Good For You (Between the Lines #3) by Tammara Webber

* * * *

SPOILER ALERT!!!  Due to the nature of this trilogy, it is impossible to review this book (or even read the synopsis) without giving away the ending to the previous book.  So stop now if you haven’t read Between the Lines and/or Where You Are and don’t want to know how it ends.

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. (GoodReads)


Review:

Remember how I wanted Reid to take a long walk off a short pier?  And then at the end of Where You Are I thought there might be a slight bit of hope for him after all?  Well, Good For You (Between the Lines #3), was Tammara Webber’s chance to make me like Reid Alexander.  Maybe even love him.

Reid is quickly falling into a life of regular binge drinking and blackouts.  When one of those blackouts results in him driving his car into a house, his life can’t possibly get any lower.  One of the terms of his plea bargain is that he must help rebuild the home that he destroyed.

Dori is unimpressed with his forced community service and expects the minimum from him.  What she learns is that for all his publicized carelessness, Reid is a hard worker and isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.  A friendship slowly develops between these two but quickly ends once Dori shows no interest in continuing their friendship after Reid’s community service is done.  Then something terrible happens in Dori’s life and somehow Reid Alexander is the one person she can turn to with all her doubts and fears.  Their friendship starts off where it left off and slowly develops into more.

All I have to say is this.  Congratulations Tammara Webber.  You managed to make me accept and love a character that I have up until now despised.  I mean, I can’t tell you how much I disliked Reid Alexander in the last two books.  And even though he showed some hope at the end of the last book, it wasn’t enough to make me like him.  But in the end?  Well, I almost loved him.

Ms. Webber managed to set a perfect pace for this story.  Nothing happens quickly but at the same time I couldn’t stop turning the pages.  Dori’s character is rather uptight and pretentious but I couldn’t help liking her anyway.  Part of that might be because of how quickly she deduced Reid’s jerk-like qualities.  And then there was Reid.  He was every bit the ass that he was in the previous two books.  But the author took that fragility that only the reader caught glimpses of and made it slowly blossom through out the book so that, by the end, we had a hero that had believably redeemed himself.

This was indeed my favorite book in the series.  I would recommend the whole series for this story alone. If you like a page turning teen romance, I can’t recommend this one enough.

Nat

A Peek In The Biblio-Bin #46

Welcome to our Stacking the Shelves post! Stacking the Shelves (or as we like to call it, A Peek in the Biblio-Bin) has been created by the lovely ladies at Tynga Reviews.

Stacking the Shelves is a way for bloggers to share what books they have won, received for review, bought from the bookstore, borrowed from the library or friend, etc.

This is what we have in our Biblio-Bin this week. Tell us what's in your biblio-bin!

Rebel Heart (Dust Lands #2) by Moira Young
(Borrowed)

Just One Day by Gayle Forman
(Bought)

Also Known As by Robin Benway
(ARC)

Double Whammy by Gretchen Archer
(ARC)

Going Vintage by Lindsay Leavitt
(ARC)

Transcendence by C.J, Omololu
(Borrowed)

Where You Are (Between the Lines #2) by Tammara Webber

* * * 1/2

 SPOILER ALERT!!!  Due to the nature of this trilogy, it is impossible to review this book (or even read the synopsis) without giving away the ending to the previous book.  So stop now if you haven’t read Between the Lines and don’t want to know how it ends. 

Graham Douglas doesn’t do romantic relationships, but he was knocked for a loop when he met Emma Pierce on the set of his last film. As they grew closer, he did everything in his power to keep from falling for a girl being pursued by superstar Reid Alexander. Now home in New York, his life is once again under control, until Emma appears and shows him how not over her he is.

Emma Pierce is forsaking an up-and-coming Hollywood career to embark on a life she’s only dreamed of—the life of a regular girl. After spending months burying her feelings for the two night-and-day guys who vied for her heart while filming her last movie, a twist of fate puts her in a coffee shop in the middle of Manhattan with the one she still misses.

Brooke Cameron was a fresh-faced Texas girl when she arrived in LA. Now she’s a beach sitcom star turned conceited heiress on the big screen. Having just survived three months on location with her ex—Hollywood’s reigning golden boy—she’s older and wiser and has set her sights on her close friend Graham. The only thing standing in her way is the girl he can’t forget.

Reid Alexander can sum up his life in one word: boring. Between film projects, there’s little going on outside of interviews, photo shoots, and the premiere of the film he finished last fall. The next-to-last thing he expects is to get a second chance with Emma, the girl who rejected him. The last thing he expects is for his still-bitter-ex to be the one to offer it to him on a platter. (GoodReads)

Review:

Remember how I suggested that if you like the show Gossip Girl, you MIGHT like Between the Lines?  Well, if you like Gossip Girl, you will DEFINITELY like Where You Are.

Where You Are alternates between 4 different points of view – Emma, Graham, Reid and Brooke.  I think that might be the most POV’s I have ever read in a single book but it definitely works.  Emma and Graham are trying to make their very new relationship work while living on opposite coasts and dealing with publicists that want Emma to maintain the façade of a relationship with Reid during the publicity spree of their new movie.  Brooke, Graham’s long time friend (and Reid’s ex-girlfriend), has decided that Graham is THE guy she wants to spend forever with and will stop at nothing to make that happen.  She enlists the help of Reid to ruin the relationship between Graham and Emma and in turn send Graham running into Brooke’s arms.

I enjoyed this story much more than Between the Lines.  In Between the Lines I was unsure who I should be rooting for.  Should Emma be with Reid even though I couldn’t stand him?  Or would she end up with Graham even though he had no voice in the novel?  I had no such dilemma in Where You Are.  I knew from the start that I wanted Emma and Graham to stay together.  I also knew that I would be thrilled if both Brooke and Reid took a long walk off a short pier. 

I won’t tell you what happens.  All I can say is that are three books in this series (and possibly a fourth in the works).  What I WILL tell you is that the end left me with hope (just a little bit) that Reid Alexander just might grow into a decent human being.

Between the Lines wasn’t my favorite of stories but I am so glad I enjoyed it enough to move on the next book in the series because I definitely enjoyed Where You Are and would highly recommend it if you are looking for mature teen romance.

Nat

Social Suicide by Gemma Halliday

****

 

From HarperTeen:

Twittercide: the killing of one human being by another while the victim is in the act of tweeting.

Call me crazy, but I figured writing for the Herbert Hoover High Homepage would be a pretty sweet gig. Pad the resume for college applications, get a first look at the gossip column, spend some time ogling the paper's brooding bad-boy editor, Chase Erikson. But on my first big story, things went . . . a little south. What should have been a normal interview with Sydney Sanders turned into me discovering the homecoming queen–hopeful dead in her pool. Electrocuted while Tweeting. Now, in addition to developing a reputation as HHH's resident body finder, I'm stuck trying to prove that Sydney's death wasn't suicide.

I'm starting to long for the days when my biggest worry was whether the cafeteria was serving pizza sticks or Tuesday Tacos. . . .

 

Social Suicide is the sequel to Halliday’s Deadly Cool.  In this installment, Hartley once again stumbles upon a body, except this time, everyone thinks Sydney committed suicide.  Except Hartley.  She sets out to prove Sydney was murdered.  Hartley is endearingly awkward in her interactions with Chase and reminiscent of bumbling detectives like Stephanie Plum, Hartley somehow not only survives, but always gets her man.  Social Suicide is a fun, light-hearted mystery with just enough suspense to keep you guessing.  If you like a mystery with your romantic comedy, I would definitely recommend any of Gemma Halliday’s books. 

 

In addition to her young adult mysteries, Gemma Halliday’s thoroughly enjoyable High Heels series has a new release, Danger in High Heels.  You should check it out!

~Shel

Waiting on Wednesday (47)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that highlights future releases that we are excitedly anticipating.

By Beth Revis

Publication Date: January 15, 2013

The final book in the  New York Times bestselling trilogy, perfect for fans of Battlestar Galactica and Prometheus!

Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceshipGodspeed behind. They're ready to start life afresh--to build a home--on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience.

But this new Earth isn't the paradise Amy had been hoping for. There are giant pterodactyl-like birds, purple flowers with mind-numbing toxins, and mysterious, unexplained ruins that hold more secrets than their stone walls first let on. The biggest secret of all? Godspeed's former passengers aren't alone on this planet. And if they're going to stay, they'll have to fight.

Amy and Elder must race to discover who--or what--else is out there if they are to have any hope of saving their struggling colony and building a future together. They will have to look inward to the very core of what makes them human on this, their most harrowing journey yet. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed--friends, family, life on Earth--will have been for nothing.

FUELED BY LIES.
RULED BY CHAOS.
ALMOST HOME.

Between the Lines #1 by Tammara Webber

* * * 1/2 

When Hollywood It Boy, Reid Alexander, arrives on location to shoot his next movie, his goals are the same as always—film another blockbuster hit and enjoy his celebrity status to the fullest while doing so. His costar is a virtual unknown with whom he had blazing hot chemistry during her auditions. The universe is lining up nicely to grant whatever he wants, as usual, until he’s confronted with unexpected obstacles on location like a bitter ex-girlfriend and a rival for the first girl to spark his genuine interest in years.

Emma Pierce just got her big break after more than a decade of filming commercials for grape juice, department stores and tampons, and more recently, bit parts in made-for-TV movies. Nailing the lead role in a wide-release film sent her agent, father and stepmother into raptures, and should have done the same for her. The Problem? Emma is experiencing a building desire to be normal, and starring in a silly, modernized adaptation of one of her favorite novels—opposite the very hot Reid Alexander—isn’t going to advance that aspiration.

Graham Douglas doesn’t fear playing the part of a nerdy dimwit; when it comes to choosing film roles, if it pays, he’ll do it. Besides, his friend Brooke Cameron snatched up the role of the bitchy hot girl and could use his help as a buffer, because her ex is the star. Graham has no problem keeping a handle on the situation, until he finds himself attracted to Reid’s costar, Emma, the girl Reid is pursuing full-throttle with his standard arsenal of charm, good looks and arrogance. (GoodReads) 

 

After reading Easy, I was interested in reading Tammara Webber’s other books so I downloaded Between the Lines.  It took me a little bit to get into this story but once I did, I couldn’t put it down. 

Emma Pierce is hot and cold on her new project – the lead in a major motion picture.  Hot because she is playing opposite sexy movie star, Reid Alexander.  Cold because she is thinking about doing “normal” which a starring role in a major movie doesn’t really allow.  When she gets to the set she finds herself making lots of new friends as well catching the eye of one very randy teen heart throb. Very soon she becomes the focus of all the gossip sites and magazines and has decide to if dating a movie star is worth the absence of “normal”. 

I enjoyed the entire “cast” of this book.  I really loved Emma’s character.  She was one of those imperfect perfect characters.  In some ways she was very mature for her age and in other ways she was just a 17 year old trying to figure it all out.  Graham was nice but we don’t find out much about him until the end.  He seemed a bit too mysterious. It was hard figuring him out since nothing was ever told from his point of view.  And then there is Reid - a complete and utter jerk.  Since the story alternated between his and Emma’s POV, I kept hoping something would happen to make me like him.  But my hopes were dashed.  He ignores the small twinges of conscience he does have in favor of following the amazingly self centered path he has always walked.   The supporting characters were all instrumental in furthering the story or putting focus on certain attributes of Emma, Reid and Graham. 

I wish I could say more about this but I am finding it difficult to say anything more without giving it all away.  What I can say is that I highly recommend this book if you are looking for something with a bit of a Gossip Girl feel. 

 

Nat

Valkyrie Rising by Ingrid Paulson

From HarperTeen:

Nothing ever happens in Norway. But at least Ellie knows what to expect when she visits her grandmother: a tranquil fishing village and long, slow summer days. And maybe she'll finally get out from under the shadow of her way-too-perfect big brother, Graham, while she's there.

What Ellie doesn't anticipate is Graham's infuriating best friend, Tuck, tagging along for the trip. Nor did she imagine boys going missing amid rumors of impossible kidnappings. Least of all does she expect that something powerful and ancient will awaken in her and that strange whispers will urge Ellie to claim her place among mythological warriors. Instead of peace and quiet, suddenly there's a lot for a girl from L.A. to handle on a summer sojourn in Norway! And when Graham vanishes, it's up to Ellie—and the ever-sarcastic, if undeniably alluring, Tuck—to uncover the truth about all the disappearances and thwart the nefarious plan behind them.

Deadly legends, hidden identities, and tentative romance swirl together in one girl's unexpectedly epic coming-of-age.

I found Valkyrie Rising to be fascinating.  I am not nearly as familiar with Norse Mythology as I am with the Greeks, so this was fairly new territory for me and Paulson made it worth my time.  The premise was familiar, but fantastically executed, a young girl discovering that she is a part of an ancient mythological race of warriors and coming into her power.  The characters, twists and turns, myths – all of it was seamlessly integrated into Paulson’s version of Norse Myths. 

 

In my humble opinion, Ingrid Paulson is a strong new talent to watch.  Valkyrie Rising was *this* close to making my Top Ten list for 2012 and I look forward to reading whatever she comes up with next. 

 

~Shel