Lady Renegades (Rebel Belle #3)

Another series finished! Reading Lady Renegades was a blast! I remembered my love for Rachel Hawkins words! This lady knows how to do snark very well indeed! While the book isnt packed with laughs, theres a lot of serious things happening, there is still a decent amount of light-hearted moments that were truly funny indeed!

David has left town in order to protect Harper. His Oracle powers are getting stronger and he doesnt want to endanger Harper by having to let her protect him from all the dangers in the world and bad guys that are after him. Harper has been feeling pretty sore about David leaving. She misses him. Then suddenly one summer evening, she is attacked by another Paladin who claims she will kill Harper in order to protect the Oracle. Which obviously, Harper has no intentions of hurting David even if she knew where he was.

Its when battling this new Paladin that Harpers powers go haywire and fail her in a crucial moment. If it werent for Bees intervention, she might have been killed indeed! Then Blythe rolls back into town and its the last thing Harper and Bee need, but she claims that she wants to find David and help him out, shes on her own path of redemption for all the chaos she previously caused. And since Harper and Bee want to find David, they decide to take the road trip with Blythe to do just that!

While a fairly short read at just over 250 pages, Lady Renegades was still a delightful, action packed, suspenseful kind of read! I was eating up the pages eager to find out what would happen and if Harper and David would be reunited. For as the girls continue to look for different clues on how to help David and find him as well, the growing realization that Harper may have to kill the boy she loves is starting to dawn on them.

Since I cant really remember the first two books well, I cant say if having brief moments of Davids point of view in this one was new or not! Needless to say, we get to see what David is up to every now and then. Its sort of heartbreaking too. He never asked for these powers that he suddenly has and theyre just too much for him to handle. And since hes not sure who he can trust anymore, hes sort of flounderingand somehow making more Paladins!

The plot was a tad simplistic too. Not that thats a bad thing or anything. Just saying. The road trip is about finding David and ways of helping him. Naturally encounters with these other Paladins delays the girls on their journey. But it does make for intense altercations!

Sadly, since Harper and David are separated for the majority of this book, theres not a lot of romance in this one. Which is kind of heartbreaking after hearing both David and Harpers thoughts of one another. Though theres a sort of nice moment towards the end, but the sort of is key there. I wont get into further details though.

But oddly enough, the lack of romance didnt bother me so much. There was a great bonding time happening with Harper, Bee, and even Blythe. I cant really remember why I was supposed to be hating hermemory problems againbut I must say I really liked her path of redemption she had going on. Sure, she still had a few Blythe moments, but by the end I can honestly say I didnt hate her anymore! Lol!

The ending! Wow, that ending! This is definitely an ending that will take you by surprise! I dont think Rachel couldve done it any better! It was positively the perfect kind of ending for a series finale. While a part of me still has a sore heart over it, I know its for the best!

Theres a reason why I love Rachels books so much, they are truly works of art! They are filled with incredible heroines, a healthy dose of humor, great friendships, overcoming all odds of impossibilities and just overall incredible amazing storytelling skills! I cannot wait to see what she cooks up next!

Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars

It was alright. I still believe that the first novel was the best in the series, and it all sort of went downhill after Rebel Belle.

This novel had a more depressing tone, which is always a disappointing way to end a series. Harper struggles with her own issues and that does lead to some nice character development for her. Though, there was sadly a lack of friendship between the characters. It was there in the first two books, so the characters felt distant here. The novel also had a major lack of comedic moments and witty banter – two things that made me adore the first novel in the series.

Overall, the story felt very predictable, but was still sweet. I rooted for Harper until the end.

You ever get that warm fuzzy feeling during endings, because they wind up tying up so nice and neat? That’s exactly how I feel. What I’m trying to say is, this book ended just the way I expected it to end. Now I know some may say that’s boring, but for me it kind of reaffirmed everything I was feeling about the series and how the book was progressing. It made me feel nostalgic because I used to feel like that all of the time when I read Harry Potter books. It was awesome to relive some of that nostalgia.

This book truly showed me that this trilogy can be compared to the iconic 90’s occult show Buffy The Vampire Slayer, which I might add is my favorite show of the 90’s, and practically the best show ever. But I digress.

Harper Price is the kind of girl you would love to hate and hate to love in real life. She’s perfect. She’s deeply invested in school and all social functions: SGA President, head of the debate team, helps run the school Newspaper, Chearleading Captain, etc. Oh, let’s not forget that’s she’s totally beautiful too.

Even with all of that going on, she juggles it with her new found supernatural role in society, that of a Paladin; a super strong and fast fighter that is supposed to protect the Oracle. The Oracle happens to be David, who’s also her boyfriend. And to round out the team is Ryan, who’s the groups Mage, and Harper’s recent ex (before Harper met David), and last but not least, Bee, another Paladin (compliments of David’s out of control Oracle powers, since there was only supposed to be one paladin), who is now Ryan’s current girlfriend. And oh, she’s also best friend’s with Harper. Sound like your local soap opera? Not surprised. It gets juicy!

In this book, David’s Oracle powers are out of control after the events of book two. Blythe, the last member of the team, played for the other side in book’s one and two. She helped Alexander and the Ephors turn David into a super-powered Oracle. You see, David is the second male ever to be an Oracle. The last one that went by the name Alaric, killed all the Paladins in his time, (after he created so many), and he even blew up his hometown.

Blythe wants to right the wrongs she has made, and teams up with Harper, Ryan, and Bee in order to bring David back from his journey to destroy everything. Our trio at first doesn’t want her help, with good reason. She did kidnap Bee and tried to kill Harper— I’ll say, oh, 2.5 seconds ago, so I definitely don’t blame their hesitancy.

Throughout the book, David inadvertently creates Paladins and his evil Oracle side begins sending them after Harper to kill her. You see, David isn’t all bad. Somewhere deep inside him is still the same, geeky, fashion road-kill boy, the one who calls Harper “Pres”, (short for President, a play on her title as SGA President), who Harper still knows and loves. Harper battles with the images of the two David’s in her mind and we see that inner turmoil throughout the book.

Harper, Bee, and Blythe go out in search for a spell that Blythe thinks she can use on David to get his Oracle powers under control. They run into many road bumps, and there is one particular reveal about David’s parentage that definitely had my mouth drop open. There’s plenty of action and I felt the story was very fast paced. There was never a dull moment.

Hawkins has a way of writing that just flows well. There are never any awkward, long, or super dry moments. The dialogue is witty, the action puts you on the edge of your seat, and the plot twists are exciting.

I love the characters in this trilogy, particularly in Lady Renegades. It was beautiful to see Harper and Blythe team up together despite their past. They are both fierce women, and it was nice to see some vulnerability in Blythe at the end.

The end. What can I say about it? It’s really bittersweet. It was predictable which made me give this book 4 stars instead of 5. While I’m happy with the choice Hawkins made, I wish she could have thrown in some kind of a curveball at the end to end on a spicy note. Or at least she could have written an epilogue, like a one year later kind of thing. Nevertheless, this book and trilogy has everything a young adult would love to read about. It’s relatable because it takes place in the real world. School elements will resonate with young adults, and it adds the splash of the supernatural. It really is a lot like Buffy.

Lady Renegades and the Rebel Belle trilogy exude southern culture, and it’s full of humor, light romance, action-packed fight scenes, and is a fast-paced read. Now that all three books are out I suggest you go out and buy them. You can easily finish each one in a day or less. If you love Buffy, love when real life clashes with the supernatural, you will love this trilogy.

O livro foi bem mais curto do que seus antecessores e o enredo no foi to bom quanto os outros, a autora comeou a trilogia com tudo, mas no soube explorar bem seu potencial.

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