Someone on here recently recommended this one. They said the heroine was an athlete (tennis by the title) and that there was some romance. Okay, I was sold right there. Thanks fellow CBRer. This one was a decent read that entertained me for a while.
Charlotte (Charlie) Silver is the 23rd best female tennis player in the world. After what could be a career ending injury at Wimbledon she decides she needs some changes. She fires her loving coach who helped her go from juniors to pro, and hires a new arsehole of a coach who creates winners. With him comes not only a tennis overhaul (including a hitting partner), but also a complete image change. We then follow Charlie through that year plus of recovery in tennis and life experiences and learning about herself along the way.
It was solid. I obviously wanted more to the romance because duh, but I survived. Charlie was a solid heroine. She worked incredibly hard, and when she screwed up for one reason or another she learned throughout the book to take more responsibility for her actions. Charlie’s love life is also central to the story, outside of tennis, and while she makes mistakes that any reader could spot from a million miles away they were believable due to her lack of normal life experiences from being focused on tennis. Overall Charlie felt a little immature, but it was in some ways believable again due to lack of experience, but also 25 is often not what it once was.
So overall it was a fun enough read. It read a little too much like a screenplay at points (it’s completely set up to be a movie, but she is the author of The Devil Wears Prada), but I was entertained and enjoyed it mostly. Although I totally needed more kissing, but that’s personal preference.