Tag: Taylor Jenkins Reid

Series I love

Series I love: The Reidverse

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Happy Friday everyone, and what a great Friday it is because yesterday evening Taylor Jenkins Reid announced that her next book is out in March. More on that at the end of this post, but I’ve taken the opportunity to make today’s series about the Reidverse novels.

What I’m talking about with the Reidverse are the full length novels The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones and the Six, Malibu Rising and Carrie Soto is Back. It’s slightly tenuous as a series in away because they’re all standalone and you don’t have to read them in order – but they do contain easter eggs and crossovers for each other. Goodreads also has the short story Evidence of the Affair featured in the series – but I’d need to read that again to figure out how it’s connected because unless I’m being very stupid, I can’t remember any of the characters from the others popping up in it.

As you can tell from the fact that all of those novel titles are hyper links, I really, really liked all of them. And I was sad when TJR announced that Carrie Soto was the last book in that world, but I get it. I still need to read Atmosphere – I tried during the Artemis mission but it turns out I’m not good at reading about peril in space when there’s actual astronauts doing a perilous mission. Maybe now is the time though after England’s defeat in the World Cup maybe a cathartic cry is what I need – and I think all of these made me cry at some point or another!

And now to the new book: It’s called The Last Days of Vic and Coco and it’s coming out in early March. In her email Jenkins Reid says she’s always “wanted to write a story about how friendship is its own kind of romance” and that this is that novel. According to the blurb it’s the summer of 1974 and is about two best friends who are also pool hustlers. They’re both untrustworthy and word is starting to get around about them – so they set in motion the plan for their biggest payday yet – but can you ever trust a hustler?

I can’t wait to read this – and I’m sure it’s going to be everywhere when it comes out. But in the meantime, if you haven’t read the Reidverse novels you should. If you like stories about Old Hollywood, read Evelyn Hugo try and figure out which bits of real stories she’s adapted for various parts of Evelyn’s life. If you like messy rock bands, read Daisy Jones, which is so inspired by Fleetwood Mac you wouldn’t believe. If you want some 1980s drama, its the beachy, sunny world of Malibu Rising and the complicated Riva siblings. And if you’re in tennis withdrawal after the end of Wimbledon, it’s Carrie Soto which has a tennis comeback fuelled by anger.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Book News

Just Announced: New Taylor Jenkins Reid

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You know how I sometimes say I don’t know if this was just announced or if I had just not noticed? Not this time. This was just announced yesterday and was not my original plan for today but I couldn’t not do it, given that as soon as I read the email from Taylor Jenkins Reid I clicked on the preorder link in it and preordered the signed edition Waterstones had. And when I came back to my inbox, there was an email from Waterstones telling me about the book that I had just ordered. Ahead of the game I tell you. Anyway…

I don’t need to give you the plot of Atmosphere because the blurb is right there in the Instagram post, but if what Taylor Jenkins Reid said when Carrie Soto came out still holds, this is not going to be linked to that quartet – although whether those characters will exist in this new world (as Easter eggs for us nerds) or not I do not know. I enjoyed those four books so much that I’m a little trepidatious about venturing into a new world – especially because space and sci fi aren’t usually my thing and I am Aware of certain space shuttle related events in the mid 1980s – but clearly not nervous enough not to have ordered that signed copy immediately. A nice treat coming my way in eight months time – the big question is will I remember that I’ve preordered it or will I accidentally order it again before then? Anything is possible…

If you haven’t read the quartet then I’ve written about all off them: there’s old Hollywood secrets in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Fleetwood Mac-esque music shenanigans in Daisy Jones and the Six (which I even went to a signing for at my now regular haunt of Gower Street Waterstones), sibling rivalries and family drama in Malibu Rising and finally an epic sports comeback and journey of self discovery in Carrie Soto is Back.

Also before I go: there hadn’t been an email from Taylor Jenkins Reid since April and then she sent one on Tuesday with book reccs – so another one twenty four hours later announcing a new book was quite the shock – and delightful surprise because I was disappointed at the end of Tuesday’s email that there was still no news of anything new!

Book of the Week, reviews

Book of the Week: Carrie Soto is Back

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I know, I know. I’ve already mentioned this a few times, and it was on the reading list for a while, so why is this book of the week now I’ve finally finished it? Well firstly, take a look at it: it’s a hardback. And that should explain why it’s taken me a while to read – I don’t take books in my work rucksack these days because I have a laptop in there but I especially don’t take hardbacks around because they get so battered and also hardbacks are just harder to read than paperbacks are – speaking as an integrate eat-and-read person, you cannot read a hardback while you eat your lunch!

Carrie Soto was the best tennis player in the world. When she retired at the end of the 1980s, she had the all time grand slam record. But just six years later, that record is about to be broken- so she decides to make a comeback to take back her crown and prove that she’s the best of all time. But being the best tennis player in the world is much harder when you’re in your late 30s and harder still when it feels like no one wants you to succeed.

Carrie is not a sweet and fluffy tennis player: the media nicknamed her The Battleaxe basically because she did things that in a man would have been celebrated, but women aren’t meant to do. Like saying you’re going to crush your opponents. And admitting that you were targeting an opponent’s injury. And her singular focus means that she’s not always easy to like as she creates a world where it’s her against everyone else – but you’re shown her history and her family so you get why she is the way she is and you’re hoping that someone will come along and break through her protective shell.

Carrie popped up as a secondary character in Malibu Rising and it’s amazing how much you end up rooting for her in this, given what she was up to in that. Taylor Jenkins Reid has said that is the final book in this particular universe and this is another story about a woman who is unapologetic about her ambition and wants to live life in her own way and on her terms. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the themes across the four books – The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones and the Six, Malibu Rising and this – and that’s sort of where I’ve come down: they all look at women challenging the status quo in some way, but they’re all very different stories and told in different ways. Like the first two books, there is a lot here where you can pick which real life tennis players have provided some inspiration for various people and the world feels so real by the end of it you can’t quite believe that none of it is real. Excellent, engrossing reading – perfect for a sun lounger, if only you don’t buy the hardback version!

You should be able to get this basically anywhere. Seriously. I think it’s been front and centre in every book shop I have recently featured. And of course it’s in all the ebook formats too.

Happy reading!

previews

Squee: New Taylor Jenkins Reid coming!

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Do you remember when I said the other day in my preorder post that hopefully the release calendar would start to fill up soon? Well days later, just days later, guess what? Taylor Jenkins Reid announced she has a new book coming this summer!

And as you can see from the Instagram post, it’s tangentially related to Malibu Rising – in that it’s about someone that we met in that book – albeit some years later. I am *very* excited. But I will admit I haven’t preordered it yet – because I’m waiting to see if there is a signed edition coming somewhere or if she’s going to do any in person events for it because as you may remember, back in the beforetimes, I went to see her talk about Daisy Jones and the Six in the basement of Waterstones in Gower Street in March 2019 – I even paid money to go!

I do sort of love the idea that it’s the TJR universe and that the people in her books could run into each other. But that’s because I love it in romance series where you get to see the couple from the previous books pop up and being happy! Anyway, I suspect that this time if there is a tour it may be in a slightly bigger place – and again, I’ll happily pay money for it – especially if there’s a chance of getting some weird merch with it – the fake festival bracelet I got for Daisy is on one of my shelves next to my home office desk – along with my collection of bookish badges and postcards and the like.