At that point she becomes a little more interesting and a little less Mary Sue-ish. Eventually she ends up losing Aaron Samuels a boyfriend, her friends all think she’s gone off the deep end (so there goes her army of skanks), and her principal, parents, and–in some degree–cotillion matron (or trainer…or whatever they’re called) think she’s lost her shit and going the way of the tragic statistic (which might or might not take care of her “hot body”). The fact is that she is a Mary Sue and is slowly unraveling at the pressures of her newly begotten Paladin powers. In short, she’s the type of character you can throw into the Mary Sue bucket. She’s also pretty darn smart and can word-spar with the academy’s most stalwart journalist. Not just because she’s a head cheerleader and the homecoming queen, nope. I don’t think I’d ever seen such a well-put together young woman in high school, let alone the fact that she’s only a junior and already a member–and head–of a gazillion clubs, has the “perfect” boyfriend, a best friend who’s practically awesome, and a bright future ahead of her. But things get complicated when Harper starts falling for him-and discovers that David’s own fate could very well be to destroy Earth. 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.

She becomes a Paladin, one of an ancient line of guardians with agility, super strength and lethal fighting instincts. But after a strange run-in at the dance imbues her with incredible abilities, Harper’s destiny takes a turn for the seriously weird. Harper Price, peerless Southern belle, was born ready for a Homecoming tiara.

I think it was made even better with the narrator’s lovely accent, though honestly Harper Price pretty much had me after killing a man with a stiletto. A fun romp of YA fantasy in the Southern U.

Rebel belle by rachel hawkins