The One

I'd been desperate to read the concluding chapter in Keira Cass' trilogy ‘The Selection'. The dystopian story of a society where people are branded into castes or classes and forced to remain in that forever I has fallen in love with the fairy tale story of how America Singer is entered into a competition where the prize is to win the hand in marriage of Prince Maxon.

Books 1 & 2 had been largely about the growing relationship between America & Maxon, the competition and it's entrants and a little bit about the civil unrest growing in the fictional land of Illea. In the concluding book we know that Maxon must make his choice of wife and we pray his choice will be America - or do we? We still have America's childhood friend and first love Aspen in the background.

This book has so many similarities between recent young adult series it's scary. The fractured, segregated unhappy population forced to watch a public competition a la Hunger Games. The two heroes forcing us to wonder whom America will choose is very Twilight, Team Maxon v's Team Aspen mirroring Meyers books. It has all the things we loved about those books.

The final book in the series didn't waste any time in getting started, it dove straight in with no plot recaps, immediate action and it took me a chapter or too to reacquaint myself with who was whom and where we had left the action. Once if caught back up though I immediately became aware that in this book the focus would be equally on the civil unrest outside the palace as much as it would on the competition for Prince Maxon. As a result it meant we got to see a little more out with the palace walls and began to question the existing status of the country more as the book progressed.

I have a definite sense this series had run it's course, there is no way we could have got more books from the concept, there's only so many balls and functions that America could attend in pursuit of her prince and those secret trysts were getting ‘Old'. So much of this series has been about the lavish life in the palace but it was losing it's readership appeal and it's appropriate the series concluded. I also feel that that the ending of the book was lovely but I felt that Cass could have gotten another hundred pages or so from her characters. The events which shaped the books conclusion seemed to be shoehorned into a chapter, maybe 2 (they're short chapters) and I believe more drama and suspense could have been wrung from the events to give a less floaty and flimsy feel. It was all a little too quickly and neatly handled with no real grit about it.

All in all I've enjoyed my time with America and it was a great, if not original, concept. The books stand together as a great series for young girls and I'd recommend them to young adult readers who like their dystopian books with a large spoonful of sugar.

I've said the word ‘hate' a lot in the past few reviews, and I'm going to use it even more. I HATED MAXON. I really did. The last part of the ending and the final choice. The things he said were not okay. If I was in the Selection, then I would've refused to marry him. He really was a dick. He said to America that he wanted to be with her, but went with Kriss and.... I just didn't get it. I hated them for that.
The book itself was as good as the others. Up to the next few Selection books! <3

Reread: Mega goed einde van de triologie!! Er zijn zo veel momenten dat ik hoopte dat America nu eindelijk zou zeggen dat ze van Maxon hield. En we zijn ook achter zoooo veel dingen gekomen! Haar vader was een Noordelijke rebel, Kriss was ook een rebel, Lucy vind Aspen leuk etc. Ik zat soms te lezen met mijn mond open van verbazing! Ik vind het einde nog steeds heftig met de rebellen, maar ik denk dat dit wel het beste einde had kunnen zijn! Ik was eerlijk gezegd best blij dat de koning was omgekomen tijdens die rebellen aanval en vond het erg jammer dat de koningin ook vermoord was.

Maar echt een mega goed boek! Alles komt heel mooi tot een eind in dit deel

Still wanna know how this book made me cry happy tears = spbbing for nearly 30 minutes straight

Celeste is gone ugh I hated her and liked her at the same time she did not deserve getting shot in the head!!!! The King and Queen I'm not shocked the king is dead.. I wanted him long gone but the Queen WHY WHY WHYYY!!!!

OMG!!!! I absolutely loved this book. It was the best one in the whole series so far. I loved the conflict between America and Maxon. I had all kinds of emotions while reading this book. For a moment I was so scared that Maxon was going to marry Kriss instead of America. I just can't believe all the shocking things that happened. I grew to love some of the characters that I hated in the last two books, and vice versa. It was so sad that Celeste and Queen Amberly died. I was not so heart broken by the King's death because of how he treated America and the selection process as a whole. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves love stories.

Pretty much what I expected, given the first two. I liked this one more than the first two, however (I think it's mainly because Aspen was hardly in it). Was entertained by a couple plot twists, but that's basically it. Still the same maddening protagonist that we love to hate.

No, I will not be reading the fourth one. There shouldn't be a fourth one at all, in my opinion.

The politics from book 2 continues but can't rescue the book from two simultaneous love triangles. Chapter after chapter of conflict hinges on passive aggressive refusal to be the first to say “I love you.” The rebellion is fleshed out slightly more, but only enough to make you frustrated that it's not fully explained.

If you've ever wondered what The Bachelor would be like with teenagers in the future, look no further!!!

With double the love triangles of Twilight and half the plot of The Hunger games.

I hate to be harsh because I can see the promise of a good story teller, but this book just didn't follow through.

Ahhhh I'm so pleased with the ending!
I'll write a proper review tomorrow, it's currently past 1am!

Review:
I'm so happy America finally came to her senses and allowed herself to love Maxon! About time! Maxon is such a sweetheart and so kind, and she's treated him like rubbish for ages, but finally she decided to show him how much she cares about him.All the deaths killed me though... First, her father? No, not okay. Then Celeste, and Queen Amberly. The King also died, but good riddance, says I! The sentence where Celeste was killed completely took me by surprise. I had to read it fifteen times before I was able to continue reading.And I can't believe Aspen actually married Lucy (well, they were going to get married anyway)! I think I mentioned them getting married in my review of The Elite, am I a psychic yet? Haha!