Review: The Selection

The Selection (The Selection #1)

by Kiera Cass 

 BLURB:

For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in the palace and compete for the heart of the gorgeous Prince Maxon. 

But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself- and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.


Source: Edelweiss (Thank You HarperCollins! )


My Thoughts:


Warning:This review is going to be long :)


First the concept:


I've seen one or two episodes of The Bachelor and I always thought the idea to be preposterous. A girl would have to be VERY desperate to actually want to compete against other women for a guy,I might have found it believable if the guy was SWOONWORTHY and really HOT and if all the females that were competing for him were average or ugly but all of the contestants have mostly been really gorgeous and can easily manage to snap any guy they want.


So,I always thought that they were all doing it for fame or money.


Even though in this The Selection (that's what they call the lottery/contest) is very similar to the concept in The Bachelor, I found it to be much more realistic and believable than the show.WHY?


Firstly,because the guy's a Prince( of course people would fight to marry one !)

Secondly,there was money involved and everyone who was poor applied for the contest because of the money( They were pretty upfront about it )

Thirdly,people were willing to compete because of the power and status they would get if they won .You became famous as soon as you got selected.Not TV famous but the whole-world-thinks-you're-super-stars -or-royal-family-famous.So I wasn't really appalled by the fact that SO MANY people applied for a chance to be on The Selection.

Now let's talk Characters:

America Singer's reasons for applying for the Selection were realistic .She's POOR! One thing I really liked about her was the fact that she didn't want to let  fame change her.Also,I loved how upfront she was with Maxton(a.k.a The Bachelor).When she met him for the first time..Best line:

"I'm here for the food."

I liked her for almost 90% of the book.In the last 10% she was starting to show signs of becoming another  Bella Swan  irritating female.

[I'm not sure! I like you Guy A but I now have feelings for.... You know what I'm getting at ]

I liked the scenes in which she was alone with Aspen[HOTNESS] and I liked her conversations with Max and really enjoyed the time she spent with him.She opened Maxton's eyes to a whole new world.

I DID NOT LIKE the scenes in which both the guys were in the same setting/place  because the love triangle seemed forced to me.[AM I MAKING SENSE? trying not to give away spoilers.]

I'm crossing my fingers that the love triangle doesn't ruin the next book in the series.

Also the ending of this one was pretty abrupt

Overall,I really enjoyed this novel ,It's not a light read but I had fun reading it.I can find quite a few faults in this book but I rate books on the basis of how much I enjoyed them and not on literary excellence.

This book is not for everyone though.

Note:I have absolutely NO IDEA why they have compared this to The Hunger Games.This book is nothing like it and frankly if I would have picked this book up expecting it to be like The Hunger Games I would have been very disappointed!

My Rating:

4/5

Enjoyed !