Catching Jordan ~ Miranda Kenneally

Catching Jordan
Sourcebooks Fire
December 1, 2011
281 pages
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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