Rating: 2/5

Genre: YA(?) Fantasy

Recommended Age: 14+ (sexual references, gore, violence, nonsensical powers, and forced romances)

Pages: 354

Author Website

Amazon Link

Disclaimer: None, I bought this book on my own accord.

Synopsis: 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.


Let’s start off with the good before I completely trash this book. I thought that overall it was… okay. Maybe I shouldn’t have read this book after I finished Zenith because once again I have found another book where the writing is perfectly suited for a middle grade novel, but because of the YA market booming the book got bumped above its age range. If this book was in the middle grade range it would have been a 4/5, but obviously it’s not so I have to rate it as is.

The book is… bad as a YA novel. The writing is very simplistic and juvenile, the things these supposed young adults say is either for shock value (i.e. the sexual references) or for very younger level comedic value (like the main character not swearing, which is not the issue itself, it’s how she masks the cursing that’s the issue). There are a ton of inconsistences throughout the novel, like how the main character does not curse but yet the reader will catch a curse or two in the book and how the time lines are a bit uneven and wonky, which makes for a confusing read. The characters are not very well defined and it’s hard for a reader to get a good realistic view of them when they remain one dimensional. The main character is as dumb as a box of rocks. She’s supposed to be in the running for valedictorian, but the girl can’t come up with simple conclusions or even recite her own Southern heritage right. The most annoying moment for me was when the main character stated that Virginia wasn’t considered part of the South. News flash: The capital city of the Confederacy was Richmond Virginia, which I would hope a “Southern Belle” might know. The author is from the South (Alabama) as am I. I am from Tennessee, which is the real state that not a lot of Southerners consider to be a part of the true South given that Tennessee was the last state to join the Confederacy and then the first Confederate state to jump ship back into the Union. The pacing is also uneven. Sometimes the book proceeds at a crawl and then others it proceeds at a sprint. My biggest complaint is how confusing the book is. The magic in it is not explained whatsoever, there are so many plot holes the book is basically swiss cheese, and the author wants to force a love triangle in the second book. It’s a bundle of clichés and confusion and not at all of the elegance the novel would have you think it is.

Verdict: This girl makes all Southern Belles look stupid and ignorant; read if you want a fantasy look at how the South operates.