Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins

Rebel Belle #1. Putnam Juvenile (April 2014) Library

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.

                                         

Harper Price is what you would call the Queen Bee of her high school. What's different about her popularity in her school is that she isn't the typical mean girl. She doesn't make fun of people or think the world revolves around her which is really a breath of fresh air. I do like seeing the mean girls perspective in other books, but it's nice to show teenage girls that they can be "popular" and not mean at the same time. Harper cares about her school and about becoming Homecoming Queen. She's a perfectionist and someone who really strives to be her best. And then.... she gets kissed by her janitor and obtains all this crazy martial arts knowledge. She becomes a Paladin. A paladin is a protector and the person she is supposed to protect is the one boy who she can't stand. 

You can imagine what happens romance wise in this story. It actually is very complicated what with Harper having a boyfriend and needing to protect David Stark. Now, why David? Well, there is a prophecy that is linked with him. Rebel Belle explores the choices that Harper must make for her future and what she is going to do about this prophecy. The main reason I enjoyed this story was Harper. Her personality and how she used her popularity was what made me like this story so much. I loved seeing her explore her new fighting abilities too. I would love to wake up one day and be as strong as she was. She kind of already was. She was a confident person who was given this new path in life that she must decide whether to accept or not. Seeing her struggle through a dramatic change in her life was always compelling to me to read more. 

There were a couple flaws with this book for me. This was "supposed" to be really funny, but I didn't see that at all. Also, the main problem was that it could be so slow. Towards the end too, I felt like the pace was getting slower. I wasn't as excited as I was in the beginning of the story as I was at the end. I do have to say that there is a major cliffhanger and there's a lot that's going to be happening in the next story. There's so much potential for Miss Mayhem and I really hope that the pace doesn't slow down too much. I really enjoyed this story and the continuation could be so good. I'm still a little on the fence about reading the next one though so I'll see if anyone has read it that I trust their opinion. 

Has anyone read Rebel Belle and Miss Mayhem? Is Miss Mayhem worth the read?