I just do not understand what America sees in Aspen, and if you need to know, yes, Maxon, became one of my new book boyfriends by the end. And it’s not even because I’m sick of the love triangle trope- frankly, it was the flashback to The Hunger Games/ Twilight era trope I needed and haven’t read in a while. I enjoyed reading the book from her perspective, but her love triangle absolutely has to go. Is America my all-time favorite protagonist? Absolutely not. The Bachelor comparisons definitely hold true. I also loved the drama (while also of course hating Celeste) and all the royalness – seriously, give me descriptions of the palace’s gardens and pastries all day. I’ll honestly mention The Hunger Games a few times in this post, but the interviews with The Selected reminded me both of Caesar Flickerman & THG and Chris Harrison & The Bachelor. It was a complex enough world to explore without being difficult to understand how the country came to be – it was both interesting and scary to read how the U.S. I ordered The Elite and The One before I even finished the first book. I now completely understand what all the hype is, as I could not seem to put this book down at all. Yes, I definitely have more reading time because I’m not at school and not hanging out with friends, but I still managed to read this one in less than two days while working on two final presentations and projects. I still can’t get over the fact that I didn’t read The Selection until 2020 because I was absolutely obsessed.

The Selection is YA dystopian meets The Bachelor, as the main character, America, competes with 34 other young women to be the Crown Prince’s heart. Blame it on my newfound interest in The Bachelor and in Kiera Cass’s 2020 release, The Betrothed, (not to mention my need for binge-readable books right now) for finally picking up this YA classic. I would also like to again note that I purchased The Selection the night BEFORE the Netflix film adaptation was announced – because yes, while this book came out in 2012, I need to claim some sort of book hipster status.

In The Selection’s case, this read has been 8 years in the making. I noted in my April Book Haul that one of my many reading moods right now- they honestly alternate on a daily basis – is catching up on YA series I’ve ignored reading over the past few years.

The one selection book