Author: Kiera Cass
Edition: Harper Collins UK, 2015
Rating: ★★★★
Synopsis
Kiera Cass's Number 1 New York Times bestselling Selection series has enchanted readers from the very first page. In this fourth romantic novel, follow Illea's royal family into a whole new Selection - and find out what happens after happily ever after. Kiera Cass's #1 New York Times bestselling Selection series has enchanted readers from the very first page. In this fourth romantic novel, follow Illea's royal family into a whole new Selection-and find out what happens after happily ever after. Eighteen years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won Prince Maxon's heart. Now the time has come for Princess Eadlyn to hold a Selection of her own. Eadlyn doesn't expect her Selection to be anything like her parents' fairy-tale love story...but as the competition begins, she may discover that finding her own happily ever after isn't as impossible as she's always thought. A new generation of swoonworthy characters and captivating romance awaits in the fourth book of the Selection series!
(Taken from Waterstones.com)
Review
Considering I've read the rest of the series, it's a little bit backwards for my first review of it to be The Heir. It's pretty simple though; I read the first three last summer, before this blog was a thing, and although I'd love to review them all together, I'll need to re-read them in order to give a proper review. So, until then, here's my review of The Heir.
I'm going to start with my biggest question: why is The Heir a part of The Selection series? This question makes me think so many things at once I don't know where to start. Plus, I have a lot of feelings about this series in general.
My biggest problem with the book is that it feels fairly separate from The Selection, The Elite and The One, despite all being set in the same world, at (almost) the same time, with multiple recurring characters. I love the fact that The Selection as an event has been resurrected so that I can read about it from a different point of view, and I also like that America and Maxon are a part of it but I kind of wish Eadlyn had been given her own series, especially since The Heir is not telling Eadlyn's story as a standalone (The Crown is due to come out in May).
Having said that, I sorta-kinda hate that America and Maxon are in it. I love knowing what happened to them, that they had four kids and are still in love with one another, although there's downsides to this too (which I won't mention, because, spoilers). But their background presence also made it very hard for me to let them go and my mind kept wandering back to their story, distracting me from this one.
I have absolutely no issue with The Heir following an event I've already read about, in a world I already know, with characters coming back I just wish there was more distinction between America's Selection series and Eadlyn's; it's not entirely necessary to have read America's story before reading Eadlyn's.
Before getting a little closer and appreciating the book as its own thing, I have to just say that I love these books. I read the first three within a week, so desperate for The One that I went to Alice's to read it on her Kindle, and asked for The Elite, The One and The Heir for my birthday, despite having read the former two already.
That being said, as a creative writing student and aspiring author, I'm not a huge fan of Kiera's writing style *cringes just admitting it*. The books I absolutely adore have lots of lyrical aspects to them, sentences and paragraphs that have some deeper, thought-provoking meaning, and, for me, that's what Kiera's writing is missing. Please stick with me guys, because like I said, I do love these books. I really do. You heard how long it took (or didn't take) me to read them all.
What I love about these books is the actual Selection. I'm a sucker for fairytales and happily ever afters and I love a good dystopian and Kiera manages to mesh the two together and give me a book that has romance spilling from the pages in a world of palaces and gowns, kings and queens. And this didn't change with The Heir, all of that was still there, the romance even more so as Eadlyn is on the opposite side which meant multiple romances blossoming (even if Eadlyn was too stubborn to admit it).
Talking of Eadlyn; she had her moments, though at the beginning she was so infuriating. I appreciate the feminist stance that she takes – 'I don't need a man. No-one is as powerful as me' – but sometimes it felt too much. Either that or it was too forced. However, there was clearly some other complication, that even Eadlyn herself wasn't sure of, which meant her stubbornness and uncooperativeness (that's a mouthful) didn't waver all that much, despite all the plot developments. I'm hoping this is resolved a bit in The Crown because I really want to love Eadlyn and root for her the same way I did America. Actually, thinking about it, I vaguely remember America being similarly annoying when she refused to open herself up to the Selection, and I guess Eadlyn had to get that trait from somewhere!
I'm excited to see where this goes. I have my fingers crossed that Eadlyn will grow and that her relationships with my favourite boys (yes, multiple, because I pretty much love them all) will too.
How does everyone else feel about this one? Too much for one series, or is it just me? Let me know.
What I love about these books is the actual Selection. I'm a sucker for fairytales and happily ever afters and I love a good dystopian and Kiera manages to mesh the two together and give me a book that has romance spilling from the pages in a world of palaces and gowns, kings and queens. And this didn't change with The Heir, all of that was still there, the romance even more so as Eadlyn is on the opposite side which meant multiple romances blossoming (even if Eadlyn was too stubborn to admit it).
Talking of Eadlyn; she had her moments, though at the beginning she was so infuriating. I appreciate the feminist stance that she takes – 'I don't need a man. No-one is as powerful as me' – but sometimes it felt too much. Either that or it was too forced. However, there was clearly some other complication, that even Eadlyn herself wasn't sure of, which meant her stubbornness and uncooperativeness (that's a mouthful) didn't waver all that much, despite all the plot developments. I'm hoping this is resolved a bit in The Crown because I really want to love Eadlyn and root for her the same way I did America. Actually, thinking about it, I vaguely remember America being similarly annoying when she refused to open herself up to the Selection, and I guess Eadlyn had to get that trait from somewhere!
I'm excited to see where this goes. I have my fingers crossed that Eadlyn will grow and that her relationships with my favourite boys (yes, multiple, because I pretty much love them all) will too.
How does everyone else feel about this one? Too much for one series, or is it just me? Let me know.
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