Catching Jordan

It's sooooo cute!!!!!!
I shipped Jordan and Sam pretty much from page 1.

I can't praise this book enough.
Hundred Oaks is one of my favorite contemporary series, and Miranda Kenneally is a genius!

With Jordan being the captain of HER football team, she has to continue proving to herself, her team, and her family that she isn't some wimpy little girl that cracks under pressure. And she does a really good job of that... Until the new guy comes to town.
Jordan is a great character. She's strong, independent, focused, and determined. But somewhere along the way she forgot to be a girl. It was fun to see her remind herself though. Trying to decide on what underwear to wear and wearing her first fitted shirt in ages and awkwardly hanging out with the cheerleaders was hilarious. But then Ty comes into the picture. His past still torments him which ends up making him extremely clingy. Which made him try to contain Jordan. And no one (especially Jordan) likes that he's so controlling.
But out of nowhere comes the love triangle. I don't know how I didn't pick up on it. But after it was said, I began to look at all the signs and I was like "Ooooooh I see it now!" There were signs the entire beginning of the story, but I felt like Jordan did when it came to that situation... Completely lost. But in the end, I feel like she made the right decision. Her and the person she picked are definitely the perfect match :)
The number one thing I loved about the story was the fact that it involved sports and romance. There aren't many books out there that contain both with the girl actually involved in the sport. And for the sport to be FOOTBALL of all things?! It was a different kind of premise and I loved it. I also loved the fact that it seemed to give some empowerment to women. I wanted to play football for my local Little League team when I was in the second grade, and I couldn't for the life of me understand why my mom wouldn't let me but signed me up for girls basketball instead. By diving into this story, I was able to become Jordan and live out one of my fantasies. One of the main reasons I love reading so much.

"I once read that football was invented so people wouldn't notice summer ending."

So begins Catching Jordan. That is a great first line. It pulls you in. You don't have to be a fan of football to feel the absolute weight of that sentence. It's poignant. I loved it. I decided to put aside my prejudices against football once I read that opening sentence.

Jordan Woods is a great football player. As Captain and quarterback of the high school football team, Jordan has to be the best. But does being the best football player in Hundred Oaks High School--maybe even all of Tennessee--get you a free ride to the University of Alabama? Does the fact that your father is the great Donovan Woods, NFL superstar, help? I think it might, if you're a guy. But Jordan Woods is a girl. In a perfect world--in my world--that should not matter in the least. And in Catching Jordan, the reader begins to believe that maybe--just maybe--it won't matter. All is looking good for Jordan. The scouts are noticing her.


Jordan's attempt to make it to Alabama, though, is just one of the threads in this book. BUT it's an important one. As a YA story, I think it's great that the sexist world of sports is examined from this angle. Here, we have an exceptional athlete who deserves to follow the dream and make it to the pros...the top of her chosen sport's arena. The NFL. And, she deserves to get there via the university of her choice--ALABAMA. I won't go into the outcome of this thread, because I don't want to ruin it for the reader. I'll just say that through this thread alone, this was an exceptional read. Kenneally expertly handled this sensitive topic.


Catching Jordan is also about romance. The triangle is made of Jordan, her best friend for life Sam Henry and the new quarterback, Ty Green. Sam Henry was my favourite character. He's a great friend, a truly likeable person and a deeply emotional (without being sappy) person. I liked the relationship between him and Jordan. I always knew there was something going on, but I was never sure what it was. Kenneally wrote this friendship so well...the way Jordan would be concerned for Henry because she knew he was acting differently...the way they shared a bed when Henry slept over...the way her family 'adopted' Henry so completely...the plastic jewellery that Henry wore around his neck and the story behind it. There were just all these lovely things about the two of them.

And Ty. Well, I was a bit concerned about Ty. I liked it when Ty and Jordan became an item. I just could not tell if Ty was being controlling because of the recent trauma in his life, or because he was just a controlling person. It was a razor's edge, but in the end it was another well written twist in the story. See, Ty was likeable. He couldn't be likeable and despised at once. And who's going to like a totally controlling neanderthal? Especially when the one he is suddenly controlling is one of the strongest female leads of recent fictional history. I think Kenneally convinces the reader that Ty's recent upsets have made him overly-protective, not a neanderthal.

Jordan is adorable. A solidly written tomboy. We need more strong female characters in fiction, especially YA fiction. Girls need to know that it's okay to be just as strong OR stronger as boys. This is why I was a little annoyed with Donovan Woods at first. He was a solid wall of denial. His son was a star football player and he supported him and watched tapes with him. He was a great father supporting his son's dream. But he wouldn't go to Jordan's games, wouldn't talk to her about football, nothing. It was like he couldn't even SEE her. It was painful to read, at times. But well written and believable. The reader saw all the obstacles in Jordan's way, including her father. (Thank God for her mother--another well written character.)


When Alabama starts to show interest in Jordan, thankfully her father wakes up to her passion and determination. This thread of the story became truly rewarding. You will like the way Donovan steps up to the plate, so to speak (sorry for the baseball metaphor!).


So, with CATCHING JORDAN you have a strong female character trying to get into a male dominated world. You have a strong female character trying to balance respect for her position as team captain with the 'girlishness' of romance and love. You have a strong female character whose best friend for life is a male. AND you have a strong female character who is just discovering a love of writing while writing about all of these issues in a journal. All of these things in the hands of an amazing writer make for a page-turner you may even read in one sitting. I was driven to read this book, because even though it seemed like it might be predictable it absolutely was not. I found my emotions going up and down as the various threads unravelled. I LIKE that in a story--getting angry with characters, or upset with their choices, etc. I like getting that invested. I promise it will happen to you too. From the opening line (which was just all kinds of awesome) to the end, Catching Jordan is just a pure delight to read. You'll have to read it yourself, though, to find out if the ending is satisfying. It's hard to write about a book you love without giving everything away, so I'll leave it at this.


READ Catching Jordan. You may not fall in love with football if you didn't like it in the first place, but you'll fall in love with the characters in this football story!

I absolutely loved this book! One of my favorite books is Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. I was worried this book would be a rip-off of that one. Girl plays football, someone has a problem with it, she falls for the other star QB. I felt like I would know how it all played out. Instead, I got a fresh look at the female football star. I couldn't put this book down. I'm serious. I think I spent a Saturday afternoon reading this entire book. You don't have to love football to like this book. You don't have to be a tomboy. I'm a sucker for any love story and this book definitely did NOT disappoint.