Review: Stealing Parker by Miranda Kenneally

Title: Stealing Parker

Author: Miranda Kenneally

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Publication Date: 10.1.2012

Pages: 304

Genre: Contemporary

Series: Yes (Hundred Oaks #2)

Source: Purchased finished copy

Rating: A+

Summary (from 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?

Review:

If I could figure out a way to live in the Hundred Oaks series by Miranda Kenneally, I would already be there. I am so hopelessly in love with this series, it’s ridiculous. I adored Catching Jordan (book #1), and with Stealing Parker, Kenneally has only reinforced my adoration of anything and everything she writes.

Parker Shelton is a girl who needs a hug. Seriously. She lost her mom and her faith in one fell swoop and has been spiraling down ever since, culminating in this obsessive crush on a guy 6 years her senior. I know some people might say that he is only six years older, but there was something about this relationship that set me on edge from the start. I was a bit worried that Kenneally would make this creeper Parker’s true love (or maybe I’ve been watching too much Pretty Little Liars). In truth, Parker was trying substitute the loss of her family and religion with sex. It’s a trap I have seen way too many girls fall into.

There is a religious undertone to this book I wasn’t expecting. It wasn’t in the first book, and I don’t know that Kenneally will continue that in the series. If you aren’t expecting it, I can see where some people would find it abrasive. As someone who grew up in a church, I could 100% relate to how Parker felt abandoned by God and why she reacted to some things the way she did. I also understand how small-minded certain churches can be, but how that’s not God’s plan. (OK, off the soapbox now.)

Kenneally has this artistic grace to her writing that I love to devour. She crafts these characters that I can’t help but cheer for and adore with all my heart. If you liked Catching Jordan, I’m willing to bet you’ll enjoy Stealing Parker with equal voracity.

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