Untouchable by Kate Brian

Title: Untouchable
Author: Kate Brian
Series: Private #3
ISBN-10: 1416918752
Pages: 236
Year Published: 2006
Genre: YA Fiction
Date Finished: May 9

From the back cover: Cheating, partying, blackmail, and now...murder?

Can the Billings Girls remain untouchable?

Reed's boyfriend, Thomas Pearson -- the popular, easygoing, irresistibly handsome and charismatic boy she fell in love with -- is dead. No one knows how it happened, and everyone is after the truth. Or are they?

Life at Easton Academy begins to feel very different. Taylor is acting like the poster child for Prozac, Kiran is spiking her cornflakes, Noelle is being kind of...nice, and Arianna keeps floating along as if nothing has happened.

Thanksgiving break arrives and Reed and Josh find themselves alone on campus. They are forced to confront the feelings they've been hiding. Those feelings combined with an empty campus result in the hottest hookup Reed could possibly imagine. But when Reed breaks the news about Josh to the Billings Girls, there's no fun game of tell-all. Instead, Josh begins to look like suspect No. 1 in the murder of Thomas Pearson.

The perfect life Reed has constructed as a Billings Girl begins to crumble. And as everyone becomes more convinced of Josh's guilt, Reed's private suspicions lead her somewhere she doesn't want to go.

First sentence: My first funeral.

My thoughts: Untouchable is the 3rd book in the Private series. The book opens with Thomas's funeral. There are still unanswered questions surrounding his death. Everyone has different theories on why Thomas died and each thinks he was murdered. As the police continue to investigate, more and more details are revealed about Thomas's life.

Reed is trying to move forward after her first real loss. She doesn't know what to do as everyone is constantly watching her every move and commenting on everything she does. She does find solace in her friendship with Josh, Thomas's best friend.

With Untouchable, the plot thickens and at times I found it difficult to believe what anyone said. I knew the Billings Girls were still keeping secrets from Reed, however were they protecting her or themselves? Their "friendship" felt more forced to me in this book than the previous novels. Reed appeared to feel this way as well, however she continued to make excuses to remain friends with them. Secrets, lies and cover-up continue to be the themes of this series.

Now that a "suspect" has been arrested, I wonder will the details of Thomas's death finally be revealed. I guess I'll have to read Confessions to find out.

To read more about the Private series and its spin off series, Privilege, click here.