The Elite (The Selection, 2)

7,5⭐️

Bad, selfish protagonist and I am rooting for Kriss. This lying brat equates responsibility with fear and weakness. I enjoy reading it though because it makes me feel better about myself thinking people like America exist. I also like the princess setting.

The Elite by Kiera Cass, the second installment in The Selection Series, took the story to a whole new level.

Middle books are usually a small bit of advancement with a large helping of filler. I'm happy to say that The Elite balanced the two, giving the reader new excitement to go with the left overs from The Selection.

The Elite begins to show the bigger picture surrounding the girls and Maxon. There's still the usual bickering and indecisiveness but this is definitely an improvement to the series.

Warning: Spoilers!

So let's talk about this dress. I had to bring up the last one too. This is apparently a huge thing for YA book covers. Prom dresses. It's good marketing of course. However, why this dress? It's looks like the shingles off of someone's roof. I like the last one better. Perhaps the third will be white (◕‿↼) ...or black depending on the outcome, lol.

At first I thought the book was going to drag out terribly. The Selection wasted no time cutting down the numbers from 35 to 6 so it didn't leave a whole lot of room for drastic elimination. Luckily the book takes on other issues instead and it came together.

Around Chapter 8 or so I was completely entranced by the drama. It's a horrible thing but I love people watching. Everything is going so unbelievably well you just know there has to be a catastrophe around the corner and there is.

So long to the days where little cat fights took center stage. This book definitely upgraded the painful parts. You begin to notice how much more is at stake and eventually the relationships take backstage to a different conflict.

I'm not sure if maybe I came into this blindfolded but every plot twist has left me dumbfounded. This is much more exciting than the last one. In comparison, if I reread The Selection, I would be beyond bored. Something changed and I like it!

However some things didn't change. IE: The scenes between America and Aspen, the mistrust America has with everything, and her crazed inner monologue. Every other chapter it's back and forth, "I love Maxon!" and "I hate Maxon!" ect. If you can drop it that fast, it's not love. Her indecision is almost intolerable at times.

Luckily the ending worked out. I would have loved to see a cliffhanger but the anticipation is still there without it. Overall the tone of the book fits and for the genre it does incredibly well.

Aspen needs to slow his roll. Jeeze boy.

The sequel to the first book is much the same as the first book. You can read it in about 5-7 hours and there is enough going on that you want to keep reading despite the fact that the Protagonist and her love triangle gets pretty infuriating, but otherwise, if you’re looking for something fast and easy, you got it in this series.