I would like to take this time to talk about a really cool book called The Selection! So far there are two books in this series/trilogy. The first one is called the selection and the second is called The Elite (which I’m halfway through reading). The third (and probably the last) book is coming out in May 2014 and is going to be called ‘The One’!
The plot:
America is 1 of 35 selected girls from Illea (a palace set in the future). For most girls it is a great opportunity to live in a sparkly, glamorous, poofy dress world for a bit and they desperately want to get chosen. Not America. She has set out her life just the way she wants it. Shes in love with Aspen (her secret boyfriend) and is setting up for a life as a caste 6 (a caste down from the caste she was born into, a 5) for when Aspen proposes to her. But it doesn’t work out that way. Her Mum thinks it would be a great idea for her to sign up for the selection and in a moment of pride Aspen dumps America and tells her to sign up too. She ends up entering little does she know that she will actually gets picked! So she gets sent of to the castle leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. There she has to live in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks while trying to win over the heart of Prince Maxon (who she doesn’t even like!). But she makes a deal with the prince to keep her in the competition for a bit because her family needs the money (since they are in one of the lower castes) that the selected families get.
After a while of spending time with maxon she starts to like him more and more and it’s obvious he liked her from the start. You might be thinking that it’s simple! They should just get married right away! But it’s not that simple! There are guidelines of how the selection is supposed to go and America still likes Aspen and can't decide between him and Maxon. Her decision making only gets harder when near the end of the first book Aspen turns up at the palace as one of the new guards!
So most of the first and second book are just America trying to choose who she wants to spend her life with - with Aspen back in the place she knows and grew up in, with the man she's known and loved for years but being very poor or Maxon the prince, living in the grand palace being the princess and future queen ruling a country being very rich and healthy for the rest of her life but with a person she hasn’t known for that long. All the while having the palace attacked by rebels and other mini dramas going on.
Honestly in some parts it gets a bit tedious and frustrating. I just can't see why she has to spend so much time choosing who to be with. Just choose someone and be done with it! But other than that it’s a good book and I cant wait until the last one comes out!!