Reviewed by paperbackjedi on
I enjoyed this book. I didn’t love it, but I had fun reading it. Harper is a very cool, very determined main character and she has a plan for everything… almost. Desperately trying to make up for the events of the past, she forces herself to aim for perfection in all things, from school to her romantic life to Cotillion. I liked her drive and her genuine struggle with being everything to everyone and the need to be perfect. I understood her and commiserated with her as she tried to juggle everything life threw at her without missing a beat. Sometimes she can come across as a little judgmental and superficial, which made me dislike her at different points in the novel, but overall, I could tell she really meant well. I wish she had a more thoughtful view about the world and the people around her living in it as opposed to being centered on her corner, but she was funny and hard working and had a lot of great character quirks (her penchant for not cursing being one of them). I appreciated and adored David Stark and his bafflement over Harper. I really liked how he was willing to take her for who she was and how he always worked to help and challenge her throughout the story. He was definitely a great counter balance character and I ended up falling a little in love with him because of it.
The story was engaging, I was psyched that she became a PALADIN because HOW COOL IS THAT? I played a Paladin in World of Warcraft and I hardly ever seen books about them so it was a different take on the who magical superpowers aspect and I appreciated how unique it was. I also like how, for the most part, she just went with it. At times, it did seem a little too easy for her, though, and while I think it’s awesome that she embraced her destiny, I would have liked to see her struggle with the actual physical aspects of it just a little because no one is just born a badass. I do like how she considered her future before anyone else’s when it came down to what she was going to do with her destiny; that was refreshing. There were also some very cute parts that made me smile and it was an overall lighthearted atmosphere the entire read.
The writing was very simple and sometimes it worked for me and sometimes it didn’t. It was an easy and quick read and while overall I had a good time, I was a little bored in a few places. Not with the main storyline though, with the side plots and some of the character development. Hawkins targets a general young adult audience, and sometimes it feels a little lazy with regard to dialogue and sentence structure and I even got a bit of a preachy vibe here and there which bothered me. But this could be because I’m used to reading books where the main characters feel a lot older than they are and Harper definitely feels young to me and while she’s not frivolous by any means, she is a bit short sighted in my opinion. The only characters we really spend a lot of time with are Harper, David, and Harper’s best friend Bee (who I loved so much because she seemed to really care about Harper and have a good handle on who she is and what she needs) and out of those characters, Harper was my least favorite.
It could just be that this book wasn’t really my jam because most of the people I know that have read it, loved it. All in all, I think it was good. Not great, not okay, just good. It’s light and fun and while I didn’t really adore it, I think it’s enjoyable for the most part and plan to read the rest of the series.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 25 April, 2015: Finished reading
- 25 April, 2015: Reviewed