Taylor Jenkins Reid has released 3 books so far, and her fourth, Carrie Soto is Back, comes out today! All of her books that I’ve read so far have been obvious 5 star reads, and I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy of Carrie Soto. One of the best parts of the TJR universe is that all of her books connect in some way, meaning that there’s an overlap of characters, sometimes so small that you might miss it.

In honor of Carrie Soto coming out today, I’ve made a chart of all of the ways that the characters in the books connect to each other. This doesn’t include Carrie Soto characters yet, since I haven’t read it, but I’ll be updating it once I do. In cases where characters appeared in multiple books, I color coded them based on the books which I felt were their “main” appearances.

This post doesn’t contain any spoilers, per say, but it does openly discuss each of the overlapping character’s roles.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was the first book released in the universe, and because of that there’s not as much overlap as there is in the other books. The only character that’s mentioned in Evelyn Hugo and primarily exists in other books is Mick Riva, Evelyn’s third husband who she briefly married in Vegas. Of course, Evelyn only married Mick to stop the rumors about her being gay, so it was annulled before we to learn much about him. He gets his own story told in Malibu Rising, a book that’s primarily about his children but also tells a larger part of his story.

Daisy Jones and the Six

Daisy Jones and the Six once again sees a guest appearance from Mick Riva. Given that this book takes place entirely within the world of music, it’s not surprising that the musician made an appearance. In this case, he wasn’t there for his musical talent, but for the impressive amount of alcohol he was drinking at Daisy Jones’ parties at the Chateau Marmont.

Malibu Rising

As the third book in the TJR Universe, it’s not surprising that we see the most cameos in this book. Although Evelyn herself is never mentioned, we do get a mention of Celia St. James, the love of her life. One of the men attending Nina’s annual beach party mentions that he has heard rumors about her being a lesbian. In a reversal of Mick Riva getting crazy at Daisy Jones’ party, Daisy Jones and the Six‘s (the band’s) drummer Warren Rhodes is mentioned for his pool make-out antics at one of Nina’s past parties. Of course, the most major through-line is most certainly Carrie Soto, who started dating Nina’s ex-husband Brandon Randall while they were still together.

Carrie Soto is Back

This is the final book in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s stories of powerful women in semi-recent history, and it’s also the one with the fewest number of characters. The Book follows Carrie Soto on her journey to become tennis’s best ever athlete, both during her initial rise to fame and her comeback years later. The only overlapping character in this book is Brandon Randall, who is the husband of Nina Riva— main character of Malibu Rising. Other than that, we see Carrie’s journey as completely unconnected to the others.

Advertisement