Author: Kiera Cass
Series: The Selection #2
Genre: YA Romance
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: April 23rd, 2013
Edition: Kindle Edition, 337 pages
Source: Library
Synopsis:
In America Singer’s world, a bride is chosen for the prince through an elaborate televised competition. In the second book of the Selection series, America is one of only six girls left in the running. But is it Prince Maxon—and life as the queen—she wants? Or is it Aspen, her first love?
The Elite delivers the adventure, glamour, political intrigue, and romance readers of The Selection expect, and continues the love triangle that captivated them.
The Elite is the sequel to The Selection, and I feel that this is a much better book. Pulling the story away from fluffy romance and more towards the dystopian world the book is set in. That was a minor issue that I had with the first book. It talked about these rebels and what a danger they all were, but other than a couple minor mentions and them throwing rocks at the palace they were hardly worth mentioning.
Though mentioning them, did set up what they did in this book, and not only do we have the rebels to worry about, but also the King himself. In a way, he is just as dangerous and ruthless as the rebels. I liked seeing more of who he was in that sense, even if what was discovered could be as closely associated with evil as possible. And this story was also far more tolerable now that there were only six girls to deal with reading about.
Not that I don't like the heroine, she frustrated me more than once with her actions in this book, her indecisiveness, and carelessness playing with the hearts of two men. Aspen- her ex/turned palace guard, and Maxon- the smitten prince. Though his reasons for loving America seem to be sort of unknown unless you read the novella The Prince you really wouldn't understand what it is about her that he likes so much. For the most part, she is everything the King tells her she is at the end of the book (though I don't know what he has against gingers), and through almost all of the first book and more than half of this book she says how much she doesn't really want the job. Logic should dictate that she should leave on her own accord but it seems that she stays out of pure stubbornness wanting to be kicked out rather than to leave gracefully.
The rebel attacks were what really kept me drawn to this book, if it had been a carbon copy of events from The Selection, I don't think I could have stood to finish it. Seeing the "dangerous southern rebels" attack the Palace every 2-3 chapters, brought a level of danger and intrigue to the story. Far more interesting in a novel that a gaggle of girls being bitches to each other. I am interested in what will happen in the next book. Hopefully, we'll get to hear more of the rebels and what steps will be taken to deal with them, and that the book isn't focused too much on bickering females, I had to deal with that in high school, I really don't want to read 200+ pages of that.
One sort of fault I have with the ending is Aspen. America said her good-byes and told him to move on in a way. Personally, I see America choosing Maxon and Aspen ending up with Lucy, I think that would be sweet. But if America really does want a chance to love and be loved by Maxon, her late-night trysts with Aspen really need to stop, lest they end up like Marlee or worse from what the King thinks of America, and Aspen, if he truly does love her really, really needs to take a few paces back. He was always far too liberal with his feelings in situations when they could have been caught.
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