The Elite

I thought that the second installment in The Selection series was more of the same. It didn't offer that much more than the first one did, except that now America wasn't just focused on her “maybe” feelings for Prince Maxon but also whether or not she would be good at leading the country.

However, I was confused because in a part of the book it seemed that American's indecisiveness, which I found extremely irritating after a while, now not only extended into her feelings for Maxon but also into her feelings about being a princess. At one point her judgement clouded her emotions so badly that she was more focused on the ruling aspect of The Selection as opposed to the being married to a prince part. It was as if all her priorities shifted and she no longer even cared about the way she felt about Maxon in the first place or what had made her stay there so long after she'd thought it would be best for her to leave.

I think in this book my opinion of America changed, from someone who took control of her own life and didn't let anyone walk over her to someone who was very indecisive and it seemed that she lost some of her backbone in this one as well.

Although we finally are introduced to a more serious and pressing issue in this book, towards the end, I felt that this wasn't really fit smoothly into the story and because of this it made it quite choppy. It went from a fairy tale type of Romance novel to a darker/abusive one. It seemed that the three books could have been compacted into two which would have made for a smoother and more intense read in the long run. The first one was fluff and the second book had much worse things happening so it felt out of balance.

I was actually kind of rooting for America to be sent home, just because she was getting on my nerves with the whole indecisiveness and stuff so when that almost happened, I was kind of excited and thought that something exciting would take place but alas, no such luck. Of course, she was asked to stay by Maxon himself and then it made her realize that she can definitely rule alongside him, especially because Maxon believes in her, even though Aspen doesn't. Aspen wasn't very prominent in this book and it seemed to me that she had already distanced herself from him at that point, which didn't sit very well with me, especially since I've always wanted her to end up with him.

I did think that it was good that America finally pissed Maxon of in one way or another because he just always seemed so overly in love with her from the beginning that he didn't find any fault in her whatsoever, although she has a lot. Finally, he realized that she was a human being with faults of her own and not just a girl he was blinded who couldn't do anything wrong.

Again, this book is for the younger generation, in my opinion, and also those people who are really into fairy tales and “happily ever after”. I myself prefer darker and more twisted plots. I might read the next book in the series but it's definitely not up there on my “to read” list whatsoever.