granted. Don’t get me wrong, we have disagreements and bad days too, but it’s always us against the problem.

One of the things I love most about reading is that it make me think and reflect on my own life, and I think this one did a great job of it. I’m not the biggest fan of the story and the MCs themselves, but it was fascinating to see how their marriage worked.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Posted May 22, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular.

By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. And if you ask her, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach.

But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan.

At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked the ‘Battle-Axe’ anyway. Even if her body doesn’t move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.

In spite of it all: Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells a story about the cost of greatness and a legendary athlete attempting a comeback.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

I first met Carrie Soto as a side character in Malibu Rising, which is one of my favorite TJR books. I didn’t think I’d like this book because I’m not a tennis fan and I know nothing about it, but I should’ve known that TJR would make me fall in love with Carrie.

The Quotes

“We live in a world where exceptional women have to sit around waiting for mediocre men.”

“Grief is like a deep, dark hole. It calls like a siren: Come to me, lose yourself here. And you fight it and you fight it and you fight it, but when you finally do succumb and jump down into it, you can’t quite believe how deep it is. It feels as if this is how you will live for the rest of your life, falling. Terrified and devastated, until you yourself die.

“One of the great injustices of this rigged world we live in is that women are considered to be depleting with age and men are somehow deepening.”

“People act like you can never forget your own name, but if you’re not paying attention, you can veer so incredibly far away from everything you know about yourself to the point where you stop recognizing what they call you.”

“No matter how good I was on the court, I was never good enough for the public. It wasn’t enough to play nearly perfect tennis. I had to do that and also be charming. And that charm had to appear effortless.”

The Narrator(s)

Stacy Gonzalez, Mary Carillo, Patrick Mcenroe, Rob Simmelkjaer, Brendan Wayne, Max Meyers, Reynaldo Piniella, Vidish Athavale, Tom Bromhead, Heath Miller, Julia Whelan, Sara Arrington.

Stacy Gonzalez is the main narrator and the voice of Carrie Soto. The other narrators voice commentators and articles in the story. Stacy Gonzalez is a pretty good narrator but there were parts where I felt like the inflections didn’t fit the intention. I still enjoyed listening to the book very much though!

My Thoughts

I didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did. Carrie is such a stand-out character that I even noticed and remember her from her tiny cameo in Malibu Rising. Trust me when I say I normally don’t remember stuff like that, but Carrie was too memorable a character. I also love that she was almost in her 40s when she decided to get back into the competition. There were many instances in the book where the double standard between men and women sportspeople were called out as well, and I’m totally here for that.

My Feels

Carrie’s drive and will to win is palpable in the story. You can feel it through the pages, you can feel just how important her goal is to her, and so it becomes important to you as well. The way the story was told, going through her journey with her, discovering what’s important, learning to love and trust other people, all of it was so impactful. This book is a contender for my most favorite of TJR’s work!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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