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We love Kiera Cass’s The Selection series and were thrilled when she released a new book last year and even more excited for the next book to come out this summer!
Summary
Hollis is a young and beautiful girl living in the kingdom of Coroa. What makes Hollis special is the fact that the king is in awe of her. King Jameson is known for spoiling many young women, breaking their hearts, then moving in to the next girl. Hollis is different, people are saying that she may be the next queen.
Hollis is excited and flattered at the thought of becoming queen, that is until a handsome foreigner enters the castle, and her heart. This stranger makes an instant impact on Hollis and she begins to wonder if she truly wants to be queen.
***Spoilers Ahead***
(Skip ahead to the last section to avoid spoilers.)
Characters
Hollis is your typical female heroine. She is beautiful and charming with the most adorable flaws, but somehow, she still stands out. Her positive attitude is contagious and most of the characters enjoy her company. She even befriends the queen of Isolte when people warn her about her cold shoulder. Hollis ignores them and makes an extra effort to make her happy.
Silas was almost as perfect as Maxon (almost) He made Hollis gifts, made her feel loved, and he was interested in her, not her status or title, but her. Silas was the best person for Hollis, and we wouldn’t expect anything less from Kiera Cass! Although people say that Silas’s character is lacking some depth, he was still one of our personal favorites from this book.
King Jameson is rather hard to get a read on. First he seems likeable, then out of nowhere we start to think that he may be rude and angry only to be fooled once again when he makes grand gestures for Hollis to make her happy. Jameson embodies the idea of a king in the best ways possible. He is cherished by his subjects and fawned over by the young ladies. There is no doubt he is handsome, however, he just seems like he is too uninvested, especially for Hollis.
Delia Grace was not one of our favorite characters, but she was very important to the plot. Delia Grace was Hollis’s childhood friend with a rough past. Hollis was kind to Delia Grace and basically took her under her wing and helped her through the life of a noble. Delia Grace seemed like a basic side character, however, we learned that she had different motives. She was only with Hollis to get close to the King since he was interested in Hollis. (Talk about backstabbing) Despite all of this, Hollis tells Delia Grace to go after the king after she runs away with Silas, which really surprised us.
Our Favorite Parts
We loved when Hollis and Silas ran away together. This cliche is often used in books, but they usually never follow through with it whether something stops them or they back out of it. We were happy to see them commit and chose each other by actually running away. Not only was this moment sweet and romantic, but it was also beautifully satisfying to read!
We can’t be alone when we say that the wedding was amazing! It was nice to see the families come together and support Hollis and Silas on their special day. Everything was just as perfect as we wanted it to be, at least until it all came crashing down into a terrible tragic mess that absolutely destroyed all happiness we felt during this seemingly perfect moment. It was brutal and they did nothing to deserve it!
What would we want improved?
We need the sequel, and fast! This book was just too good to be a stand alone, and to be left with such an abrupt and brutal ending was almost unbearable . We would love to see what happens to Hollis and her mother in-law in Isolate and are anxiously awaiting the release of The Betrayed on June 29.
We would have liked to learn more about these Darkest Knights. I mean, they are mentioned once then BOOM they come and kill everyone? In the book we learn that Hollis didn’t know for her own “safety”, that is the most plain and basic excuse. We need to know more!
***Rest is Spoiler Free***
Final Thoughts
Overall, we would rate this book 3.7 out of 5 stars. This book was far from perfect, but we still really enjoyed it. No, it is not The Selection, but we would still recommend it to anyone who liked any of Keira Cass’s other books. We can’t wait for the sequel, The Betrayed, to come out on June 29th to see what happens!