Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally
Release Date: December 1, 2011
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Pages: 281
Source: Borrowed
Rating:  
Buy It: Amazon | Book Depository

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. – Goodreads

Review:
Timing is everything and had I read Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally sooner, before The Dairy Queen series to be exact, perhaps I would have loved it more. Similar in their “girl involved in football” scenario, both books navigate the main characters through their ups and downs, but I felt that Catching Jordan lacked heart in its story.

Jordan is the quarterback of her high school football team and she has big dreams: earning a football scholarship to the college of her choice. She’s a leader, determined, and does more than hold her own as the only girl on the team. Things are never so perfect, of course. She has a father who disapproves of her playing football, and then Ty arrives on the scene, threatening her position on the team. To further complicate things, she begins to have feelings for him. Oh, high school!

As a main character I found Jordan to be a realistic teenager. It was easy to admire her for her tenacity and drive, but there were also moments when I had to roll my eyes at her dramatics and crying — especially when she put her blinders on. Another thing that bugged me is how she thought so negatively about the cheerleaders when her own friends, the guys, were such pigs.

Going into the book I knew to expect a love triangle of sorts. I was looking forward to a good little romance, but I must admit I was lukewarm about both boys. It was all too intense, too quickly, without any real cuteness or development to any of it for me.

The highlight of Catching Jordan was Jordan’s relationship with her father. The two are at odds about her future and it was easy to empathize and grow frustrated with both of them. Miranda Kenneally navigated through this storyline very well and, through it, it made for a layered character in Jordan.

Overall, I did enjoy Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally. There was plenty of humor along the way, and I think the romance storyline would work better for others than it did for me, but ultimately it fell a little short of my expectations.