Rating: ★★★★ 3/4 stars
Warning, spoilers ahead!
Ahh...The Selection, or that book series that I have dubbed "the best series for getting out of a reading slump". Despite the fact that I first read and loved this book over ten years ago, this series is still to this day one of my favorite series of all time. Light, fluffy and romantic. What more could a girl want?
This first book starts off with a banger, and introduces the reader to the concept of The Selection, a Bachelor-esque dating competition, where 35 girls fight it out to become the next queen of Illea, the new America.
To start off, America is such a great protagonist, with Kiera Cass really making her a good balance between feisty and lovable in this first book. A friendship with Maxon that begins with her kicking his leg ends with the possibility of more. A wonderful sorta-enemies to lovers that I love to see. You can really just feel the romantic tension bubbling.
Further, the world-building, albeit made easier to understand for the YA genre is still intriguing. I liked reading the snippets of information the reader is given of how the United States progressed to become Illea. The castes, as well as the way history has been obviously manipulated for the citizens are both genuinely scary in the sense that I could actually see it happening in real life. However despite the somewhat dark undertones of this book, Kiera Cass keeps this book lighthearted which to me is a great balance.
And although this book is filled to the brim with different types of YA tropes, including the mean-girl trope in the form of Celeste, this book definitely did not tire me out from them. And oh Marlee, the sweetest girl in the selection, really reminded me of Stevie-Rae from the House of Night series. If I wasn't rooting for America to win the Selection I would definitely be rooting for her to become queen. And although I already know what happens in this series, I'm still feeling the pull to keep reading.
And oh boy, the love triangle between America, Aspen and Maxon is just so well excecuted (at least in this first book). You can really feel the struggle America has to go through in her journey through the Selection. Both boys feel like genuine contendors for America's heart, and it's honestly hard to say which one a reader will be rooting for (I was always rooting for Maxon, personally). And the plot twist with Aspen coming to the castle still had me shook-eth (again, despite me knowing it was coming).
To conclude, the Selection is the perfect way to kick off this both deep and lighthearted story. And yes, I know this isn't world-class literature, I still to this day love and adore this series, especially this first book.
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