Catching Jordan

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’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.

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.

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!

I really liked this book. There could of been more to the story. I didn't like that the author made Jordan a girl that is being chased by boys. I would have preferred to see Jordan character being treated like a guy but at the same time staying true to being a girl. I kinda appreciated the romance. The story would have been better without the romance. I loved that it had a football them though. Overall, I think this book is a good read.

Don't forget to catch it in Catching Jordan :)

I have been wanting to read Catching Jordan for awhile now but I have been a bit hesitant because someone I know told me that this book wasn't that great and I should probably not read it. Which of course makes me want to read even more because you know I'm weird like that. Don't judge me. =P
When I first starting to read this book, I thought this book was actually pretty good. I was loving the characters and all but once I got further and further I began to lose interest. The book started to have ALOT of drama and the main character, Jordan, cried like every to seconds. It started to get on my nerves, the freaking every two second constant crying, the drama, and how annoying Ty was getting. Even though how annoying that became to be, I loved Jordan's and her best friend, Henry, relationship. They are soo cute together!! My favorite part of this book was the scene when Jordan and Henry were assigned those little baby dolls that cry a lot. Henry took it a little too far. It was hilarious!!! Defiantly my favorite part of this entire book. =)