Actual rating is 3.5 stars, but this was charming enough to round-up.

Imagine a hyrbrid of Blair Waldorf/Southern Belle/Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and you'll get Harper Jane Price. Harper stumbles into the role of Paladin one fateful night in the bathroom of her High School and completely misses her Homecoming Queen coronation. To top it off, she is charged with protecting her arch-nemesis. Fate and Cotillion will collide.

I enjoyed the premise, and it was fun seeing a different sort of leading lady. Harper loves makeup, clothes, fashion, and academic success, but also takes on the tough jobs as needed. Hawkins does a great job of making a girl who most would see as a popular bitch be well-rounded and actually a lot of fun. The fact she is also more than a little anal and uptight is also endearing.

What kept this from being great for me is that everything else was shallow and came together a little too conveniently. Plus, there was way to much explaining instead of showing.

However, I would definitely read the other books in this series, so yay.