Author: Rachel Hawkins
Published: April 7th, 2015
Hardcover, 273 pages
4 Gold Stars
(summary from Goodreads)
Life is almost back to normal for Harper Price. The Ephors have been silent after their deadly attack at Cotillion months ago, and her best friend, Bee, has returned after a mysterious disappearance. Now Harper can focus on the important things in life: school, canoodling with David (her nemesis-turned-ward-slash-boyfie), and even competing in the Miss Pine Grove pageant.
Unfortunately, supernatural chores are never done. The Ephors have decided they'd rather train David than kill him. The catch: Harper has to come along for the ride, but she can't stay David's Paladin unless she undergoes an ancient trial that will either kill her or make her more powerful than ever.
I was so excited to jump back into Harper Price's crazy world. The first book in this series, Rebel Belle, blew me away with its mix of girly Cotillion and bad-ass demon hunting. It was a mix between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The O.C. with drama, fighting and some super cute romance mixed in. This one had all the same elements as the first book, but something about it fell flat for me. It was short read but not very much happened to make it seem like it only needed to be 273 pages. The book starts off with Harper and her friends trying to find Bee after she's been missing since Cotillion. It bings them to this magical house where they find out she is being trained to be a replacement Paladin if Harper does not pass her tests, tests she knew nothing about. Turns out she's not a real Paladin until she passes and the Ephors want David for reasons other than just killing him. Add to that the fact that Harper and Ryan have been actively forcing down David's oracle powers to protect him, and this whole book just calls for drama.
I went into this book thinking this was a duology but was incredibly surprised at the end with the cliffhanger-ish ending to find out that there will be a third book. Knowing this, made me enjoy what I had read a bit more because as an ending it would have been awful. So now that I know it's the middle book, I see total second-book syndrome all over it. There is very little plot progression and character development that left me disappointed. Harper and David are adorable at the beginning of the book, something I love once two characters get together. I know we need drama to make things interested, but I would rather that drama have been between Harper and the Ephors or Harper trying to save David's life. Instead, my OTP fought for most of the book and David was very upset when he found out what Harper's been doing to his powers. I did love Harper and Bee's relationship, something I find very important in books. Even though things are tough and Bee is potentially dating Harper's ex-boyfriend, that doesn't get between their friendship and Bee is always there to help Harper when she's in trouble.
The humor in this is equal to the first book, a lighthearted way of looking disaster in the eye. Harper is a fun character that holds her own throughout the book and keeps her spirits high in the hardest of times. Like the first book, Harper joins into a group event to save the day. This time she's part of the Miss Pine Grove pageant, surrounded by young girls who are way more into than her. The last 50 pages of this book, including the pageant, were the highlight of this book. As much as I hated the ending, the event leading up to her made for some action-packed fun. Of course, I must get my hands on the third and final book because what Hawkins did at the end of this book still haunts me a month after reading it and I just need everything to wrap up perfectly. Is that too much to ask?
"Honestly, not enough people know how to use good manners as a weapon."
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