Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally: Book Review

CATCHING JORDAN by Miranda Kenneally Book Review
Publication Date: December 1st 2011 by Sourcebooks Fire
Rating:

Summary: What girl doesn’t want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn’t just surrounded by hot guys, though-she leads them as the captain and quarterback of her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys, and that’s just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university. But now there’s a new guy in town who threatens her starting position… suddenly she’s hoping he’ll see her as more than just a teammate.

Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally Book Review Overview:

• A cute, funny, and thoughtful read
• Perfectly flawed characters
• I’m ready to play some football, now

Ah, there’s so much to mention but I’ll just stick to my favorite parts of CATCHING JORDAN by Miranda Kenneally. Miranda Kenneally does an excellent job of describing Tennessee, where CATCHING JORDAN takes place. Her narrator – Jordan Woods – does not go on long-winded tangents about the South. Rather, she gives snippets here and there to describe the roads, Lake Jordan, and gaps between the rich and the poor.

I thought CATCHING JORDAN by Miranda Kenneally was an engaging story about a teenage girl chasing after her dreams. I found myself empathizing a lot with the main character, Jordan. I couldn’t help but feel sympathetic towards her strained relationship with her father, the famous Donovan Woods. I laughed at her awkward behavior as she tried to figure out how to be a girl and a football player. But most of all, I felt as torn as her about her crazy love life as she tried to figure out her feelings about her dream boyfriend, Ty Green, and her best friend, Sam Henry. My favorite poem in CATCHING JORDAN by Miranda Kenneally (yes, Jordan enjoys writing poems!) that best describes her chaotic life is:

“All those nights of sharing a bed
All those times he put an arm around me
All the things he’s done to make my happy
…encouraging me to give Ty a chance
He must really love me if he’ll watch me date another guy just to ensure I’m happy
But he’s like my brother
And Ty is my boyfriend now
My dream boyfriend
The guy I lost my virginity to
What’s scary?
I’m so hot for Ty
but Henry makes me feel whole
in a totally different sort of way
even if I’ve never considered jumping him
F***ety, F***, F***”

Moreover, I loved all of the other characters in CATCHING JORDAN by Miranda Kenneally. Jordan’s got a great support team in her older brother, Mike, and her teammates and best friends, JJ, Carter, and Henry. At first, I assumed that there would be a plot line about Jordan living in Mike’s shadow (he also plays football), but I was wrong. Kenneally has created such charming, witty, and realistic characters that their dynamics shine through the pages. Here’s another wonderful quote to show what I mean:

“Shut up!” Henry says, “You’re going to wake up Jerry Rice.”
“Jerry Rice?” Carter says, covering his mouth with a hand. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Carter laugh so hard.
“Carter, would you like to be the godfather?” Henry asks. “You know, in case anything happens to me and Woods this week?”
“Charming,” Carter says. “I”d be honored. Does JJ get to be godmother?”
“Obviously,” I say.
“Can I hold Jerry Rice?” JJ asks. “He”s so cute.”
“No way, man,” I reply. “I don’t want to wake that thing up before practice. We’ll be late if we have to feed it.”
“What does it eat?” Carter asks.
“I have to breast-feed, cause I’m the mom,” Henry says, continuing to push the stroller toward the locker room.
“Actually,” I say, “It eats a metal rod, made out of, like, lead. So basically, we’re learning how to poison babies.”
“Radical,” JJ says as we approach the gym,”

I don’t think I have ever enjoyed reading about football so much. Jordan’s thoughts, calculations, and instincts are so well-described in CATCHING JORDAN by Miranda Kenneally, I was convinced I was truly watching her football practices and games. Jordan lives and breathes football – she’s dead-set on scoring a full-ride to the #1 football college, Alabama. Unfortunately, there are many obstacles that stand in Jordan’s way of playing college ball. Kenneally does well to reconcile Jordan’s hurdles and inspires her readers to root for Jordan.

I recommend CATCHING JORDAN to readers who love football, readers who think they don’t love football, and readers who want to find out if they’ll love football. Because after reading this book, I have come to the following conclusions:

1. I love football.
2. In the wise words of Jordan Woods: “That if you spend too much time dreaming, you’ll stop actually doing. And when you actually do stuff, there’s a good chance things will work out. We make things happen by attacking, not by sitting around dreaming.”

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