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lydadragonslayer's review
funny
hopeful
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I adore this series and I re-read it at least once a year. Definitely my comfort series.
kaysesoka's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
curls's review
I read this series years ago. It was cheesy and I devoured it. So when there was a bundle and the whole series was on sale I snapped it up.
It’s so silly but it was fun. And I love the covers. It takes me back to when I first got back into reading after college
It’s so silly but it was fun. And I love the covers. It takes me back to when I first got back into reading after college
liana_meersman's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.5
hannahavery2011's review
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
jscarpa14's review
4.0
First of all I wanted to say thank you to Ms. Cass for writing a series that made me forgo sleep just to find my way to it's end. I picked this up when I was in one of those reading slumps where you're picking up books that you know you'd normally like but can't get into them because they're not the one that encompasses the illusive book mood you're searching for that you can't quite explain. And I've been in one of those sorts of moods for weeks, then, possibly because I plan to go to a signing later this year, I decided I'd try reading this one. This series, this book was the one that fit that mood I couldn't name and that gripped me so much I read from the Queen to The One and the novellas in between in one sitting. I was so engrossed that I couldn't stop devouring the words and even sleep didn't matter. When you find a book and a series that does that for you you can't help but be grateful to the person that wrote it.
I probably should give this book a five stars but I'm pouting a bit because I want to know more of what happens in the Happily Ever After. I feel admitting that should make up for the fact that I know I'm giving it a lower rating that I probably should.
So now about the book, I'm going to say first of all that some of my opinions might be reading into things that weren't meant to be there and are more the way I interpreted the story. I'm going to give my opinion with the thought that the things I saw were meant to be seen and hope I'm not an idiot. I think this book is undersold because it's marketed sort of like a royal bachelorette reality show. Or maybe it's The Bachelor, I don't like reality tv so I don't actually know. Because of that marketing strategy it's stayed in the TBR pile longer than it should have and pretty much only ended up there because people I respected couldn't stop raving about it, so eventually I was going to see what all the fuss was about. Having read it, I know understand.
The Selection series, to me, isn't a fluffy romance story about shallow girls in gown, it's a piece with many underlying themes of great importance to the world around us. For one a big focus of the story is social castes. While the ones that exist in our world today aren't nearly as obvious or defined as the ones in this series, they idea that one person is more valuable than another based on the family they were born into or the amount of money in their bank accounts, or the career they have is in my opinion ridiculous. And the author shows this in more extreme ways during the story. A models life is not more valuable than a cashiers or vice versa. It's the person they are and the way they treat others that in my opinion create a person's value if you're going to try to put values on a life at all, as if it could be done, to say one life is more precious than another. Cass does an excellent job of demonstrating this through the group of girls she creates as characters, candidates for the selection and the social climate of the country she's created. I think it's important to note the the story is reflective of the social climate we're seeing now in some ways where the line seems to get larger between rich and poor and the opportunities offered to those born into both. For example Paris Hilton isn't famous and allowed to behave the way she does because she's made some great contribution to society, she's famous because she's the descendant of the man who founded the Hilton hotel chain. That's just one example off the top of my head. I'm not really sure I'm even explaining this right, my point being is that I could easily see comparisons between the world we live in and the one created in this fictional world even if those real life comparisons weren't nearly as drastic as the fictional ones.
Cass even creates a realistic path for how our country could go from what it is to what it becomes in her story. This world is able to become so corrupt because the national debt becomes so out of control and we borrow so much for other countries that we manage to lose our own freedom in the process. While I think something like that happening, if it does occur, will be long after my lifetime, with the economic climate over the past decade, this is something that could happen if we continue down paths where our economy is so precarious the government is bailing out banks. Maybe I'm paranoid or completely off base, but I could definitely see this happening.
She also touches on themes like women's rights in my personal opinion, when she shows a society where choice has been taken from women again and it's the guys decision about if marriage is on the table. She's created a world where guys are the ones ones fighting, and while women definitely work they don't come across to me as in anyway equal. Sure it's traditional in this society for the guy to propose, but you know what there's nothing saying the chick can't ask first or make the decision to take a relationship that way. In Cass's world that's not a decision women in it are allowed to make. This came across to me like the author was telling female readers to treasure the freedoms and equality they have and fight to keep it. Or maybe that's just my interpretation.
I'll admit I could be reading more into the story than what was intended to be there, but those are the things that really resonated with me about the story, or that I saw in the story. I also saw commentary whether intentional or not, about being aware of who we put into leadership roles and who we trust to save us should we ever need bailing out because the wrong person could honestly lead us down this or a similar path. The underlying themes in this book, these books, are what I feel really makes them shine.
That said while sending these really great messages, Cass tells this wonderful story of political intrigue, social revolution and of course the ever loved teen love triangle. Or really so much more than a love triangle, this is sort of more like one of those crisscrossed flight maps with lots of crossing lines than a triangle. Even though it's told from the first person point of view Cass does an excellent job of allowing you to really know all the characters as America comes to know them. It portrays the cattiness of a reality show while not really making any of that the focus of the story in my personal opinion. She creates a strong but realistically confused and unsure teen heroine that I think is a great role model for teen readers as well.
I really enjoyed watching the characters in this book grow, and I liked that at point she wasn't afraid to make characters unlikeable for a bit while they navigated their way through unfamiliar territories so that they could grow. At one point in the series I didn't actually like either romantic choice for America and I was kind of hoping another love interest might be introduced, but somehow as I continued reading and watched the characters grow into the people the would be she managed to convince me to root for one of these guys I was all about ditching a few chapters back.
I think my main issue with this book other than wanting more after the HEA about what happened politically and how this worked out, was that everything tied up too neatly and too quickly. Important changes near the end of the series didn't happen as direct result of choices or actions of the leading characters, but paths were cleared through outside influences. Important character deaths happened off page and we were told about them later. I'd have preferred the characters to have taken a more active stance in clearing the path they needed to take and I also feel the character losses would have felt more real, more emotional, if the reader had been able to witness them.
Anyway as convoluted as this half asleep mess is hopefully my thoughts are still understandable and hopefully they encourage you to pick up this book as I'd highly recommend it to pretty much anyone.
I probably should give this book a five stars but I'm pouting a bit because I want to know more of what happens in the Happily Ever After. I feel admitting that should make up for the fact that I know I'm giving it a lower rating that I probably should.
So now about the book, I'm going to say first of all that some of my opinions might be reading into things that weren't meant to be there and are more the way I interpreted the story. I'm going to give my opinion with the thought that the things I saw were meant to be seen and hope I'm not an idiot. I think this book is undersold because it's marketed sort of like a royal bachelorette reality show. Or maybe it's The Bachelor, I don't like reality tv so I don't actually know. Because of that marketing strategy it's stayed in the TBR pile longer than it should have and pretty much only ended up there because people I respected couldn't stop raving about it, so eventually I was going to see what all the fuss was about. Having read it, I know understand.
The Selection series, to me, isn't a fluffy romance story about shallow girls in gown, it's a piece with many underlying themes of great importance to the world around us. For one a big focus of the story is social castes. While the ones that exist in our world today aren't nearly as obvious or defined as the ones in this series, they idea that one person is more valuable than another based on the family they were born into or the amount of money in their bank accounts, or the career they have is in my opinion ridiculous. And the author shows this in more extreme ways during the story. A models life is not more valuable than a cashiers or vice versa. It's the person they are and the way they treat others that in my opinion create a person's value if you're going to try to put values on a life at all, as if it could be done, to say one life is more precious than another. Cass does an excellent job of demonstrating this through the group of girls she creates as characters, candidates for the selection and the social climate of the country she's created. I think it's important to note the the story is reflective of the social climate we're seeing now in some ways where the line seems to get larger between rich and poor and the opportunities offered to those born into both. For example Paris Hilton isn't famous and allowed to behave the way she does because she's made some great contribution to society, she's famous because she's the descendant of the man who founded the Hilton hotel chain. That's just one example off the top of my head. I'm not really sure I'm even explaining this right, my point being is that I could easily see comparisons between the world we live in and the one created in this fictional world even if those real life comparisons weren't nearly as drastic as the fictional ones.
Cass even creates a realistic path for how our country could go from what it is to what it becomes in her story. This world is able to become so corrupt because the national debt becomes so out of control and we borrow so much for other countries that we manage to lose our own freedom in the process. While I think something like that happening, if it does occur, will be long after my lifetime, with the economic climate over the past decade, this is something that could happen if we continue down paths where our economy is so precarious the government is bailing out banks. Maybe I'm paranoid or completely off base, but I could definitely see this happening.
She also touches on themes like women's rights in my personal opinion, when she shows a society where choice has been taken from women again and it's the guys decision about if marriage is on the table. She's created a world where guys are the ones ones fighting, and while women definitely work they don't come across to me as in anyway equal. Sure it's traditional in this society for the guy to propose, but you know what there's nothing saying the chick can't ask first or make the decision to take a relationship that way. In Cass's world that's not a decision women in it are allowed to make. This came across to me like the author was telling female readers to treasure the freedoms and equality they have and fight to keep it. Or maybe that's just my interpretation.
I'll admit I could be reading more into the story than what was intended to be there, but those are the things that really resonated with me about the story, or that I saw in the story. I also saw commentary whether intentional or not, about being aware of who we put into leadership roles and who we trust to save us should we ever need bailing out because the wrong person could honestly lead us down this or a similar path. The underlying themes in this book, these books, are what I feel really makes them shine.
That said while sending these really great messages, Cass tells this wonderful story of political intrigue, social revolution and of course the ever loved teen love triangle. Or really so much more than a love triangle, this is sort of more like one of those crisscrossed flight maps with lots of crossing lines than a triangle. Even though it's told from the first person point of view Cass does an excellent job of allowing you to really know all the characters as America comes to know them. It portrays the cattiness of a reality show while not really making any of that the focus of the story in my personal opinion. She creates a strong but realistically confused and unsure teen heroine that I think is a great role model for teen readers as well.
I really enjoyed watching the characters in this book grow, and I liked that at point she wasn't afraid to make characters unlikeable for a bit while they navigated their way through unfamiliar territories so that they could grow. At one point in the series I didn't actually like either romantic choice for America and I was kind of hoping another love interest might be introduced, but somehow as I continued reading and watched the characters grow into the people the would be she managed to convince me to root for one of these guys I was all about ditching a few chapters back.
I think my main issue with this book other than wanting more after the HEA about what happened politically and how this worked out, was that everything tied up too neatly and too quickly. Important changes near the end of the series didn't happen as direct result of choices or actions of the leading characters, but paths were cleared through outside influences. Important character deaths happened off page and we were told about them later. I'd have preferred the characters to have taken a more active stance in clearing the path they needed to take and I also feel the character losses would have felt more real, more emotional, if the reader had been able to witness them.
Anyway as convoluted as this half asleep mess is hopefully my thoughts are still understandable and hopefully they encourage you to pick up this book as I'd highly recommend it to pretty much anyone.
bookish_coven's review against another edition
2.0
Although, I never saw the tv show/reality Bachelor, I am familiar with the concept of it: a man has numerous gals to choose from as his future wife and in each episode he spends some time with them and if he doesn't like them in the end, he gives them a peck on the cheek along with a rose and off they go (at least that's how I think it is more or less). Well, that's how it goes on the book at least.The story
In this dystopian universe, people are assigned to a number: the higher the number the better. If you are an eight for instance, there is no way you would marry a two or even a five. In this way rich people stay rich and poor stay poor and miserable. In a way to boost the poor peoples' moral, the government (aka the king) allows a competition to take place called "The Selection". Girls from all the castes can apply but only a handful of them gets picked to come to the palace and charm the prince and earn the desirable title of being 'a One'. But things aren't of course stable with the rich and the poor (are they ever?) and a revolution is too imminent.
The characters
Meet Maxon:
(yep in my head he does look like zac efron)
he is the spoiled (?) heir to the throne and has to choose a wife through a potential pool of girls that got 'randomly' picked from all the castes (hence the hunger games reference; instead of districts we get castes).
Now meet America:
(not the country! duhhh..) she might be poor but she is fierce, independent and didn't want to apply for the selection in the first place, as she is in love with another (note here: this is not how she was perceived by me). However, she is charmed by the prince (why wouldn't she? He is the prince) and wants him (but it takes her a bit to figure it out)
Of course, there are notable characters as: America's rivals (some bitchy, some nice) and of course America's other crush, creating yet another useless triangle for readers to argue about.
The trilogy
In the first book, "The Selection" begins; we meet all the girls and get a taste of the world Siera Cass built.
In the second book, the battle for Maxon's heart continues with "the Elite";where some of the girls made it to the semifinals.
Finally, in the third book we get to see who Maxon is going to pick as his "One".
My thoughts on the book
The setting of these series isn't something extremely well written or even original. I didn't mind though as I enjoyed reading it for the most part and I really liked Maxon. My problem was with America as I found her whiny. I would have found the whole story a lot more appealing if America was a rebel trying to infiltrate the selection and win in order to kill the royals.
But oh well it was okay like that too (I guess).
The sequel and the short companion stories
With this story we also get two more books, short ones, that tell the story from America's crush point of view and another one telling the same story as the main books but from the queen's pov. I didn't really like them to be honest as they didn't add anything to the story.
There is a new book that came out called "The Heir" with the same scenario, but instead of a prince we have a princess: Maxon and America's daughter.
this is not something I'm at all interested to read.
Final notes
On a final note , I should mention the gorgeous covers these stories have. I mean look at that:
Of course it's true what they say: 'don't judge a book from its cover'; if it wasn't, then this story would have been exceptional.
spatton78's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
2kyr6's review
3/5⭐
[SPOILERS AHEAD!!]
i stopped reading on the second book. the storyline was pretty good on the first book, and i really felt like i'm living in the book. the main reason i abandoned reading this book series is because i found out that Maxon is gonna be the endgame(i searched it up). i was like hell no. i was rooting for Aspen. Aspen is so much better. Maxon had his eyes on other girls besides America(i can't remember their names but yeah),and yes its the purpose of The Selection but still, i wanted him to only have that connection with America. the other reasons i dropped this is because Maxon didn't fully trust America. there were some misunderstandings that America just kinda didn't fix or clear up so Maxon would hear her out(mostly about Celeste) but really, Maxon should have listened to her. Maxon should have believed her when she told him about what Celeste did and is doing. it was such an ick when he got mad at America when she told him that and he walked away. another ick is when he didn't fight or do anything to stop the torture of Marlee and Carter. or atleast, he should have comforted America when she was having a breakdown while it happened. he didn't even cry. he just watched. yes, i know he helped them after but still. he could have done more. Aspen on the other hand was and will always be by America's side and i wish she appreciated that more. Aspen didn't have any other girls in his mind or heart. just America. he's more the ideal boyfriend/husband. Aspen is just perfect in every way. America should have chosen him. i would choose Aspen over Maxon any day, everyday.
[SPOILERS AHEAD!!]
i stopped reading on the second book. the storyline was pretty good on the first book, and i really felt like i'm living in the book. the main reason i abandoned reading this book series is because i found out that Maxon is gonna be the endgame(i searched it up). i was like hell no. i was rooting for Aspen. Aspen is so much better. Maxon had his eyes on other girls besides America(i can't remember their names but yeah),and yes its the purpose of The Selection but still, i wanted him to only have that connection with America. the other reasons i dropped this is because Maxon didn't fully trust America. there were some misunderstandings that America just kinda didn't fix or clear up so Maxon would hear her out(mostly about Celeste) but really, Maxon should have listened to her. Maxon should have believed her when she told him about what Celeste did and is doing. it was such an ick when he got mad at America when she told him that and he walked away. another ick is when he didn't fight or do anything to stop the torture of Marlee and Carter. or atleast, he should have comforted America when she was having a breakdown while it happened. he didn't even cry. he just watched. yes, i know he helped them after but still. he could have done more. Aspen on the other hand was and will always be by America's side and i wish she appreciated that more. Aspen didn't have any other girls in his mind or heart. just America. he's more the ideal boyfriend/husband. Aspen is just perfect in every way. America should have chosen him. i would choose Aspen over Maxon any day, everyday.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Blood, Violence, and Torture
Moderate: Mass/school shootings, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Gun violence, and Confinement
Minor: Drug use, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Cursing