Stealing Parker

by Miranda Kenneally

"A hero who will melt your heart."—Jennifer Echols, national award-winning author of Such a Rush
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?
Praise for Catching Jordan:
"A must-read for teens! I couldn't put it down!"—Simon Elkeles, New York Times bestselling author of the Perfect Chemistry series
"With a clever, authentic voice, Kenneally proves once and for all that when it comes to making life's toughest calls-on and off the field-girls rule!"—Sara Ockler, bestselling author of Fixing Delilah

• ISBN10: 1402271875
• ISBN13: 9781402271878
• Publish Date: 1 October 2012 (first published 1 January 2012)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 2 November 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Sourcebooks Fire
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

[liz089]

Overall I liked this one. I had a bit more trouble getting into it because of the MC Parker, but later on she really grew on me and made me feel along with her.

I did not like Brian AT ALL, and found it rather obvious how it all would turn out (Corndog FTW). I liked how Parker developed throughout the novel and we got a bit from the characters of the previous part too. Apart from Corndog, I did not really feel much for these side characters...

Once again I did love how the author combined friendship, with romance and family. Very curious about her next book !!

Rating is more like a 3.5, but I rounded it down, because it wasn't as good as Catching Jordan.

[Joséphine]

Feb 4, 2016

Rating: 4 stars

Thoughts upon rereading: Honestly, I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed Stealing Parker upon my re-read. I remember not being all that fond the first time round. It seems my dislike has subsided, though I still didn't develop much affinity towards Parker. Despite that, I felt somewhat sympathetic towards her. Sometimes knowing what's best for us doesn't automatically translate into wise actions. We still do things against our better judgements and so end up in trouble. Doesn't necessarily mean we're terrible people at heart. Parker's a perfect example of that.

Another reason I must've enjoyed Stealing Parker more now is that I no longer expected sports to be a such a major theme. It mattered, yes, but more in the aftermath, when she'd basically given it up. Since I'm currently in the position of indecision on how to proceed with my own competitive sporting endeavours, I suppose I understood her better.

_________

Nov 20, 2014

Audiobook rating: 3.5 stars
Book rating: 3 stars

Initial thoughts: Stealing Parker is one of those books that is much better as an audiobook because the narrator adds to the enjoyment of it. Yet even without the narration, Stealing Parker surprised me. I didn't like Catching Jordan at all, in part because of too much boy crazy and too little sports. With Stealing Parker my expectations were adjusted, so I knew not to expect all that much about Parker's actual involvement in softball.

This time round I focused more on her character development from the beginning to end and the surprising turns in the plot. For me, Stealing Parker is a case where I didn't like the character but still connected anyway on the levels of family, personal faith/religion, friendship and pursuing something one can't rightfully have.

[KitsuneBae]

Like this more than Catching Jordan. As usual, Miranda wove the story in such a way that there's an initial confusion as to who gets the girl.

[Sam@WLABB]

Rating: 3.5 Stars

I was happy to revisit Hundred Oak, this time with Parker. This book was a little deeper than Catching Jordan. It dealt with bigger types of identity issues and issues of faith. Kenneally was respectful, and I appreciated the way she handled the situation. I liked that Parker was self aware and doing her best to struggle through some serious stuff. She was superwoman, and she made mistakes. She also owned her mistakes, and didn't expect to be relieved of her responsibility. She also had a group of great friends. Drew, Corndog, Tate -- they were all there for her when she least expected it, and again, they were not perfect. There were missteps, but that idea that we can make mistakes, and not lose everything, is so important. Overall - charming read.

[Rowena]

One of my hot buttons is the teacher/student relationship in books. I’m just flat out, not a fan of it. Actually, I should clarify that I’m not a fan of a minor student and teacher relationship. Professors and college students I’m not really against but I wouldn’t go out of my way to read those books unless they come highly recommended but with minors (and 17 is still a minor in my opinion), I don’t like it.

So with that said, I wondered how I would like this book because it’s got one of those relationships in it. Now, I’m a fan of the author because I absolutely adored Catching Jordan so despite my reservations going into this book, I had to read it because I enjoyed the last book by Kenneally that much.

The verdict is in: I liked it.

I liked the book in general but the part of the book that deals with the coach/student relationship, I wasn’t a fan of that. But that wasn’t what made this book. Or the entire book anyway so I was happy about that. The book focuses on the main character, Parker who’s mother came out of the closet and left the family with her lesbian lover. Parker, who grew up as a strict Christian has been shunned by her best friend, her friends and a lot of families at Church. Rumors fly around her school about how she’s going to follow in her mother’s footsteps and how she’s a slut as well. All rumors start with her ex-best friend Laura. Try as she might to ignore it all, Parker is very affected by the rumors, by her mother’s betrayal (which is how she sees it) and everything else going on in her life. Her father stubbornly insists that the family go to the same Church that turned their backs on them and that frustrates Parker to no end because a place that is supposed to be forgiving is anything but and really, the people at this Church pissed me the heck off.

Parker is trying to keep things going in her family now that her mother left. She cooks, she cleans and she runs things at home while her brother turns to drugs and alcohol to make it all go away and her father works and drowns himself in the Church which isn’t good for anyone. Parker turns to kissing boys and what I want to know is when did kissing boys make you a slut? That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.

But what I really enjoyed about this book was the friendship that blossomed between Will and Parker. I thought Will (Corndog) was such a cutie patootie but when the crap hits the fan with Parker and Coach Hoffman, the way that both Will and Drew turned on her made me so angry on her behalf. They should have had more faith in her because they were supposed to be her friends. She already had bad luck with shitty friends and for the two guys that I liked the most in this book to do what they did, gutted me because I was good and pissed at both of them. Nobody is perfect and Parker wasn’t any exception but she was a good person at heart and it really sucked that not one person outside of her family knew this. Everyone should have known that because to know her and Drew and Will knew her was to see how awesome she really was and so I hated that she had to deal with so much stupidity from the people at school and the people at Church….and then the people in her circle of friends.

Watching Parker deal with everything thrown at her made my heart hurt because she didn’t deserve all of that. Coach Hoffman, as cute and hunky as he was, made me want to puke. He was an adult that acted like a straight up douchebag and I couldn’t like him to save my life. Did I see what Parker saw in him? Totally. Did it justify what Brian let happen between them? Hell no. He was a no good, piece of shit that needed to get punched in his freaking face for taking advantage of Parker the way that he did. He had no flipping excuse for carrying on with her the way that he did and each trip to the laundry mat made me want to find him and punch his face in. He stopped being hot the minute he took advantage of Parker and he took advantage of her. Whether she was willing or not, he was the adult and the teacher, he should have put a stop to it and if they weren’t caught, he probably would have kept right on meeting her late at night across the street and doing what they were doing. Ugh.

After everything was said and done, I admired the heck out of Parker. She blossomed into such a strong person by the end of the book and I was really happy that things worked out for her but I wanted to see Will grovel more, I wanted Drew to suffer more for not having more faith in Faith and really, I wanted Drew to apologize to Parker for not trusting her. For not having her back when she needed him to have her back, especially since she was going to walk away from the one guy that she actually wanted a relationship with…FOR HIM. But still, Kenneally can write the heck out of a story so despite all of the things that made me mad in this book, I enjoyed the book and I cannot wait for more from this author.

She does good stuff, Miranda Kenneally does. I’m a total fan.

[Angie]

After the disaster that was Catching Jordan, I was quite hesitant to pick up Stealing Parker. I was worried that Parker would be another incredibly unlikable character, and unfortunately she didn't make a good first impression. I'm all for girls and women hooking up with whoever and exploring their sexuality in a responsible manner, but Parker is just doing it so that her town doesn't think she's a lesbian like her mom. It was apparently this huge scandal and Parker's been ostracized by her church, and had to quit playing softball because the other girls made comments about her being gay too. Now she's managing the boys' team and hoping for a few more hookups, possibly with the hot, young, new coach Brian.

I have several problems with Parker and they all arise in the first handful of chapters. The first I already mentioned: she does random hook ups to avoid looking like a lesbian. Someone thinking that you're gay isn't the end of the world, and it's her judgmental town's problem, not hers. Secondly, she admits that she can't figure out a tampon. And this girl is the valedictorian! Stupid. Third, she's proud to have lost 30 pounds, becoming "skin and bones." She makes several comments about her muffin top made of skin and how she's saving her calories (aka starving herself). But it's worth it because boys find her extremely hot! This is not an okay message to send out to young women! No, no, no! Parker is also a hypocrite: whining about how her church turned their back on her, and yet she's completely cut her mom out of her life.

Stealing Parker was also a whole lot more religious than I was expecting. Parker and her family go to church every Sunday, and Parker goes to youth group. She also writes letters to God and those are included in the book. There's also lots of "Why hast thou forsaken me, Lord" lines which got really annoying. Parker is also quite the hypocrite when it comes to Christianity. Essentially she just follows the parts that suit her and judges everyone else for being bad Christians. Things also start to get a bit preachy when Parker starts contemplating sex and says it's something that's suppose to happens in a long, loving relationship. I did respect her for saying she's not ready, but I could have done without the mini morality lessons.

The one place where Stealing Parker is better than Catching Jordan is in the romance department. I was quite interested to see what would come of Parker's crush on Coach Brian. He's not much older, and she's almost eighteen, so I don't think it's a huge deal. Sure he's technically a teacher at her school, but I was still waiting to see what would come from them chatting outside of school. I do think this plot happened realistically and it's what saved this book from being another disaster.

While I didn't enjoy Stealing Parker for various reasons, I was glad that she at least learned something by the end. She doesn't like getting used by guys or being pushed away by people she cares about, so she shouldn't be doing those things either. I still didn't like her by the end, but I was okay with where she was. I don't know if I want to continue this series, because it seems like the author imagined the most awful girls she could think of and then wrote about them.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Stephanie]

I decided to pick this book up after seeing so many glowing reviews for Miranda Kenneally's other book Catching Jordan. I wasn't too sure how much I would like it, but it's about baseball, and I like baseball.

I did really enjoy the story. There were some slow parts in the middle, and sometimes the writing felt a little choppy but it started to get really interesting as I went on.

Parker's life took a turn for the worse when her mom came out as a lesbian. The people at Parker's church turned on her and her family and her best friend keeps saying she's going to turn out like her mom. So Parker quits softball and decides to prove to everyone she's not like her mom by kissing any boy who will let her. So now she's known as the girl who get's around.

Parker ends up getting roped into being the manager for the baseball team. There she meets the new coach, Brian, who's 6 years older than her. That's when things start to get a little rocky. She's knows it's wrong for her to be with Brian, but the fact that it is off limits makes it even harder to resist.

This story was really cute. I felt really bad for Parker, even though she brought some of the things onto herself. This story has it's really sad moments. It made me so sad that Parker wasn't talking to her mom, even though her mom would call her all the time to see how everything is going, but Parker would never answer, even when all she wanted was to ask for her moms advice.

It took me a while to warm up to the writing, but once the story started to pick up, I couldn't but the book down.

[Kelly]

In the middle of what seemed to be a book slump, I thought Stealing Parker would be just the novel to pick me back up again, and it didn't dissapoint. It was a fun, coming of age read. I can imagine quite a few teens can relate to Parker and her world of self doubt. Beautiful, realistic and oh so charming.