Rebel Belle

 

Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins

Harper Price, peerless Southern belle, was born ready for a Homecoming tiara. But after a strange run-in at the dance, Harper's destiny takes a turn for the seriously weird. She's imbued with the powers of a Paladin, guardian 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. Things get complicated when Harper starts falling for him - and discovers that David's own fate could very well be to destroy Earth.

In this book, we learn about the world of Paladins and Oracles alongside Harper Price, who has been passed on the power of Paladin at her Homecoming dance. Her duty is to protect David Stark, the first male oracle in a very long time. Harper learns to handle her superstrenght and speed and of course David is always endangered to be killed, so she desperately needs her superpowers to protect him from the bad guys. While trying to keep what's happening to her secret from her friends and family, she keeps struggling to act normal and find time to spend with her boyfriend Ryan. As everyone grows more and more suspicious, the danger David's in keeps increasing and Harper really doesn't have time for both her private life and Paladin anymore.

This is the first book in a series and I'm not sure I'm going to pick up the other ones when they're released. Even though the writing style is fantastic and I often laughed out loud while reading, I didn't enjoy the story very much. I think it would have been a great novel if there hadn't been the paranormal aspect to it. I don't like the idea of Paladin and Oracles and since the main story does focus on that, I'm not very curious as to what happens next. I will say though that the backstories are great. I loved the relationship between Harper and David and so many hilarious moments happen between them. The friendship with Bee also seemed very genuine and I was glad there wasn't too much drama going on there, unlike with Harper and Ryan.

I gave this three out of five stars because I loved the writing style but the story itself really didn't do anything for me. It seemed to be making fun of the idea of paranormal books because the Paladin stuff is just strange and silly and I really didn't like that. It was all just too weird for my taste.