Thirty-five beautiful girls. Thirty-five beautiful rivals… It’s the chance of a lifetime and 17-year-old America Singer should feel lucky. She has been chosen for The Selection, a reality TV lottery in which the special few compete for gorgeous Prince Maxon's love.
Swept up in a world of elaborate gowns, glittering jewels and decadent feasts, America is living a new and glamorous life. And the prince takes a special interest in her, much to the outrage of the others.
Rivalry within The Selection is fierce and not all of the girls are prepared to play by the rules. But what they don’t know is that America has a secret — one which could throw the whole competition… and change her life forever.
You know, despite the fact that there are a load of negative reviews and a lot of drama-lama about the author herself, I actually really enjoyed this book, no I didn't love it but yes there was a lot of enjoyment and it will be getting a pretty high rating.
I am not going to lie, I am the type of person to judge a book by it's cover and the cover of this book is just gorgeous to the billionth degree, seriously! The dress, the font, the colours - I just love the icy blue and then the girly pink, it is so stunning that this may well be one of my favorite covers of the year so far.
Now onto the actual book. I was sucked in from the first page and I was held in until the very last page. I loved the storyline despite the fact that i was sceptical at the start, I mean the whole The Bachelor meets The Hunger Games thing seemed intriguing but I wasn't putting much hope into it, I thought it would just be a book based around a group of catty girls and whilst there was a bit of that in there there was also politics and romance, I was really interested in what was going to happen, was America going to go home? Would Aspen get in touch? Would America fall for Maxon?
Yes... I think i may have found a love triangle that I actually like! I know, shocker.... love triangles are just not something I like in a book but it was done well in this one. There is no insta-love, America has known Aspen for years and the relationship with Maxon builds up slowly. I didn't like America's indecisiveness at the end and I think I know who she'll pick in the end. Nonetheless, at the moment I am Team Aspen but I know that it won't take much to sway me to Team Maxon, because I only like Aspen marginally more than Maxon.
America as a character wasn't fantastic. She was far too wishy-washy and weak and indecisive, I think that there were scenes where she could have been portrayed as stronger but Cass misses the chance. I liked that she was a friend to the weaker girls in the contest and that she looked after her maids and that she'd been through hardships but i'm not sure that I really liked her.
There was one thing that was seriously lacking for me in this book: believable world building. We know how the world works and how the caste system works and we're even given an explanation for how things got that way but I didn't find it all that believable so amybe the next few books need to work on that.
Overall, a good read with a great plot that kept me reading and an interesting love triangle. I didn't really like the main character and the world building was lacking. Nonetheless, I was interested until the very last page and am excited to read the sequel so for that reason this book gets...
Overall Rating: B-
Book released June 7th by Harpercollins Children's Books (UK)
Book received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review... thanks!
No comments
Tell me your thoughts on the post, the book, the world. I like volcanoes, feel free to tell me about volcanoes.