The Crown (The Selection)

The Crown (The Selection) - Kiera Cass My rating is in between four and five stars, but that is not a choice on Goodreads.

This is by far the best book in the selection series (even if the cover is the ugliest.) Eadlyn may have been more unpleasant than America at the beginning of the series, but unlike America, Eadlyn actually had character growth. She eventually became someone who I can actually care about, which is a first for Kiera Cass’s main characters. I did actually care about most of the main love interests as well. I was very happy for the way that the love story worked itself out in the end. (and with the guy I most wanted Eadlyn to be with. I was worried about how that would happen without hurting my second choice, Henri, but it worked out wonderfully.) Well almost wonderfully. I got the impression in the first three books that Maxon's selection lasted for almost a year (at least,) whereas Eadlyn's only lasted four months and, forgive me, but is that really enough time to be in love? Especially is Eikko wasn't someone she considered until toward the end? I can't really think of a way the plot could have been filled out or extended enough to show us a little bit more clearly that Eadlyn and Eikko were in love and not just infatuated, but it would have been nice if we'd been convinced of that before the end. Don't get me wrong, in the last book I thought that they had the kind of relationship that could very easily develop into love, but it hadn't quite gotten there at the end of this book. I felt that other parts of the end could have been a bit smoother. I am still somewhat confused by the shift of the Illéa family into antagonists. I mean, I understand if a family has one rotten egg, but it was implied that the entire family had been trying to grab the throne for years, which is not what was implied in the other books of the series.

Admittedly I did think that the implementation of a democracy was a cliché. It’s not the first time I’ve seen authors do that. I’m not saying that I’d want to live under a monarchy (and Illéa’s was practically a dictatorship,) but because I’ve seen that storyline before, I almost thought that it seemed like a copout. Almost, but not quite. It really illustrated Eadlyn’s character growth, that she was able to give up her power, which at the beginning of her series, was what she cared about most. It was also a quick and effective way to fix all of the problems she and her country had been suffering from, so though it was almost a copout, the fact that it really did work out with the storyline makes me not mind at all.

My other complaint was that the book wrapped up way too fast. After learning about Lady Brice, and Eadlyn getting engaged, I really, really wanted to see a little bit longer into her life after. I also felt sort of cheated because I had been looking at the book in the bookstore and I thought I saw something talking about Eadlyn and her husband’s children, but if I did see that, it must have been in a bonus scene that was not included in the audiobook. Maybe I can read it some other time.