Good For You (Between The Lines #3)

Wow, just wow! Each book in this series is better than the one before! This is Dori and Reid's story and I have to say, I was NOT a Reid Alexander fan AT ALL. However, this third installment in the "Between the Lines" series demonstrates beautifully how no one is beyond redemption regardless of the choices they've made in the past.

Dori is a pastor's daughter who is the epitome of "good girl", or so everyone thinks. She lives out her faith in tangible ways but Reid is the one person who will push her to her limits. When tragedy strikes, she'll find out exactly what she believes in and what Reid is made of.

Reid is back and as horrible as ever, in the beginning at least. He gets a serious wake-up call after depositing his new Porche inside a house after a night of partying. Forced to do community service as part of his sentence, he's convinced the mere thought of volunteering is the worst thing to happen to him, until he meets Dori. Reid is used to people fawning all over him and meeting his every need but Dori is the first to call him on his crap. (high fives her!)

They spend a few weeks working side by side (which vaguely resembles two cats having their tales tied together and tossed over a clothesline) but eventually discover their similarities outweigh their differences. Reid's not as hopeless as he behaves and Dori doesn't have it all together. Their relationship is not an easy one which I was glad for. They have to learn to work on themselves before they can even attempt anything more than friendship and even that isn't a guarantee.

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!