Friday, December 30, 2011

Catching Jordan - Miranda Kenneally

Synopsis: 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 now there's a new guy in town who threatens her starting position... suddenly she's hoping he'll see her as more than just a teammate.


This isn't a crying book, but I cried through it. I'm a sappy person and I used to cry at every movie, but I've gotten a lot better over the years. Not to mention, books have to work a lot harder to make me cry. That said, this book just affected me. To use the football analogy appropriate for this book - I finished this book feeling like I'd been blindsided and sacked. Seriously. It hit me so hard. Mostly because, minus the whole playing football (I'm a wimp when it comes to football - even flag football in high school gym terrified me - if I played football, I'd be so broken...) the situations in this book hit very close to home. I identified with Jordan so much - even though I didn't play football, surround myself with boys, or have a famous dad who didn't notice me. I felt like her trials and triumphs were my own - and while they didn't exactly merit the tears - they still brought them out. Mostly because Jordan had better luck than I did. 


Even though I didn't play, football games were one of my favorite things about high school. My senior year we had a great football team, and our small little town was so proud of them. We followed them to every away game and some of my favorite memories were the road trips and watching them play. I loved reading this and flipping nostalgically through my memories of senior year. 


While this book nailed the emotional aspects, evoked my memories, and was just a really great story - what pushed it from really great to fan-freaking-tastic was that it wasn't what I expected. Any time I thought it was going one way, suddenly it would take another turn. I never really knew where Jordan was heading, even though I thought I had a handle on her and the people around her. Jordan was a fresh voice in YA, the boys-girl - and this provided a whole new look into high school life, into understanding the mystery that are boys- and even a new aspect of looking and friendship, family, and love. I adore this book, it makes me smile now, even if I cried through it (like all the best memories). It represents all the things that were great about my own senior year of high school. 

Friday, December 30, 2011

Catching Jordan - Miranda Kenneally

Synopsis: 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 now there's a new guy in town who threatens her starting position... suddenly she's hoping he'll see her as more than just a teammate.


This isn't a crying book, but I cried through it. I'm a sappy person and I used to cry at every movie, but I've gotten a lot better over the years. Not to mention, books have to work a lot harder to make me cry. That said, this book just affected me. To use the football analogy appropriate for this book - I finished this book feeling like I'd been blindsided and sacked. Seriously. It hit me so hard. Mostly because, minus the whole playing football (I'm a wimp when it comes to football - even flag football in high school gym terrified me - if I played football, I'd be so broken...) the situations in this book hit very close to home. I identified with Jordan so much - even though I didn't play football, surround myself with boys, or have a famous dad who didn't notice me. I felt like her trials and triumphs were my own - and while they didn't exactly merit the tears - they still brought them out. Mostly because Jordan had better luck than I did. 


Even though I didn't play, football games were one of my favorite things about high school. My senior year we had a great football team, and our small little town was so proud of them. We followed them to every away game and some of my favorite memories were the road trips and watching them play. I loved reading this and flipping nostalgically through my memories of senior year. 


While this book nailed the emotional aspects, evoked my memories, and was just a really great story - what pushed it from really great to fan-freaking-tastic was that it wasn't what I expected. Any time I thought it was going one way, suddenly it would take another turn. I never really knew where Jordan was heading, even though I thought I had a handle on her and the people around her. Jordan was a fresh voice in YA, the boys-girl - and this provided a whole new look into high school life, into understanding the mystery that are boys- and even a new aspect of looking and friendship, family, and love. I adore this book, it makes me smile now, even if I cried through it (like all the best memories). It represents all the things that were great about my own senior year of high school.