The Selection by Keira Cass

The Selection

(The Selection series book #1)

by Kiera Cass

PBT Review #39

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I’ve had my eye on these books for years and now I’m wondering what took me so long to finally buy the first book! I thoroughly enjoy reading this and immediately went and bought the second book in the series once I finished this one. 

As I have heard many different things about this series, I am glad I went into this book with an open mind and wasn’t swayed by the things other reviewers were saying. I like to form my own opinion about books and this one was definitely a great read in my opinion. 

Now on to the actual reviewing part!

 From the very first page I was completely captivated by the structure of Illéa, how the society was set up, and how these two functioned together. These things is what kept me reading the book. I didn’t even pay attention to the love/romance part of the book (for the most part) until the end.

The Selection itself is a very interesting process and I really enjoyed reading about that part of it. The only downside about it, is I feel that Prince Mason has is mind made up who he was choosing from the very beginning and none of the other girls really had a chance. 

For most of the book, America downplays her relationship with Prince Mason and convinces herself that they are just friends, which is fine but I was desperate for it to bloom into something more. And it didn’t help that you could always tell that Prince Mason was genuinely interested in her. 

I dont know why, but one of my favorites parts of the book was when all the girls got a mini history lesson about Illéa. It was so interesting to learn how the country came to be forming from what is now the USA.

The most shocking part of the book was when Prince Mason cuts the selected girl from 19 all the way down to 6. It was a very abrupt decision, but I completely understood why he chose to do that. I was not expecting that at all though! Cutting the girls down to 6 jumps them all straight to The Elite hence the name of the next novel.

Towards the end of the book I started to get more interested in the romance of the novel and I was so happy when America finally made a decision as far as her love interests that I completely and totally agree with.

For the couple of chapters before this decision, I was extremely disappointed in America and couldn’t believe the decisions she was making and everything she was risking! But she made the right decision in the end (in my opinion at least). I’m just hoping the things she did doesn’t come back to haunt her in any of the later books.

Before (and during) reading this book, I heard many different things about this series. To me, it seemed there was no gray area. Either you loved the series or you hated it and there was no in between. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I cannot wait to read the next installment, which I bought as soon as I finished this book!

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I know there are so many mixed feelings about this series, so I won’t ask anything too opinionated. 

All I want to know is this: is Happily Ever After a compilation of all the novellas and should I read the novellas for this series?

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