The Selection (The Selection Series, Book 1)
The Elite (The Selection Series, Book 2)
The One (The Selection Series, Book 3)
The Heir (The Selection Series, Book 4)
The Crown (The Selection Series, Book 5)
By: Kiera Cass
My Rating: Three out of Five Stars
Best for: 14 and up

The Bachelor meets The Hunger Games…no wonder everyone loves The Selection Series!

I’m totally outside of the demographic for a series of books that feature girls in gowns on their covers, but this is what my daughter wanted to read…so there you go. The things we do for our kids.

Luckily, it wasn’t awful (in the ways that girls and their discerning dads care about). 35 girls are randomly selected to compete for the hand of the Prince. The winner becomes the princess and future queen. 35 girls. One Prince. On TV.

Love triangle(s). Friends. Enemies. Frienemies. Hormones. He loves me–but do I love him? He hates me–but I love him! He loves me–I love him too! (I think I do…don’t I?)

You can probably write the story yourself now.

There are twists that keep things interesting, and once you start you’re pretty much committed to the series to see how the whole thing ends. The saving grace…the books are shockingly well written. They are very easy to read and the dialogue is comfortable. I found myself overlooking the absurdness of the plot and enjoying the story just because the writing was so smooth.

Books 1-3 are a trilogy, and you can stop there unless you’re a die hard fan–which apparently I am (or my daughter is).

Books 4 and 5 are 20 years in the future, and the couple from books 1-3 have kids and their daughter has to go through her own Selection…and now we get The Bachelorette version. Besides the role reversal, the only real difference is that we move from a love triangle to a love…pentagon maybe? I can’t remember now. Definitely a love polygon with more sides than a triangle. Ugh.

Doesn’t really matter…the last two books were pretty dumb, and even the excellent writing wasn’t enough to compensate.

Anyway, if your daughter comes to you wanting to read The Selection Series, send me a thank you note since I took this bullet for you. The series is a lot of fun, has no language, has some mild violence, and a lot of chaste making out and saving themselves for marriage. Book 5 has a gay couple as a sub plot, but everything is age appropriate.  14 and up…the making out stuff felt too old for any younger than that.

Get your copy here!

Happy Reading!