Review: Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins

Grade: 4 Butterflies

Series: Rebel Belle #1

Author: Rachel Hawkins

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Pages: Hardcover, 345 pages

Goodreads Summary

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.

Rachel Hawkins is one of my all time favorite authors. I have re-read her Hex Hall series to many times to count. So, of course I had to read her new book asap. I went into this book with a certain level of expectations. I knew it was going to be good but I don't want to have to high of expectations for fear of being disappointed. In the end I thought that this book was a really enjoyable fun read. However, it just didn't blew me away.

First off I really loved this world. I really liked the premise of honorable knights and witches. It was really interesting and engaging to read about and it was certainly entertaining. However, the plot that went along with this world was somewhat predictable. I still really enjoyed reading this story line and having this world explained to me, but the fact that all my guesses of what was going to happen next were right kind of put a damper on this book. Even with the predictability this book still kept my attention and thoroughly entertained me.

This book was also really fast paced. There was always something going on, whether it be drama or action or mystery there was always something happening to keep your attention. While this is a good aspect of any book it may have lead to some disconnection between me and the book. While I was entertained while reading and wanted to know what happens next, even though I could guess, I wasn't in the book. I didn't feel super invested in the story and I didn't really care if a character died or not. I don't know if this came about because of the fast, fast pace or because of the characters, but it did happen and it really hurt my reading experience for this book.

This disconnection may have came about because of the pace or because of the characters. What I mean by that is while these characters were enjoyable, realistic, and very easily likable I didn't feel that they had enough depth. I wish Rachel Hawkins focused a bit more on giving someone besides David depth. While this annoyed me I didn't let it bother me all that much. This is the first book in a series so there is plenty of time for the author to give these characters more depth. So, this wasn't a huge major issue for me.

I feel like this review is just focusing on the negative and I don't want anyone to think I'm saying that this is a bad book. It had its problems, but it was still really enjoyable. This was overall a really nice, enjoyable start to a series. The plot, while predictable, kept me interested even with the disconnection. It set up nicely for the next books in the series without it feeling to much as a set up book. And it has a really cool premise that was really interesting to read. So I would recommend this book to any one who wants to read a fast, entertaining, paranormal read.

This book got...

 4 Butterflies

Beloved, This is a really enjoyable book.

Happy Reading