Review: The Selection by Kiera Cass

The Premise: The story takes place in a dystopic world where everyone is categorized by numbers due to their family ancestry and job. America Singer, the protagonist is a Five in this world. She lives with her family and is secretly dating a neighborhood boy, Aspen who is a six. She loves him very much but he has so much pride and wishes a better life for her. There is an event called The Selection, which is a process that will help the Prince, Maxon find his future wife. 35 girls are selected and he gets to know them and from there selects his future wife. Aspen encourages America to enter for the sake of it and she actually makes it to be one of the girls. There in the castle, America must navigate the difficulties of royal life, deal with the other thirty four girls competing for Maxon and ultimately her feelings between the two boys.

My overall thoughts and review: I've had this series sitting on my shelf for quite some time now, and I thought I might as well read it since the final book already came out. I was told that it was a very addictive series and it was sort of The Bachelor meets a dystopic world. I will admit, I have indulged in a couple seasons of The Bachelor/The Bachelorette from time to time. It is complete fluff but incredibly addicting. That is what this book was. I finished it in one sitting (in fact, I finished the second one immediately after that too!). I really enjoyed America at the beginning and admired her for sticking true to her character and not just conforming to her surroundings, but at times, she was incredibly frustrating. She was incredibly indecisive between the two love interests and acts that were supposed to be perceived as endearing were seen as selfish, especially when it came to her family and friends. She was really topsy-turvy with what she wanted and at moments I just wanted to reach into the book and shake her! I really liked the character of Maxon and I thought he was incredibly lovely, but also mysterious, so it is an interesting set-up for how the rest of the series will go on. Overall, I liked it, but I didn't love it. I do recommend it if the premise sounds like something you would read. I will however say, the world, the dystopic world is fascinating and it is a shame it is lost and muddled in the love triangle throughout the book.

Rating of the book: 3/5 stars.