The Wild Card: The captivating, uplifting and addictive summer read you don’t want to miss in 2023!

Product Information

Twenty years ago, Abigail Patterson put her promising tennis career on hold to have her baby son, Robbie. But after a wild card entry to Wimbledon, she suddenly finds herself swept up in a world she thought she'd left behind - and against all odds, she's winning! Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See also Judy L. Murray and Judy Murray.

I love going out to eat, or driving into Edinburgh or Glasgow to see a musical. Jersey Boys is my favourite, I think I’ve seen it seven or eight times. 10pm I really wanted to love this book. It was perfectly timed to read alongside Wimbledon fortnight and I admire Judy Murray for her foray into something different by writing, but sadly it fell really flat for me. It was predictable from beginning to end, which can be okay in a book like this if the writing is great - unfortunately, it’s not. There’s so much ‘tell’ rather than ‘show’. It felt like the end was written in a rush, three really obvious typos - the plural of a word in error, completely wrong spelling of another and a sentence which had been repeated within itself. Again, these wee things are easy to overlook when the story has you completely immersed. I felt I was skim reading this in the end just to get it finished. Positives - a lovely insight to behind the scenes of the Wimbledon location itself, the changing rooms and players spaces, Abi as the main character was ‘nice’ and you did root for her yet I couldn’t help feel she could’ve been more impactful. Downsides? It felt like a half hearted attempt to show the dark side of coaching in sports, but didn’t really hit the mark. Predictable, lazy bits of the story to tie things up, it just felt meh. As a big tennis fan, I love books set in the world of tennis, and who better to tell the story than Judy Murray?! The novel takes place over a dual timeline, with the “Now” sections spanning a week at The Championships and the “Then” section shedding light on why Abi’s once bright future as a tennis pro was put on hold all those years ago. I really liked Abi as a character, as well as the supporting cast including her son Robbie and her best friend Georgie. I usually wake up between 6am and 6.30am to daylight coming through the little gap in the curtains. I certainly don’t set an alarm for that time – I just think as I get older, I exist on less sleep. I’ll have hot water with lemon and fresh ginger; it signifies the start of my day. 7.30amToday, she talks about her debut, The Wild Card. Set at a tennis tournament, it centres on a 38 year old woman successfully rekindling her playing career, years after putting it on hold. But the threat of her secret looms… Murray discusses her tale of triumph over adversity. I’m fortunate to live very close to a leisure club [in Perthshire, Scotland] that has a fabulous gym, steam room, and swimming pool. I’ll go to the gym and do 15 minutes on the exercise bike. I find being in the gym really boring, so I always bring a book with me. I’ll go down to the outdoor hot pool, where I do a lot of my stretching exercises. Stretching is incredibly important as you get older – I’ve got five grandchildren and I want to be able to chase after them! 8.30am Judy is one of the most inspirational people I have met, a natural storyteller and has lived a life full of new experiences and achievements," said MacRae. This is the tennis book I have been wanting to read all my tennis-obsessed bookworm life - and it was absolutely worth the wait.

Yet as those long-buried dreams of lifting the sparkling silver trophy on centre court inch closer, Abi knows that it’s only a matter of time before the press start digging into her past and uncover the secret she’s kept hidden for so long. Murray has 64 national titles to her name and in 1995 became the Scottish National Coach. Alongside her tennis and coaching achievements, Murray was a contestant on "Strictly Come Dancing" in 2014, a Costa Book Award judge in 2021 and will make her debut at the Edinburgh Fringe. Whilst the overall story line is a little far fetched, (or is it? Emma Radacanu won a grand slam from a wild card entry), the details feel very realistic and this must come from Judy’s vast experience in the sport. I loved the characters, and had that slight disappointment you get when you have to leave them behind as the novel finishes.Very average 2.5 rounded up to 3 because I can't find enough fault with it to be a 2 star. It was fine, very readable and told in a simple style but without much heart or chemistry in a lot of the characters. I did enjoy the story, even if you could see what was coming a mile off, I think tighter writing could have kept that a bit more hidden.