Book Review: The Elite

Synopsis:

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.

This book is filling the “2nd Book in a Series” Category in my Full House Reading Challenge.

If you are a fan of love triangles, this is the series for you. I am not a fan of love triangles. I still enjoy this series, but I’m losing my patience with America.

In the second book of The Selection Series, America is now part of The Elite, a chosen six that will continue in the competition to win Prince Maxon’s heart. Things get dicey as America can’t decide who she loves, Aspen or Maxon. And then of course there are the random rebel attacks (I swear, this castle has the WORST security ever, like, how are these bands of rebels always getting INSIDE the castle?)  and the injustices of the caste system, though those social issues definitely take a back seat to the romance.

This book reminds me why I hate The Bachelor. I really want to like Maxon, but then he continues to spend time flirting with and making out with the other girls, even though he’s pretty much like, I’m going to marry you America, just tell me when.

And then here comes America, trying to understand her feelings for Maxon, while having secret rendezvous with the ever boring Aspen – even after one of the girls gets  publicly beaten and cast out for having an affair with a guard (REALLY AMERICA? YOU’RE STILL GOING TO SNEAK AROUND WITH ASPEN AFTER THAT?). I still hope she ends up with Maxon in the end, since I pretty much hate Aspen, but Maxon has a whole host of other issues that he needs to clean up ASAP.

There’s some political tension near the end when America pretty much goes against the King and therefore earns herself a host of new enemies and some surprising new allies. This wasn’t very prevalent through the book, but it was there in the end. Mostly this book is about America and her inability to choose which guy she likes, so she continues to hang out with both of them. She cries a lot. She makes a disgusting amount of really stupid decisions. Oh, and we had to make sure we made the King into the big bad evil here as well. I am interested to see how the political drama moves along in the third.

This review makes it sound like I hated this book. I actually really enjoyed it. There are just definite moments that really annoyed me. I’m hoping The One is better. Don’t be fooled; The Selection series is not really Dystopia. It’s a romance with the tiniest amount of Dystopia necessary for getting it the label Dystopia.