Friday 24 May 2013

The Elite (The Selection #2) - Kiera Cass [Review]

This review contains spoilers.


The Elite by Kiera Cass

Title: The Elite
Author: Kiera Cass
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: The Selection #2
Release Date: April 23rd 2013
Pages: 323
Rating: ★★☆













Synopsis of the Book


Thirty-five girls came to the palace to compete in the Selection. All but six have been sent home. And only one will get to marry Prince Maxon and be crowned princess of Illea.
America Singer still isn’t sure where her heart lies. When she’s with Maxon, she’s swept up in their new and breathless romance, and can’t dream of being with anyone else. But whenever she sees Aspen standing guard around the palace, and is overcome with memories of the life they planned to share. With the group narrowed down to the Elite, the other girls are even more determined to win Maxon over—and time is running out for America to decide.

Just when America is sure she’s made her choice, a devastating loss makes her question everything again. And while she’s struggling to imagine her future, the violent rebels that are determined to overthrow the monarchy are growing stronger and their plans could destroy her chance at any kind of happy ending.




Review




I liked the first book of this series. The whole Bachelorette thing was new and interesting. A normal girl has to compete with 24 other girls to marry the prince, never seen that before in a book. The book had a good pace and I liked the relationship of prince Maxon and America. The whole dystopian theme in the book was not really there, but just as YA romance book it was pretty good. So I was excited to read the second book: The Elite. The cover looked amazing, so I had my hopes up.


But when I started reading the Elite, I soon discovered it was not merely as good as the Selection. 

The whole Bachelorette/competition thing was reduced to a minimum. There were a few challenges for the remaining girls, but the concept that made book 1 good was gone. 
Another thing that made me not like the book was America constantly getting mad at Maxon for spending time with other girls. She just could get her mind around it that he did that because he had to in the competition. She was constantly doubting herself and being jealous of the other girls. Her character therefore came accross as weak and insecure.

Also the 'violent' rebels that were described in the summary were non-existent. Sure there were a few 'attacks', but nothing really happened with that and they sure were not violent.

The worst was that the whole plot of the book only revolved around the love triangle of America, Aspen and Maxon. America and Maxon in the first book were cute together, but adding Aspen, her boyfriend before the Selection, in the second book did certainly not make the book better. A love triangle as such is not bad, but America became really irritating because of it. She was constantly changing her mind who she wants to be with and this most of the time without apparent reason. This becomes very annoying after the third change, make up your mind already! The character of Aspen also was not developed, to me he just remained this annoying boy who kept getting between America and Maxon.

With this book I got the feeling that if I skipped half of it I would still understand everything perfectly. The ending was pretty boring, no cliffhanger or anything and I am not sure I will read the next one. So, the first book was not good as a dystopian book and this one is not even good as a romantic one.

I would not recommend this book, the love triangle is just too annoying and all-consuming and the protagonist is unlikeable.


Stars: 2 out of 5




2 comments:

  1. I agree with you. The dystopia was weak in both books, maybe a bit better in the last one, but they were both pretty bad. I gave them both 2 * but I will read the last, cannot help it. XD
    The love triangle is the worst, I hate them in general and here it was just lame.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for this review. You confirmed all my fears. I read The Selection and had been kind of bouncing between buying it or not. Guess it's a not.

    ReplyDelete

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