Review: Stealing Parker

Goodreads Summary: Red-hot author Miranda Kenneally hits one out of the park in this return to Catching Jordan's Hundred Oaks High.

Parker Shelton pretty much has the perfect life. She’s on her way to becoming valedictorian at Hundred Oaks High, she’s made the all-star softball team, and she has plenty of friends. Then her mother’s scandal rocks their small town and suddenly no one will talk to her.

Now Parker wants a new life.

So she quits softball. Drops twenty pounds. And she figures why kiss one guy when she can kiss three? Or four. Why limit herself to high school boys when the majorly cute new baseball coach seems especially flirty?

But how far is too far before she loses herself completely?

If you were looking for further proof that I have like NO will-power whatsoever here it is. I maybe managed to put off reading this one for a couple hours after I finished Catching Jordan. Maybe. Contemporary YA is just SO addicting. 

I didn't relate quite so well with Parker as I did with Jordan in the first novel. I could understand, to some extent, why Parker did things the way that she did but at the same time I wanted to constantly grab her and redirect her. [Kind of like when wind-up toys try to go off the table and you just keep sending them in the right direction? Oh? Is that just me? Never mind then.] Parker just doesn't always think. She has this tendency to just jump right into things without considering the consequences and lands herself into trouble every time. 

For those of you who were paticularly attatched to the cast of Catching Jordan [which you really should read if you haven't already!] you'll get to see a few peripherally glimpses of them throughout Stealing Parker, something I absolutely love when authors do. [You love it too? Check out Sarah Dessen's books as well as Stephanie Perkins!] For me the teams are what really makes the books. I LOVE the interactions between the teammates, the friendly ribbing and teasing is just hilarious. The casts of characters in her novels are truly great.

All in all Miranda Kenneally has written another fast-paced, fun contemporary that is perfect for squeezing into those always too short breaks we have in our lives. And yet again she makes it easy for us non-athletic types to get into the book despite its sportiness. Stealing Parker was a great escape and difficult to put down.

3.5/5