Author: Miranda Kenneally
Published: December 2011 (Sourcebooks Fire)
Rating: 4 Stars
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 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.
My Review: I actually read this book on December 7-8, so it is not as fresh in my mind as I would like. I wanted to write a review, but I never got around to it until now. However, I spent nearly an hour and a half discussing it with my friend Lynne as I drove her to the airport to fly home for Christmas break. Obviously, I should have plenty to say about it.
First, I have to mention that I was incredibly excited for this book. You have no idea how much. During my pre-teen years, one of my favorite books was What's the Opposite of a Best Friend by A. Bates; I probably read it ten times, at least. It is, essentially, the middle school equivalent of what this book appeared to be. Girl quarterback, new boy with quarterback skills equal to hers moves to town, they fall for each other. When I read the summary for Catching Jordan, I absolutely flipped out, for lack of a better term. I counted down the days until it came out. I was scared that it wouldn't live up to my expectations, and I tried to talk myself down. It didn't work. Then came the day when I finally got it, right in the middle of finals week. I made myself get a decent night's sleep the night I read the first half of it, otherwise I would have read it in one sitting. As it was, it took three sittings over the course of two days. Anyway, now that you have the background, we can get to the actual review.
Catching Jordan was not what I expected. I won't say it was better, per se, but I absolutely loved the end result. I was annoyed by the blurb, though. It very much misleads you into thinking this is going to be a straightfoward romance between Jordan and Ty. But lo, and behold, that is not the case! It is actually a triangle between Jordan, Ty, and Jordan's best friend Henry (light spoiler, I guess, since it is not in the blurb. Highlight if you want to know). Once that was revealed, I honestly was not sure which of them Jordan was going to wind up with. I won't spoil it for you, but I will just say that I, personally, was very happy with her end choice (as was my friend Lynne). As for the other aspects of the book, I am a huge football fan, so I loved the atmosphere. Most of the characters were interesting, and I was very invested in the relationship outcomes, both for the main characters and the various secondary characters.
