Review: Front and Center

Title: Front and Center
Author: Catherine Murdock
Publication date: October 19th, 2009

Summary:
D.J Schwenk is once more in the halls of Red Bend High School and just wants to fade into the background again. No suck luck. The pressures of love, family and school all collide during basketball season, when D.J. is forced to make some life-changing decisions. Her friendship with Beaner turns into something more, but her ex, Brian Nelson, lingers in the back of her mind. Win and her dad are on D.J. about verballing to Big Ten schools, while Coach K has scouts sitting in the bleachers to watch her lead the team and call the shots, literally. The stress and chaos leave her doubting herself- can she really handle Big Ten ball?

Review:
This is the third book in the Dairy Queen trilogy. If you haven't read the other two, you definitely should do that before reading this one. Stop reading now if you haven't read the first two books and don't want spoilers.

This book was really fun for me to read. It's told from the perspective of a high school student, but not the kind you'd expect to read about in most novels. It was interesting to read about a girl who has a passion for sports, and also works hard on a farm in a small town. The author wrote the book in such a way that I almost felt I was the main character, so it was very easy to sympathize with her feelings and the problems that she faced. Sometimes I was annoyed by her constantly doubting herself, or the fact that she was always bringing up Brian when she stopped dating him but not doing anything about it other than complaining. But I think that she really evolved as a person throughout the book, and was a very likable character. Brian Nelson was also an important character, one that I couldn't quite decide if I liked or not. But by the end of the book I felt like he learned what was important to him, and I started to like him more.

I usually couldn't care less about farm work or sports, but while reading Front and Center I cared about everything that was happening just as much as if I were a character in the book. And I think that says a lot for this book, because most of the time with books on topics that I have no interest in, I will put them down because I get so bored. That didn't happen with this one though, and I'm glad because I ended up really liking it. Fans of the first two books won't be disappointed with the third.

Characters: 8/10
Plot: 7/10
Originality: 9/10
Writing: 8/10
Overall grade: B