★★ ½
It turns out I’m absolutely terrible at staying away from you. It’s a very serious problem.
Tears! Love-triangles! More tears! Whining! Even more tears! Annnd….honestly, that’s pretty much it
(Could we make it one chapter without her dissolving into tears? No? Fabulous. )
Picking up where we left off, America is in the “Elite” (the top 6 of the Selection – aka the Bachelor/Princess Diaries mashup).
She’s joined by Celeste (the B*tch), Marley (the best friend), and three other totally forgettable girls – who must still be there solely to keep the book going.
Prince Maxon is in love with her but *gasp* America can’t decide between super-hot-and-super-rich-royalty and super-hot-and-down-to-earth-soldier. Annnnd, that’s all there is to the plot.
There’s some filler here and there (rebels, crocodile tears,party planning, crying fits, plots to overthrow the government, unrestrained sobbing) but honestly, there’s not much.
It’s mostly America whining over one boy then the other. Followed by some eye-rollingly-awful quotes. Like this:
Love is beautiful fear.
And this:
Sometimes I feel like we’re a knot, too tangled to be taken apart.
And this:
All I want is your promise to stay with me, to be mine. Sometimes it feels like you can’t possibly be real. Promise me you’ll stay.
I had a hard time getting into this one. The first book was fun – it was fluffy and a bit weak in the plot department – but it was the kind of book you can just sink into and enjoy.
This one…not so much. The writing felt stiffer and the dialogue had me cringing so much. America’s only emotion was bawling and even then, I wasn’t very convinced. The plot just circled from one boy to the other. I really feel like 250 of the ~300 pages could’ve been cut and nothing would’ve changed. Maybe even the whole book.
Audiobook Comments
Read by Amy Rubinate – and no complaints there…well except for Queen Amberly’s accent. The novella starring the queen had her in a very thick, native “Honduraguan” accent but in another novel her sister sounded extremely “Southern Belle” while in this one Amberly just sounds so middle-American. Is consistency too much to ask?
Interested in this one from Kiera Cass? Buy it here: Amazon
Miranda Reads 