The Elite by Kiera Cass

The Elite by Kiera Cass
Series: The Selection
Published by HarperTeen on April 23, 2013
Genres: Love, Romance, Contemporary, Royalty
Pages: 336 : Paperback edition
Source: Purchased on Amazon
Add to Goodreads

The hotly-anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestseller The Selection.

Thirty-five girls came to the palace to compete in the Selection. All but six have been sent home. And only one will get to marry Prince Maxon and be crowned princess of Illea.

America still isn’t sure where her heart lies. When she’s with Maxon, she’s swept up in their new and breathless romance, and can’t dream of being with anyone else. But whenever she sees Aspen standing guard around the palace, and is overcome with memories of the life they planned to share. With the group narrowed down to the Elite, the other girls are even more determined to win Maxon over—and time is running out for America to decide.

Just when America is sure she’s made her choice, a devastating loss makes her question everything again. And while she’s struggling to imagine her future, the violent rebels that are determined to overthrow the monarchy are growing stronger and their plans could destroy her chance at any kind of happy ending.

This book suffers pretty badly from mid-series slump syndrome. I could not get into this and towards the middle of the book I was fuming. The plot kept going around and around and around in circles. The whole thing could have been at least 50 pages shorter than it is now.

There were probably 3 exciting parts to the whole thing and no, that does not include any of the raids or the tension between America and Maxon or America and Aspen. Just ugh! Both of those components were just rehashed two times over from the first novel and it was just soooo slow and bad.

I did like the political aspect that the novels are starting to get into more, but there needed to be a balance of all the glitz and glamour of the palace too, which just wasn’t there this time around. I’m hoping that the final book in the series will go out with a bang and have some more interesting plot twists.

Needless to say, I will be finishing the series once I get my hands on the last novel because now I’m too invested to not read it. I have high expectations and hopes for the next one (no pun intended)!