Catching Jordan (Hundred Oaks) - Miranda Kenneally

Goodreads summary:

ONE OF THE BOYS

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 everything she's ever worked for is threatened when Ty Green moves to her school. Not only is he an amazing QB, but he's also amazingly hot. And for the first time, Jordan's feeling vulnerable. Can she keep her head in the game while her heart's on the line?


My review:

4/5

Catching Jordan is about football, boys, first crushes and love. If that doesn't scream "perfect summer read", then I don't know what does.

Even though an entire football team is a lot of characters for a single book, Miranda Kenneally managed to make me remember the most important of them and love them to no end. I swear, if any of those teenage boys came to life right now, I'd want to date him without any doubt. Instead of being the usual stupid football players, each of the characters have a distinct personality, with qualities, passions and quirks. I discovered them as caring, kind and protective of Jordan, not only because she's a girl, but because they love her - not all in a platonic way. JJ is probably my favourite supporting character, because his dinners with Jordan always ended up surprising me. Of all the main characters, Henry was my favourite, because I love how he knows everything about Jordan and he doesn't care about looking stupid.

Although I have to admit I didn't understand much about it, I loved how important football is in this story. Books centered around a passion always make me want to work harder with mine and do everything I can to get better. Jordan's determination inspires me and I wish I had as much of it as she does. She makes great sacrifices because of her dreams and she doesn't care about the risks, except when they are about her football career. I liked reading about a teenage girl with so much courage.

I liked how feminism is important in this book, because girls playing football must not have an easy life. In fact, I was surprised that Jordan would play against boys, because it must be really dangerous, even though Jordan seems to endure it pretty well. Her difficulties when trying to find a college sounded very realistic and I enjoyed watching her realize many things about what she wants and what she doesn't want.

The thing I enjoyed the least was probably Jordan's relationship with Ty, because there isn't much to his character and he annoyed me. Also, I don't like when a girl starts acting in such a girly way because of a guy, no matter if she's already girly or not, because I think it simply looks stupid. 

I enjoyed reading this novel and I think if you're looking for a summer book, this one would be a great choice.