Goodreads synopsis: Princess Eadlyn has grown up hearing endless stories about how her mother and father met. Twenty years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won the heart of Prince Maxon—and they lived happily ever after. Eadlyn has always found their fairy-tale story romantic, but she has no interest in trying to repeat it. If it were up to her, she'd put off marriage for as long as possible.
But a princess's life is never entirely her own, and Eadlyn can't escape her very own Selection—no matter how fervently she protests.
Eadlyn doesn't expect her story to end in romance. But as the competition begins, one entry may just capture Eadlyn's heart, showing her all the possibilities that lie in front of her . . . and proving that finding her own happily ever after isn't as impossible as she's always thought.
My rating: 3 stars.
Content warnings: PG. Some kissing, mild brief violence.
(Spoilers for The Heir)
Content warnings: PG. Some kissing, mild brief violence.
(Spoilers for The Heir)
Thoughts: I wasn't expecting much from this really. I couldn't remember much about the first three books, so I had no frame of reference for if they were in any way decent or not. I picked it up in a last minute library run cause I felt like getting something. But really, it could have been worse.
It's a weird series of books though, I remember that now. The world is actually pretty interesting and I'd love to see more of it. But the focus is obviously the Bachelor-style competition thing and that takes way too much attention away from the really interesting political scheme of the world building. It's almost like the books don't exactly know what they're trying to be, and that's kinda sad.
That being said, if the competition is going to be the focus of the books, I do wish it wasn't painfully obvious from chapter 2 who she's going to end up with. Not like that's even official by the end of this book, but I will be very very surprised if it's not Hunk Man #1. (And books pretty much never surprise me like that.)
Like I mentioned with the world, there are some things about the book that are super interesting. And I actually appreciated some of the not quite happily ever after plot points left from the previous three books. Especially with the breaking down of the caste system. Do I think this could have led to an even more interesting breakdown of political ideas, and showing how media can be used to distract us from real issues? Definitely. Is there still time for this to happen in the last book? Yeah, probably. Do I actually think it's going to go there? Not really. Which is unfortunate. But for people like me who read into things, it's at least thought provoking, even though I very much think it could have been done better.
It's not something super new or interesting by any means, but it's not bad either. It's like watching an hour of crappy reality television once in a while. Not the worst thing you could do, kinda relaxing in its stupidity, and definitely not something that's worth being the only thing watched.
It's a weird series of books though, I remember that now. The world is actually pretty interesting and I'd love to see more of it. But the focus is obviously the Bachelor-style competition thing and that takes way too much attention away from the really interesting political scheme of the world building. It's almost like the books don't exactly know what they're trying to be, and that's kinda sad.
That being said, if the competition is going to be the focus of the books, I do wish it wasn't painfully obvious from chapter 2 who she's going to end up with. Not like that's even official by the end of this book, but I will be very very surprised if it's not Hunk Man #1. (And books pretty much never surprise me like that.)
Like I mentioned with the world, there are some things about the book that are super interesting. And I actually appreciated some of the not quite happily ever after plot points left from the previous three books. Especially with the breaking down of the caste system. Do I think this could have led to an even more interesting breakdown of political ideas, and showing how media can be used to distract us from real issues? Definitely. Is there still time for this to happen in the last book? Yeah, probably. Do I actually think it's going to go there? Not really. Which is unfortunate. But for people like me who read into things, it's at least thought provoking, even though I very much think it could have been done better.
It's not something super new or interesting by any means, but it's not bad either. It's like watching an hour of crappy reality television once in a while. Not the worst thing you could do, kinda relaxing in its stupidity, and definitely not something that's worth being the only thing watched.
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