October 25, 2012

Home Run Blog Tour: Stealing Parker - Miranda Kenneally





Young Adult
Pages: 256
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date: October 1, 2012

After her family's scandal rocks their conservative small town, 17-year-old Parker Shelton goes overboard trying to prove that she won't turn out like her mother: a lesbian. The all-star third-baseman quits the softball team, drops 20 pounds and starts making out with guys--a lot. But hitting on the hot new assistant baseball coach might be taking it a step too far...especially when he starts flirting back.

I'm going to start this with the one thing I love the most about both of Miranda Kenneally's books: her portrayal of female-male friendship! That is something that definitely needs to be portrayed more often. Girls and boys can be best friends, you know? Even if it ends up being complicated at some point, even if a romance or unrequited love ends up blooming, friendship can happen. And it's one of the most awesome things to live and, thus, read about. So.

That being said, I also love the way she nails her male characters. All of them are flawed, yet all of them are perfect in some level as well. And the fact that there are many... yes! Love. It's an awesome feeling not to know by page 2 (or even by the summary quite often) who exactly the love interest is. She nailed this in her first book (albeit, in a different way) and she double-nailed it this time around. Quote from my Goodreads updates, page 97: "This abundance of potential love interests is perversely fascinating!" 

Kenneally's family and sports portrayal was equally spot-on. And I guess it comes to this in realistic-fiction, huh? Pondering how realistically portrayals are done. Either way, the writing flowed well, the characters were layered and believable, and the story was entrapping and entertaining. 

When it comes to sport-related realistic romances, Miranda has steadily become the new queen. And her previous characters being on the background will keep her readers loyal and happy. I loved reading bits and pieces about Jordan and... (you should read Catching Jordan before reading this bit--spolier ahead, last chance) ...Henry. 

Overall, another hit by Miranda and I cannot wait until I have her third book in my hands!




5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I just finished Stealing Parker a few days ago, and I thought it was just as great as Catching Jordan. The girls are great, but I really love the guys in these books!

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  3. I keep hearing about Kenneally and how she's pretty much made of awesome. Off to pick up SP or CJ now...

    Thanks for the review!!

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  4. I agree about female-male friendships. The relationship between Mattie and Weaver in A Northern Light was awesome to read about. I loved their relationship.

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  5. Holy crap I did not know this came out last month?!?! I MUST buy it soon and so glad you loved it because that means I'll love it!

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