Reid Alexander's life is an open book. His Hollywood celebrity means that everything he does plays out in the public eye. Every relationship, every error in judgment is analyzed by strangers. His latest mistake totaled his car, destroyed a house and landed him in the hospital. Now his PR team is working overtime to salvage his image. One thing is clear—this is one predicament he won’t escape without paying for it.
Dori Cantrell is a genuine humanitarian—the outward opposite of everything Reid is about. When his DUI plea bargain lands him under her community service supervision, she proves unimpressed with his status and indifferent to his proximity, and he soon wants nothing more than to knock her off of her pedestal and prove she's human.
Counting the days until his month of service is over, Dori struggles to ignore his wicked magnetic pull while shocking him with her ability to see past his celebrity and challenging him to see his own wasted potential. But Dori has secrets of her own, safely locked away until one night turns her entire world upside down. Suddenly their only hope for connection and redemption hinges on one choice: whether or not to have faith in each other.
This is the third book in Tammara Webber's
Between The Line series. If you follow this blog regularly, then you know that I
loved the first book in the series,
Between the Lines. Its sequel,
Where You Are, absolutely
blew me away. Going into this book, I had very high expectations because Tammara had already spoiled me so with the two books before. I was a little nervous... certainly an author couldn't hit three home runs in a row
in the same series, could she?
Uh, yeah, she could. And she did!
I'll have to admit, I did want to have a little more nostalgia in this book by including more scenes with Emma and Graham. But alas, their story has been told and, while there is slight mention of them in this book, the universe of this novel centers around Reid and what happens following the explosive ending of
Where You Are.
There is not a male lead in Young Adult history that I want to both slap and swoon over simultaneously more than one Reid Alexander. He is, by far, THE quintessential bad boy that all bad boys wish they could be like. And he has everything to support that attitude - the money, the fame, the looks and it all gives him the right to do what he wants whenever he wants. Oh, yes.. how I hate to love Reid so much! This book is definitely Reid's story and we are allowed an even more in-depth look into his mind and his world, giving us much more insight into who he really is than we have ever had before.
I was a bit disappointed to start this book off knowing that the progress Reid made in the books before all but disappeared. But without it, we would never have the opportunity to meet Dori Cantrell - a girl who rivals the likes of Emma in that she is just as strong a character and is much more suited for Reid. How so? Dori is pretty resilient to the charm of Reid Alexander. Even when the sparks begin to fly between the two of them, she still holds her own and never lets him walk all over her. Without that, I don't think that Reid would have been given that opportunity that he needed to become a better Reid. Dori isn't perfect of course - I think she gives too much worry into what people expect and think of her than she needs to. Still, it's a part of who she is and it makes her that much more endearing.
This is probably going to sound like a broken record from the first two reviews, but I cannot say enough good things about this book. It is by far one of my favorite contemporary reads and is part of one of my absolute favorite contemporary series. I don't think that it could get much better than this, but I would love to see Tammara Webber try!
Rating: ★★★★★
Source: Tammara Webber; Author
Here are some of this week's Young Adult book releases. To learn more about each book, click on its cover art to be redirected to its page on Young Adult Books Central.
