Book Review: Stealing Parker

Stealing Parker (Hundred Oaks #2)

by Miranda Kenneally

Published October 1st 2012

Sourcebooks Fire

Paperback, 242 pages

(Goodreads synopsis) 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?

Parker Shelton was a sweet, Christian, popular, star softball player. She has pretty much been shunned from her friends, school and church. Her mom runs off with a woman so Parker decides to prove to everyone that said she is just liker her mother that she is nothing like her. She becomes known for messing with a lot of guys. 

Drew is her best friend and pretty much only friend. He was the only one who stood by her throughout the whole scandal. Drew signs her up to be the manager for the baseball team. Little does she know the new coach is drool worthy. Who wouldn't want to be a part of a team with a bunch of hot guys and a hot coach?

After spending years battling it out with Will to be valedictorian, she finally wins but can't seem to see him as anything more than her archenemy, Corndog. He is the team captain and isn't happy with Parker always messing with his friends. Over time they become really close friends and maybe more?

Now for Coach Brian. So of course he is yummy. I mean come on, do you really think there wouldn't be this scandal if he wasn't yummalicious? Parker is automatically drawn to him and she takes every chance to flirt with him but what she doesn't expect is for him to be so easy to talk to or that he will flirt back. One thing leads to any other and they become pretty "close". 

Parker becomes confused with having feelings for 2 different guys, broken over the way people have treated her since her mother "came out" and trying to keep her best friends secret.

The most frustrating part of these books is how they end. Don't get me wrong I love the ending but I want more to the story. I was the gushy gooey stuff. Another thing that really pissed me off was how her church treated her family. Being a Christian girl who goes to church 4 days a week, I definitely know a thing or two about how people are supposed to be treated in this kind of a situation and how they are sometimes treated. I couldn't stand the way her dad did what some of the people told him when they weren't saying it for the right reasons. Another thing was her mom. The gay part wasn't what pissed me off. What got me what that she pretty much encouraged her daughter to stop going to church. Don't get me wrong if I was them I would have left that church too but to pretty much say "hey you don't need to go to church" was dumb. There are other churches and she could have just gone to Corndog's church. 

I loved that she was constantly writing to God. I do the same thing except I don't burn it afterwards lol. This was a really sweet love story. I definitely think everyone needs to read this book.