Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins

Rebel Belle
By Rachel Hawkins
Published: April 8, 2014
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Number In Series: 1
Pages: 384

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.

My Rating:  5 stars

My Thoughts:
I went into this book knowing absolutely nothing about it.  All I knew was that the cover was gorgeous and it had great ratings from people that I trust on Goodreads, and even it's overall rating is about 4 stars.
At the beginning of this book, I was a little skeptical, especially within the first couple pages.  I wasn't sure how much I was going to like Harper, because in the first scene, she is freaking out outside the Homecoming Dance because she isn't wearing any lip gloss.  Not really a character I could see myself connecting to.  But while in the bathroom putting on the lip gloss, the janitor runs in with a giant sword wound, kisses her, then dies.  Then, her history teacher breaks down the door while carrying the giant sword that killed the janitor and attacks her.  Under normal circumstances, Harper would be dead.  But instead she goes all bad-ass ninja on him and stabs him in the neck with her high heel.  After that scene, I changed my mind.
I had seen some complaints going into this book about the love triangle between Harper, Ryan, and David, which concerned me.  Love triangles don't bother me as long as they are either a. done well, or b. not a major focus.  This one was both.  I think that the entire love triangle took up maybe two pages all together, which by my calculations, is only .5%.  Not really a huge deal.
I also really liked David.  He's not your typical love interest.  Normally in YA the love interest is this dark, brooding, sarcastic, arrogant guy, while David is super nerdy, and he wears plaid pants and tweed jackets and his hair is always sticking up all over the place, and he wears glasses, which was like a breath of fresh air for me.
I also really loved Harper and David's rivalry.  They've been enemies practically since birth, and they'll bring up stuff from seven years ago that's just so hilarious because who uses the word that they beat the other with in the sixth grade bee to make a point.  It sounds ridiculous, but that's what makes it funny.
I also really like how Harper refuses to curse.  I thought that that I was really adorable and I agree with her that you don't have to be vulgar to get your point across.  
The plot wasn't particularly fast, but the writing and the characters and their dialogue was so engaging that it didn't even really matter.  The plot wasn't slow though either.  There was lots of stuff that was happening and all of it was awesome, but I wouldn't say that it's like Divergent or Legend in that something new is happening on every single page.  
I think that my favorite parts of this book were the writing and the dialogue between the characters, and I can't say that there was anything that I didn't like.  I would recommend this to anyone, I think that it's really a book that anyone could enjoy.

Thanks for reading!
Amber