Catching Jordan in YA Saves Reading Challenge Group

Dec 02, 2011 Huntley Fitzpatrick rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Miranda Kenneally did so many interesting, amazing things in this book. I loved her strong heroine--of course--but she broke so many conventions in a completely natural way. I related to Jordan, although I was by no means the high school quarterback. I loved her relationship with Sam Henry, which was nuanced and complex--they loved one another but acknowledged other relationships. I cared about Ty even though I didn't want her to wind up with him. I repeatedly thought I knew what would happen ne ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Dec 20, 2013 Paula Phillips rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Love Sports Novels ? Wanting a good teen novel to read ? Another new series to start ? Catching Jordan is the first book in the Hundred Oaks series and focuses on Football captain Jordan who happens to be a girl. Her father is a famous Football player and football runs through her blood. The thing though is that she doesn't have the support of her father as he thinks that football shouldn't be a sport that girls play. With college looming near, scouts are watching the players , but though Jordan ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 04, 2011 Patricia (Patricia's Particularity) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, favorite, debut-authors-of-2011, wishlist

After reading Miranda Kenneally's debut novel, I am now a fan of high school football. And I promise you will not be able to put this novel down. Jordan is the quarterback and the team's captain... and she is a GIRL! But Jordan is not just a normal football playing girl, she is a girl with hopes and dreams, and most importantly determination. But like most teenage girls, there is a boy... Jordan struggles to balance her football life and her new life as teenage girl falling for a boy who happens ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jun 09, 2012 Katria rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I wasn't as dedicated in this book as I was in most romantic contemporaries. It was a bit of a "Wow" "Oh! Really?" "Huh!".

Jordan is a tomboy who aspires to become a football player in college. She is always seen as the captain and one of the boys until a new kid caught her eye. Tyler is a new boy in school who wants Jordan's position and her heart. And then there's Sam Henry, her best friend.

I really like how the story starts and ends but I feel like it was dragging in the middle. I can't help ...more

Like · see review

Nov 02, 2011 Patrycja rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Amazing book. :D

1 like · Like · see review

Oct 04, 2011 Book Sp(l)ot rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-release, challenge-yas

Jordan Woods has spent most of her life being seen as "one of the guys" and that's more than fine with her. As the quarterback of her high school's football team, it's almost a necessity, actually. While the other girls might notice the guys for the good looks, Jordan only notices their playing ability.

As long as she - and the rest of her team - play well enough to get her into a top notch football university (and on their field), that's all that matters.

Until the new guy at school wants a place Jordan Woods has spent most of her life being seen as "one of the guys" and that's more than fine with her. As the quarterback of her high school's football team, it's almost a necessity, actually. While the other girls might notice the guys for the good looks, Jordan only notices their playing ability.

As long as she - and the rest of her team - play well enough to get her into a top notch football university (and on their field), that's all that matters.

Until the new guy at school wants a place on the team. And maybe in Jordan's heart.

Do you ever go into a book expecting to love, love, love it and then . . . not? Sadly, that was what happened with me and Catching Jordan. I didn't necessarily dislike it, I just didn't love it like all of the amazing reviews I'd seen so many of (and heard from people) said I would.

The idea of a girl playing high school football is definitely not unheard of - rare though it may be - but it is unheard of in YA fiction so Catching Jordan immediately grabbed my attention because of that. I really liked that Jordan's football wasn't an "oh yeah, she also plays football" part of the story. It was usually a pretty main part of the story.

It was great that she was friends with guys, too. Too rarely (especially in YA books, I think) are female and male characters friends in books - platonic friends. It does happen in life (regardless of what movies will have you believe) so it's nice to see it in a book.

I did feel like the romantic aspect of the story was too dramatic - part of that may have been that I always found something 'off' about Ty. Even when things were being hinted at, it seemed odd no one else noticed said things - and later they didn't seem to go anywhere. It made the romance seem to quick and, like I said, dramatic to fit with Jordan. Ty could have been made a flawed character for purposes of the story, but still been sympathetic and someone you could connect to . .. for me he just felt a bit 'off.'

[It also seems strange that no one - her mother, a girlfriend of her brother, one of her guy friends, someone - has done anything about her being so judgmental about the girls in her life. It kind of makes sense when the girls/cheerleaders in her social circle are described as ditzy, though, I guess. ]

Catching Jordan is predictable but it's fun and if Ty doesn't irk you (I can testify that he doesn't many others), it's a cute, lighthearted read.

Rating: 7/10
...more

Like · see review