In The Best of Times, the 5th book in the DeLaine Reynolds Journey, DeLaine's life looks much different than she ever could've imagined it would after the tornado on April 10, 1979, in her former hometown of Wichita Falls, Texas. Instead of going to Samson High School, as she and her best friend, Bailey Rains envisioned they would, after going to 7th grade there, while their beloved, Milam Junior High was rebuilt, she now goes to high school almost 500 miles away with people she barely knows. Instead of being with the boy she loves the most, Kevin Strong, or having fun at rodeos and campfires with Bailey, Levi, and Jax, DeLaine is now part of the party crowd of potheads and rebels at her new school, Woodway High. Trying to survive living with her mercurial, alcoholic mother, DeLaine finds her release getting high or drunk every weekend while she lives in Corpus Christi, but longs for her summers in Wichita Falls where she can be the girl she used to be. DeLaine's life takes more twists and turns as she survives even more heartbreak in her first two years of high school. What changes are ahead? Who will remain in her life, that she has learned to love since the tornado changed so much of her existence? Who will be taken from her and change her and others she loves forever?