(Goodreads) 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?
The Short Story? - Fans of Catching Jordan will definitely get a kick out of this! All the romance and frothiness of Catching Jordan with brand new characters and cameos of the old! Kenneally has truly outdone herself with this phenomenal companion novel to one of the best written YA contemporaries of 2012! Brilliant characters with depth and history, a bittersweet journey to love and self acceptance and exploration of topics that are usually left untouched in YA! Kenneally's Stealing Parker is a powerful novel with a brilliant romance!
The Long Story? - The thing I love most about Kenneally's novels is that they never turn out the way you expect them to. NEVER. They're unpredictable and exciting to read, they teach morals in a fun way through girls who like sport and boys who are too perfect to be real. They teach that good things ( good boys) could be by your side all along but you were too caught up in your own problems to see and more then that they teach girls to be themselves. This is definitely getting too deep but it's true, Kenneally's novels aren't just frothy and fluffy and swoony, they deal with real issues too. I loved that Stealing Parker explored homosexuality, slut shaming, isolation and neglect, all issues that affect many of us. They're not pretty issues to explore especially in a genre like YA but Kenneally has managed to do it in a way that's fun but meaningful at the same time. It's not a dark piece of contemporary fiction and the romance and chemistry are all there. Kenneally has a knack for writing YA that you all must check out!
I felt an instant connection to Parker, in terms of protagonists I felt closer to Parker than I did to Jordan ( which I thought was impossible but here we are!). Parker deals with so much throughout the novel and she puts up with so much. From the moment her mom came out as a lesbian, Parker's life has started to unravel. She's like the perfect poster child for "Good Girl Gone Bad". She had to deal with slut shaming and the loss of respect from others and to come out on top from all that, it's truly something. Parker just seemed like a very authentic character. I also loved how Kenneally's novels promote friendship between genders, it shows that you can be friends with boys without having to become something more. I liked having a character like Drew play the best friend, he was someone you could depend on and I liked how nerdy and cute he was! Corndog (Will) was an unexpected turn of events but he was a boy after my own heart with his caring nature and humour, definitely someone Parker should be with!
As you can see, I'm nothing but high praise for Stealing Parker by Miranda Kenneally. Everything from the punny titles to the last page was brilliant. Kenneally has quickly become one of my favourite YA contemporary writers and I look forward to reading more of her books. Cute, frothy and fun but deep, powerful and bittersweet at the same time, Stealing Parker deals with social problems in a way that everybody can relate to. A job well done, two thumbs up for Kenneally!
What's it Worth? - Break Out the Piggybank
Badass Bookie xx
Woah stellar review! I can't wait to read it now :D I have this as an ebook so I'll get on it asap!
ReplyDeleteLove the part about girls having guy friends!