Front and Center

Book review #12
Front and Center by Catherine Gillbert Murdock
Rating: Three starts (refer to the rating system on the right)

Summary:
After a few crazy months, everything is finally back to normal for high school junior D.J. Schwenk. D.J. heads back to school just in time for basketball season, after taking time off to take care of  her older brother after his spinal cord injury. After being in the spotlight for so long, D.J. is looking forward to blending in both on and off the court, but she gets no such luck. D.J. is forced to make big decisions about college, boys, and about the kind of girl she wants to be. 

Front and Center is the third book in the Dairy Queen series, although it wasn't my favorite book in the series, I loved cheering for D.J. on the sidelines as good things finally happened to her. D.J. has so much going on and the pressure is really getting to her. One of her good friends (Beaner) publicly announces that he has a big interest in D.J., while Beaner is funny and fun to be around, Brian suddenly comes back into the picture. D.J. finds herself torn between to great guys. I have to admit even though Brian hurt D.J., I was glad he made an appearance. Then there's Win and almost everyone in Red Bend pressuring her about calling college coaches and whether or not to play Big Ten basketball. D.J. has a having a hard time deciding what she really want to do, tied in with her inability to talk to people, leads to D.J. in very uncomfortable situations. D.J. learns that Schwenks have never been good at talking, but that's exactly what everyone's telling her to do. One of the few things I didn't like, was the fact that D.J. was always complicating things and that the story was written in a narrative style, not really "showing" what happened, but just explaining it. 

Although there were a lot of things that I really loved. First off, I loved D.J.'s character, Catherine Murdock does a great job in creating a unique character with very common thoughts and concerns. There were a lot of laugh out loud moments, I loved reading D.J.'s commentary on the world. I loved her family almost as much, although her family has obvious flaws, they're always there for each especially when it matter most. My favorite part about the whole series was the ending, it wasn't too perfect, but it was realistic, it was a perfect way to end D.J.'s story. Overall, it was a good read, for those of you who read the first two books in the series, you won't be disappointed.