Publication: May 5th 2015 by HarperTeen
Source: Purchased
Goodreads Summary: Princess Eadlyn has grown up hearing endless stories about how her mother and father met. Twenty years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won the heart of Prince Maxon—and they lived happily ever after. Eadlyn has always found their fairy-tale story romantic, but she has no interest in trying to repeat it. If it were up to her, she'd put off marriage for as long as possible.
But a princess's life is never entirely her own, and Eadlyn can't escape her very own Selection—no matter how fervently she protests.
Eadlyn doesn't expect her story to end in romance. But as the competition begins, one entry may just capture Eadlyn's heart, showing her all the possibilities that lie in front of her . . . and proving that finding her own happily ever after isn't as impossible as she's always thought.
Goodreads Page
My Thoughts:
*Will Contain Some Spoilers for the First Three. Will Also Contain a Mild Spoiler for the Ending*
I don't have too much to say about this book, mostly because not a lot happens in it. Of course, I'm going to be comparing this book to the previous three and comparing Eadlyn to America, etc. so there will be spoilers for the first three just as a forewarning. I also have reviews for the first three books up on Goodreads so if you want to read my thoughts about those, just search my profile.
First of all, I liked Eadlyn a lot more than America. I liked America in the first book but by the second book, The Elite, she got on my nerves a little because of her extreme indecisiveness and the way that she was completely ruled by her emotions. Eadlyn is a much stronger personality than America and I liked her stubbornness and her determinedness, not to mention her self-reliance and independence. But Eadlyn is also flawed which makes her more relatable I think. Although she isn’t my favorite character, I definitely liked many aspects of her personality.
I think that the plot was more realistic with the way it ran this time. I’ve only watched 2 seasons of The Bachelor/ette but I can definitely say that the way things happened in this book are the same things that would realistically happen in a Selection in our world and time period as well. I think this also was true because of the way the tables are turned and it is now guys competing against each other rather than girls. The Selection process in this one felt rawer with less everyone-gets-along like in the first three which I also felt lent it a more realistic feel. I was already pretty excited that Cass decided to flip the situation and now have guys competing for the same girl, and I can say that Cass definitely didn’t let me down in that aspect. I also liked that the Selected were all very different people. Although there isn’t much emphasis or development given to many of them, the ones that are focused on were all diverse characters. Eadlyn's varied feelings for the boys was well portrayed as well in my opinion.
There were some things that bothered me about though. I felt that it was weird that nobody ever seems to be guarding Eadlyn. You would think with the unrest going on with the country that they would have personal guards for the royal family (especially since that occurred in the first three). And especially after the first scary thing that happened to Eadlyn, you would think that America and Maxon would take more of a proactive stance on seeing to her safety when it came to the Selected. But that didn’t happen and I just felt it was odd that there was so little emphasis given to Eadlyn’s safety, especially with the different occurrences that happened. Also, why does she seem to just leave her tiaras lying around?? She complains all the time about Josie stealing them but seriously why aren't they locked up/someone guarding them? It's implied that Neena practically never leaves Eadlyn's room so just how does Josie manage to constantly sneak them out and wear them? It's just a bit annoying to me that these people are supposed to be royalty yet there seems to be no concern about keeping them/their stuff safe. Lastly, I mean how it even possible that Eadlyn knows practically nothing about America and Maxon falling in love?? Every girl knows their mother's love story. It's just how it is. And the entire time Eadlyn is discovering these things about her parents that she somehow never knew before and is "shaken" repeatedly by them. Okay, sure.
And, of course, I was pretty annoyed when I got towards the end of the book and realized that Cass wasn’t going to end Eadlyn’s Selection. When Cass first started putting out novellas, I saw quite a few protests/negative reviews saying that Cass was just trying to draw out her idea/fame/money with The Selection series. I didn’t agree with the naysayers then because there are plenty of authors who write novellas to supplement their series, regardless of their reasons for it. However, I am starting to agree with them now that Cass has not only returned to pick up The Selection series, but also because she couldn’t even finish Eadlyn’s story in one book but has instead drawn it out into two (maybe even three, I wouldn’t be surprised, but I believe it’s only two). I was really invested in Eadlyn’s Selection process, had my own top picks and my ideas of who she would go for; and honestly I felt jipped in the end when I realized there wasn’t enough pages left for Eadlyn to choose somebody. Now I’ll have to wait yet again for the next (and supposedly last) installment to the series. But, more than likely, we’ll have some novellas in the meantime of characters from Eadlyn’s Selection because that’s how Cass works I guess ;).
Likes: Eadlyn. Ahren. Organic, realistic plotline. I liked plenty of the boys and the way their diverse personalities were portrayed. Eadlyn's varied feelings towards each of them was realistic. I like that Cass decided to turn the tables and now have a "bachelorette" feel to it.
Dislikes: Nobody guards the royal family apparently. Eadlyn knows nothing about her own parents' love story. Cass couldn't even end it, she had to draw it out into two books.
Overall:
Recommend? Yes if you enjoyed the previous three or even if you're a fan of The Bachelor/ette. It has more of a fun feel to it than the first three.
Reading the Next One? *sigh* I kind of have to. I'm invested now.
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