BR: The Selection

*BR: Book Review*

Summary from Amazon:

For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon.
But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.
Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself—and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined. 

Plot: 3.5/5

Character Development: 3.5/5

Cover Art: 5/5

 This is the first book in Kiera Cass' series, titled "The Selection". The first thing that drew me in was the cover. I mean, gorgeous dress, and a redhead? Sold! But seriously though, I enjoyed reading this book and was one of the few times judging a book by its cover turned out well.

Okay, so the plot was pretty entertaining. It was basically The Bachelor in book form mixed with The Hunger Games and Matched. It is a dystopia, but it doesn't really go any farther than changing a name, adding a caste system and dividing the world up into provinces. Even though we did get to glimpse a bit of the world that Kiera Cass built, my hope for the next one is that we will get to see a little bit more of the world she created.

We have America Singer, our main character. She is probably the only character in YA fiction that I've seen flat out say "I have no interest in you and probably never will". It was nice to see that she was a real girl with a personality just like anybody else. One thing I noticed is that America is never completely described throughout the whole book, so you kind of have a chance to picture her however you want.

Then we have Prince Maxon, who is very simple and doesn't have much depth to him. I didn't like how he was so charming when he had never spent a lot of times with girls before. He portrayed a young royal very well, and like America, he seemed like a regular teenager at heart.

Something that annoyed me was Aspen. He's this dark haired handsome guy who is very argumentative and almost like a rebel. I think that there is always one of these in stories, and Aspen wasn't much different. Of course, we have out bubbly blonde, Marlee, and our evil mean girl Celeste. The characters weren't terrible, but they weren't exactly terrific either. Still, I did like reading about them.

THE COVER ART. It is beautiful and portrays the whole book perfectly. America is seeming to say "Don't look at me," but she's still risking it and peaking out over her arm. That sums up the whole book perfectly and I don't know if I've ever seen a cover that matches a book so well!

Strengths-

- Drawing out the romance slowly.  It isn't fast paced, but it isn't slow enough to make me bored, either. It wasn't like America fell in love with the guy the first second she met him. She actually starts out the story with Aspen, her boyfriend. I was glad that she started out with a love interest.

- The fact that America just wants to be friends. I cannot express how happy I am that America does not spend the whole book going "ohmygod i'm in love with him, no i'm not, yes i am". She even states that they are just friends and nothing more. This makes things so much more realistic!

- Believable characters. Each character has at least one flaw, and no one is essentially 'perfect'. I love the fact that Kiera Cass pointed out that some girls were only in it for the money or the crown. I guarantee you, if the Selection was real, I bet half the girls wouldn't care about love.

Weaknesses-

- The cliche characters. While I said that the characters are believable, some are also cliche. We have our mean girl, Celeste, our bad boy, Aspen, and our bubbly blonde best friend, Marlee. I've seen these characters a million times in books, and hopefully these characters can have some depth added to them in the second book.

- Lack of information of the world. It's a dystopia! You are literally free to make up any kind of world you can imagine. Sadly, we didn't get to learn much about the world other than a few name changes and the addition of a caste system. I was looking forward to more world-building, but sadly, it didn't happen in the first book.

Overall, I give this book a 3.5/5. I really enjoyed reading this book but I wish that we could've learned more about the world and the characters. The story was enjoyable, the people were believable, and the cover is amazing. I recommend checking this book out!

Author: Kiera Cass

Release Date: April 24, 2012

Publisher: HarperTeen, an official imprint of HarperCollins Publisher

ISBN: 978-0-06-205993