Rebel Belle book review

Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins
Series: Rebel Belle #1
Published by Putnam Juvenile on April 8, 2014
Pages: 345
Goodreads

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.

Rebel Belle turned out to be a reread but I genuinely didn’t realise until I was halfway through the book, shows what an impact the first read made on me. I also think that this might be the case with this one to be honest, although I really enjoyed the story there was no lasting impression, no deep urge to carry on with the series and there was no need to become more invested in the characters. I was actually really annoyed with myself that I had reread this book and hadn’t spent the time reading one of the many books on my shelf. Overall the book was a nice read but it didn’t blow me away and I won’t be reading it again, hopefully!

If you are thinking that this book is about a Southern belle who turns into a badass overnight you would be wrong. Rebel Belle definitely contains a young girl, Harper, who is the perfect debutant with the perfect boyfriend and life who gets superpowers but does that make her a badass? Not even slightly. She moans the entire way through this book and there is so much drama I’m still not entirely sure what the entire point of the story was. So much of it was based on her and her struggles with her boyfriend and how she was going to maintain her perfect life that the actual cool bits of the story got lost amongst that. She was a truly unlikeable character and to be honest I just wanted to learn more about the magic system and what that entailed.

The best bits of Rebel Belle for me were definitely the bits where Harper decided she was all for being a Paladin and threw herself into her training and her new life. I was sad that there wasn’t more of that because it really enhanced her as a character and enhanced the story in more ways that the unnecessary drama that came and followed her around. I really enjoyed how sarcastic David was throughout this book, and I thought he dealt with the craziness of everything extremely well. He was kind of like a lot of fresh air when it came to a story surrounded by angst and high school drama.

If you haven’t gotten this from the above, the worst bits of Rebel Belle would have to be the angst, there was so much of it! I couldn’t breathe for it. I know that high school is a tough place to be, believe me I know but oh my word, Harper had it real hard. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the reactions to everything and how everything became about her and how hard it was for her to do what was expected of her. It was a bizarre way of telling the story, and I think it suffered for it. I definitely don’t feel like I learnt enough about the magic system to actually know what was supposed to be going on and why. It was an odd way of reading the book.

I don’t think I would recommend Rebel Belle if I’m honest, I think there are better books out there. The concept was an interesting one but the execution wasn’t what I expected. I would find a different book to read if I’m honest.

Have you read Rebel Belle? What did you think of the story and the characters? Let me know in the comments!