Book Review: Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally

By: Miranda Kenneally

Published by: Source Books

Released on: December 1st, 2011

Source: book from publisher to review

3 Stars: It's A Good Read

Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

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 on 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 starring position on the team... and has her suddenly wishing to be seen as more than just a teammate - quoted from Goodreads

I have been so excited to read this book. I loved the premise 1) because I'm a huge sports/football fan and 2) I LOVE that a girl plays quarterback for her high school team. Of course, this isn't just any normal high school team, and the girl, well she's the daughter of a pro football player. Win, win right? There's plenty of well written football talk, a fabulous portrayal of what it's like to be recruited to play at the college level and what life may be like walking in the shadows of your famous NFL playing dad, and being a girl in what's deemed a "man's sport". Despite how gifted Jordan is, it doesn't give her a right of passage to play on any college team. It's her feisty determination that I admired the most about her.

Jordan was a character I at times loved, and other times had lack of patience with. I loved how competitive she is, that she was like one of the guys and is a total down to earth girl. Things get a bit complicated for her when a new love interest Ty proves he's just as good as she is on the field, and she all the sudden takes notice of her appearance. Not only that, everyone is shocked he actually likes him. There's a few moments during this time I couldn't help but snicker at how she tried to be a little more girly. I also adored her best friend, and the other equation to this's story love triangle, Henry. Jordan's family, especially her brother, who plays college football is a great supporting character, as well as her mother who goes to all her games. Even though Jordan spends a lot of time being angry at her father, which was understandable, I loved how honest he was and protective he was of his daughter, despite the fact Jordan was so naive in thinking she would get drafted to play college ball. He's the only one who realistically tells her all the reasons why she isn't cut out to play at that level, let alone pro ball.

The romance of this book was something I was also looking forward to, but unfortunately it was one I was a bit frustrated with. Don't get me wrong, I loved the swoon worthy moments between Jordan and Ty and Jordan and Henry. I adored Henry, he is after all the Jordan's best friend and they've grown up together, hung out together, slept over at each other's houses and all that. Ty's from TX (love that), and a highly recruited football player at that. There's nothing I didn't like about him, except the one scene where he goes a bit crazy possessive, which is also understandable giving his back story and the reason why he's in TN. My biggest compliant with the romance is not only did I feel it was rushed, but too much time was spent building up one romance, when in the end Jordan goes with someone else. I wasn't disappointed in her choice by any means, in fact that's the choice I had hoped she would have made. I felt the romance was a bit of a let down, because so much time was given to a romance that never would have worked out, when some of that time could have been used on building up the romance that did work out.

As I mentioned before I loved the football lingo, Jordan's relationship with Henry, her relationship with her brother and her friends/football team that rally around her when she needs it. Kudos to Miranda for creating a realistic story about a female high school football player with true to life elements about first love, acceptance, and following your dreams. There is language through out the book, an underage drinking scene, and a non graphic sex scene.