The Elite by Kiera Cass

I will say, I still love the covers from this series. I want to throw all of my money at this designer.

Man, I wanted so much more from this series.

Though I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, since the first book in Kiera Cass’s series, The Selection, left a lot to be desired. But I couldn’t deny that I was still interested in seeing where the story went, and hoped that maybe the writing would improve come book two. I mean, the first book was such a success, don’t you think they would have put a lot of effort in putting together a second book that delivered?

The Elite continues to follow America as she progresses in the Selection, battling between her growing affection for the Prince Maxon and her long-standing attraction toward her ex-boyfriend Aspen (who happens to now be a guard in the castle). And, as the thought of marrying Maxon becomes more and more realistic, she also must grapple with the idea of becoming princess—and isn’t convinced that she’s cut out for the job.

I wanted to stop reading about halfway through, but since it was such a quick read, I decided to finish it off. A lot of my original problems with this series still persisted in The Elite—vague writing, melodrama, and a poorly written love triangle. In fact, the writing felt even more problematic in this book, in terms of characterization. It felt like Cass was writing certain scenes to make you feel strongly toward one character (namely, Maxon and Aspen) that may not fit into their character, but served the plot to create more drama. At any point in the novel, I could tell at when I was supposed to like either of America’s boys, which is just lazy writing. Let me figure out their characters and make my own decisions—don’t make that choice for me.

And, as far as love triangles go, this one was pretty bland. The choice is between stability (Maxon, the prince who can provide status and commitment) and passion (Aspen, the lower class boy who makes America see fireworks when they kiss). From the looks of it, neither of the choices are good ones for our leading lady, and I really hoped she would end up dumping them both to run off and see the world or something. It would be a better use of her (and the reader’s) time to see her be happy and comfortable with herself.

The writing in general was still nothing to rave about, albeit fast paced. Also, the dystopia elements written in felt like an afterthought, and never enhanced my appreciation of the world building or plot. Though there is a third and final book in this series, The One, I think I’ll have to pass. This series doesn’t deserve any royal treatment from me.

The Selection by Kiera Cass

It’s like the Hunger Games but with princesses. Make of that what you will.

I will admit: this was pretty much 100% me judging a book by its cover.

Can you blame me, though? Every time I walked into a Barnes and Noble, there would be stacks upon stacks of these books on display, with a fashionable young lady giving me an alluring stare that practically cooed, “Pick me up. Read me. You know you want to.” So, I want to start by giving props to the cover artist and designer for piquing my attention. A job well done, pip pip cheerio.

Now, the book itself is about, as the title suggests, the Selection, a process in which 35 girls from around the caste-divided country are selected to compete for the heart of the Prince Maxon, who is looking for a wife. Hmmm…35 girls living in the same palace, trying to win over one prince, simultaneously dating him collectively for months. What could possibly go wrong here?

Our leading lady, America Singer, is from one of the lower castes, and has a secret boyfriend, Aspen, who breaks up with her at the beginning of the story despite them talking about running away to get married. When she becomes one of the Selected, she is whisked away to a world of luxury and excess she had hardly ever dreamed of—though she remains in love with her ex and spends a lot of her time trying to get over her heartbreak. With no intention of winning over Maxon, she ends up becoming his favorite of the bunch anyway, and she slowly finds herself falling for him, as well.

What’s that? Is that the horrible screeching of a love triangle I hear in the distance? Why, yes. Yes it is. And with that…gag me.

While I wasn’t too thrilled with the love triangle aspect of the story (love triangles are a destructive troupe that, sadly, YA lit is overflowing with), I was pleasantly surprised at how tame the girls in the story were. I was expecting there to be a lot more cat-fighting and general girl-on-girl hate, à la bad reality TV dating shows. However, much of the novel focused on the girls bonding and supporting each other, even if they were in “competition” with each other. It was refreshing to see girls empowering other girls, rather than tearing them down.

In terms of writing, the style wasn’t anything to rave about, but it fit its genre nicely and had a quick pace—which is awesome for slow readers like me. America herself felt like a borderline Mary Sue stock character, but that’s also a usual byproduct of love triangles in general. Cass clearly tried to insert as much world-building as possible to make fit the dystopian trend (see: a caste system, rebels infiltrating the castle, an unclear history of the founding of the country), though it never held my attention in any way. I wanted to get back to the awkward courting, dangit!

This is the first volume in a series of three, and while I wasn’t in love with this book, it was still some great escape reading, and I find myself wanting to know what happens next (despite my better judgement). Because, really, did you expect me to not like a book about princesses? Even with a love triangle? Come on, it’s like you don’t even know me…