Harper Price, peerless Southern belle, was born ready for a Homecoming tiara. But after a strange run-in at the dance imbues her with incredible abilities, Harper’s destiny takes a turn for the seriously weird. She becomes a Paladin, one of an ancient line of guardians with agility, super strength and lethal fighting instincts.
Just when life can’t get any more disastrously crazy, Harper finds out who she’s charged to protect: David Stark, school reporter, subject of a mysterious prophecy and possibly Harper’s least favorite person. But things get complicated when Harper starts falling for him—and discovers that David’s own fate could very well be to destroy Earth.
With snappy banter, cotillion dresses, non-stop action and a touch of magic, this new young adult series from bestseller Rachel Hawkins is going to make y’all beg for more. (Goodreads)
So, I read both Rebel Belle and Miss Mayhem in April – and I have been meaning to review both books, but I somehow procrastinated up until this point. I guess I mostly enjoyed this book – I do have a couple of qualms about it, though.
The characters and cliques within this book is what I would call ‘typically American’. Every country has their stereotypes, and the stereotype of what a normal American High School looks like was presented to me in this book. Our MC, Harper Price, is our popular, over achieving Homecoming Queen wannabe. In a way she annoyed me! I don’t know if people like this actually exist within American Schools, but I feel like these people need slaps. Ofttimes I found myself rolling my eyes and wanting her to go and be a normal teenager, without worrying about Cotillion, homecoming and all of the other stuff that she does. She is no normal character, however, because she gets transformed in a Paladin. (I don’t want to go too much into what all this stuff is because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who still has it on their TBR lists). Her not being normal gives the readers more experience for just how weird things have become for her.
I quite liked David. He was witty and quick and he never had a problem dishing out what other people gave him. I found myself laughing quite a lot at what he was saying and doing. Having said that, I liked the layer that was underneath the front that he was putting on for Harper’s sake, because he showed that he cared, despite the on going feud he had with her. I also felt kind of sorry for him because he was thrust into this role that he didn’t want to have and, for him, there was no way out of it.
I was disappointed with the world building here. Sure, I got the vibes of High school, teen problems etc, but I wanted needed more in order to fully enjoy this book. There were a lot of unanswered questions about the paranormal side of it and I felt like the book was a bit too jumpy to have any real success of pulling the reader into the story 100%.
This book also contained a newly found pet hate of mine. I understand that America took my beautiful language and decided to change some of the words to make it their own: Spanner and Wrench, rubber and eraser etc. However, the constant use of the word ‘y’all’ nearly had me close the book for good. I literally hate this word. It grated on my nerves so much so that I feel the need to make a motion to have this word banned… along with the word Bae. I don’t mind the fact that you guys changed our words to mean something completely different because it isn’t a language that I have to hear on a general basis; when it starts to seep into my world of reading, however, then I have a problem with it. *Breathe*.
While I wasn’t totally won over by this book, it was ok, and I ended up reading Miss Mayhem afterward, the review of which will be up soon! I gave this book 3/5 stars.
Lauren's Page Turners 