Author: Rachel Hawkins

Pages: 273

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Release Date: April 7th 2015

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. 

It was great to be back with Harper again, especially because I really enjoy read about her. She is so smart, and I was really interested to see how she has changed due to being a Paladin now. I was also really interested to see how her interactions with David and Ryan would change. I mean now that the three of them are constantly hanging out and I really thought it would be awkward between them but really I was surprised to find it wasn't that bad. I mean Harper and Ryan really got over each other and I love the respect Ryan has for David and Harper's relationship. All three of them had such awesome character development. They're all so new to this stuff and I enjoy reading about each character grow and familiarize themselves with their new abilities. All three of them are definitely not completely familiar with abilities and I am looking forward to reading about them getting used to them.

Based on the synopsis, I could tell this book was going to have a very interesting plot line. Trials that can either kill Harper or make her more powerful? Definitely something that I would want to learn more about. It was fun to see Harper running into these trials and the aspects towards the trial was awesome as well. (Can't say too much....) Also, the different surprises and twists the plot took was so great to read and I genuinely enjoyed it.

The one tiny thing that brought my rating down was the romance. Not going to say who it is between but it just got a bit....unnecessary? I love reading romance, I do but I am a bit confused on how the romance that went down in this book is going to help the actual plot. If it's there just for extra cuteness, then that is fine but there were some romance parts that just confused me on why it was happening...

I gave this book 4.5 stars because I really enjoyed the characters and plot but some of the romance bugged me a bit.
Throughout the whole entire book, all I was wondering was "What the crap happens to Bee???" because I ended Rebel Belle thinking that as well. My question didn't take long to answer, yay. The whole story with Bee being a Paladin and could easily replace Harper definitely put a hurdle in their friendship and I'm really glad they got over it because these two are the bestttt.

Okay, about the romance. This whole Ryan, Mary Beth, Bee thing just did not work well with me. First, I have never had much sympathy for Mary Beth, I may never. So when she started getting pissed with Ryan always being with Harper I could only laugh. I am such a bitch to this girl but it was just so great for her to responsibly mad at Ryan for always being with Harper. So they break up, ugh finally. But then Ryan get's with Bee. Yay for them but I am interested to see how this contributes to the plot. I would be pretty surprised if it didn't honestly. Still not convinced on the two but I am looking forward to see where Rachel takes these two.