Review Detail

I’ve heard tons of amazing things about Catching Jordan. Saw reviews on how gush-worthy and amazing it was. And, okay, I have to admit that I was a little skeptical about reading this. I’ve read a few books about girls who excel at sports, but everyone’s against her making anything out of her talent. Those books… well, I wasn’t exactly a fan of the books I did read that were like that. But then it seemed that everyone read it and loved it. Really, really loved it. And then I got a request to review Catching Jordan, and I figured ‘why not?’ So I picked this book up.

And I don’t regret it.

This is one of those cases in which the cover isn’t misleading – it’s amazing, just like the story itself. It wasn’t what I’d expected. Not quite. Because everyone in Jordan’s school – her coach, her friends, her team, etc – supports her. They’re so damn enthusiastic and supportive it’s hard to not smile at it sometimes.

I love how everyone – even all the little secondary characters, and the characters that show up for only one scene – has a unique personality, and doesn’t seem like a cardboard cut out. Although keeping up with all the names was a little hard for me at first, I loved the football team, and how carefree and real Jordan’s friendship with them all felt. They’ve seen Jordan at her worst, and Jordan has seen them at their worst. There’s no tension between them. They were friends. They were cool. And I liked it that way. I noticed that, in most YA romance books, the girl always has a girl best friend, and if she has a guy best friend, she ends up falling in love with him. And that’s one of the things I liked about Catching Jordan: she had guy best friends who were just that – guy best friends. Not friends-turned-lovers. Just friends.

I don’t know if the author had intended for us to feel that way, or maybe it was just me, but I disliked Ty from the beginning. His cockiness and arrogance felt so… off, and the way he just kind of walks into everything annoyed me. Lots. Plus his need to know about and control everything got on my nerves. I know I just spent a whole paragraph ranting talking about how I liked the friends-who-are-guys thing in Catching Jordan. But there was one friend-who-is-a-guy called Henry. Who’s unbelievably gorgeous. Kinda cute. He was a player, but he was also frigging sweet. And perfect for Jordan in every little way. *insert fangirl swoon here* I really wanted to just kick Ty out of the picture, grab Henry and Jordan, and be like "Now, Kiss!"


Growing up in a house with six brothers, each of whom is in love with sports in general, I’ve always been a bit of a sports girl, too. And it drives me absolutely crazy when an author tries writing a book that has something to do with sports, and gets a fact wrong. You don’t know how many times I’ve seen books call a baseball mitt a ‘mitten,’ described a football as ‘perfectly smooth,’ etc. But there wasn’t any of that stuff in Catching Jordan.

Catching Jordan is funny, romantic, mood-lifting, and undeniably amazing. It’s fast-paced, exciting, and realistic. The author wasn’t afraid to show every side to a teenager’s life – the great, the bad, the ugly, and the sexual. You’ll laugh. You’ll smile. You might even cry. I recommend this to everyone. Everyone.