Review: Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally

Author: Miranda Kenneally
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Page Count: 281 Pages, Paperback
Date Published: December 1st 2011
Find it on Goodreads: Catching Jordan
Source: Purchased (Ebook)

"Whoever said football and girls don't mix hasn't read Catching Jordan. I couldn't put it down " -- Simone Elkeles, New York Times bestselling author of the Perfect Chemistry series
ONE OF THE BOYS
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 everything she's ever worked for is threatened when Ty Green moves to her school. Not only is he an amazing QB, but he's also amazingly hot. And for the first time, Jordan's feeling vulnerable. Can she keep her head in the game while her heart's on the line?

Ever since I began this book blogging thing, I've seen Miranda Kenneally's books everywhere I turn. Everyone seems to love them, so I decided to finally pick up the first book and see what the hype was all about. Thankfully, I really enjoyed Kenneally's debut!

The main thing I loved about this book was Jordan, our main protagonist. She's a total jock, the captain of her high school football team, funny, smart and strong. A total bad-ass role model. Her dream is to play for the University of Alabama on a scholarship and she won't take no for an answer. Her mind has never really been focused on guys... Until Ty Green moves to town. He's hot, a talented football player and he makes Jordan's stomach do all sorts of butterfly-type things. All of a sudden, Jordan's got something other than football on her mind and she doesn't really know how to feel about that.

I loved reading about Jordan's mindset when it comes to guys and how Ty made her confused about all sorts of things. I liked Ty, but from the start I had a feeling something was off. He made me a bit uncomfortable at times, but he was an extremely realistic character. That's my favourite part about this book, actually. This book is realistic to the core. Kenneally keeps enough balance between the sports and the romance and she adds in details about football to make it interesting. She even tackled (excuse the pun) the issue of sexism extremely well. Why do I say this? Because I got so mad at some of the characters at times, because of how they treated Jordan, just because she's a girl.

I can't go into too much more detail about the book, because of spoilers, but I will conclude by saying that I was very pleased with how this book played out. Kenneally attacks different issues during the story and she does so in ways that are difficult to pull off, but she does it. She keeps a great balance of romance, action, drama and humour in her story and there are even little twists and surprises to keep it exciting. This book deals a lot with relationships and not just romantic ones. There is a lot to do with family and friends as well and we see a lot of Jordan's life changing and shifting as new things in her life start to make themselves apparent. I loved Henry, he was probably one of my favourite characters and Jordan was such a well-rounded protagonist. This book is one that I think most contemporary fans will love and I strongly recommend it!

Happy reading!
~Kristy