This is a spoiler filled book review. Please be aware that if you keep reading there will be information that you may not want to know if you have not read the book.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 5 Stars
Quotes to Remember:
“Love is beautiful fear”
“You know that you’ve found something amazing, and you want to hold on to it forever; and every second after you have it, you fear the moment you might lose it.”
“It wasn’t like I made his world better. It was like I was his world. It wasn’t some explosion; it wasn’t fireworks. It was a fire, burning slowly from the inside out.”
“I'd spare your tears for the rest of your life if I could.”
*This is your final spoiler warning*
*Continue with Caution*
My Review:
So obviously I didn't like this one quite as much as I liked the Selection. Without going into too much detail my least favorite trope is a love triangle and this book had a big one. I'm just going to put it right out there. I dislike Aspen with a burning fiery passion. I don't think that he deserves America and I think that the way he treated her in The Selection should have immediately told her that she shouldn't even give him the time of day. I understand going through a break up like that is extremely tough and I don't think that it would have been fair to her emotional story arc for her to immediately go to Maxon because that isn't how life/love works.
I still love Maxon with all of my heart, and usually America too, but the love triangle was a bit much for me in this one. I think she needs to realize that just because he has a new profession and is in a higher caste doesn't mean he is a different person. He is still the same guy who broke up with her because she made *slightly* more money than him and he didn't feel like a real man.
Now onto how Maxon treats her. He treats her with the utmost respect. I mean obviously he is still dating other girls (that's kind of the point of the selection) but he treats her like she is the only one in the world that matters and you can tell that while the end goal is a romantic relationship, they are developing a friendship first and I think that's what a relationship should be.
I will say that I appreciated that things are about more than just this romance. There is a whole political sub plot and I think that it really helped me keep invested. I also really enjoyed getting to see people from other countries and I was living for the Italians. Loved them.
All in all though, it was extremely predictable and just seemed to go on and on when I really didn't care. You could put the important parts of this book into a novella and get just as much out of it.
Publisher's Description:
The Selection began with thirty-five girls.
Now with the group narrowed down to the six Elite, the competition to win Prince Maxon's heart is fiercer than ever—and America is still struggling to decide where her heart truly lies. Is it with Maxon, who could make her life a fairy tale? Or with her first love, Aspen?
America is desperate for more time. But the rest of the Elite know exactly what they want—and America's chance to choose is about to slip away.
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