Review Detail

Harper Price wants it all and works for it. She’s the school president, favorite for homecoming queen, girlfriend of a great boy, and about to have her cotillion. Then a strange encounter in the bathroom at homecoming leaves her changed. She becomes a Paladin, a guardian destined to protect. Her charge: David Stark, a boy Harper can’t stand and the feeling’s pretty mutual. Harper must accept who she’s become as she learns more about the Paladins, their purpose, and why David’s so important to the future.

This book was really cute. It had a lot of great banter and witty comments that made for some very quotable lines. There were plenty of laugh out loud moments in between the action.

Harper, for the most part I enjoyed her as a character. The fake swearing annoyed me a bit but I got used to it after a while. This was a girl who got thrown into a role she never wanted but once she accepted it, she was determined to excel. At first she seemed to have everything together, a highly organized, slightly obsessive with perfect girl, but the deeper the plot went, the more we saw Harper’s flaws and her reasons for needing to be perfect.

There was a bit of a love triangle with Harper’s current boyfriend Ryan and protectee David. Both were boys I liked. I felt so sorry for Ryan a lot of the time because Harper was always so distracted by other things and he was just so sweet and patient with her and at times it felt like the only reason she was dating him was because ‘boyfriend’ was on her perfect checklist. David was the complete opposite. He and Harper had been enemies since kindergarten and it was obvious in their actions toward each other. It was fun to see them actually get to know each other and the cutting remarks turn flirty. Every time David called Harper ‘Pres’ I couldn’t help smiling.

The plot was pretty straightforward with some twist near the end. Some things were predictable but some did catch me by surprise and left me wondering how it’ll turn out in the next book. I loved the friendships, especially between the girls, and the gender reversal role of the girl being the warrior and the boy being the one needing protection. Harper was no damsel in distress. The fast pacing made for a quick read and a book that would be good for someone looking for a paranormal summer read.