The Selection

When I picked up Kiera Cass's novel The Selection on a spontaneous visit to Half Price Books (that just happened to be during their big 20% off sale), I looked at the cover, read the small blurb at the top "35 girls. 1 crown. The competition of a lifetime," looked at my best friend Hannah and told her that it sounded interesting so I was going to get it, along with the other 3 books I had in my hands.

I wasn't planning on starting The Selection right away because I'm currently 40% of the way through Diana Galbadon's Outlander. While at Half Price Books, I saw the other two books on the shelf, but being the broke college student that I am, I decided to hold off on buying them. Well, I got bored watching The Tudors and what else could possibly be sitting right next to me, but The Selection. I finished it in 3 hours. I skipped eating dinner because I was so enthralled (and because no one was home to remind me that it was dinner time) but reading my brilliant-book-find so quickly turned out to be a huge mistake. It was Sunday night, Half Price Books was closed, and Monday was Memorial Day so I didn't know if the store was open (luckily, it was!) I haven't been so anxious to read the next book in a series that I didn't have since Harry Potter. I seriously considered sitting outside of HPB like I used to wait for midnight book releases!

Needless to say, I convinced my dad to stop at the store before going to a family cookout, and I had The Elite finished by the end of the evening. I finished The One last night. Luckily, it didn't have a very disappointing ending (although it was still a little sad.) I guess I should explain what the Selection series is about, shouldn't I? Without giving too much away, it takes place in a very different, future America, now called Illea, which is ruled by a monarchy and caste system. When a prince comes of age, there is a "selection" of random women, one of whom the prince will marry. Throw in feisty lead woman America Singer, handsome Prince Maxon, and dangerous King Clarkson, and there's the formula for a really great trilogy. (Anthony Head from Merlin would make a great King Clarkson, btw)

I'm now left awaiting my next paycheck so I can buy Cass's short Selection novellas, The Prince and The Guard. I'm sure I'll eat those up in about a day as soon as I have them. I'll be left waiting until December, when a prequel, The Queen, is released. Until then I guess I'll just have to imagine the rest of my dream cast for the inevitable Selection movies (or tv show, I guess.) *sigh*

This is a great series to add to the top of your summer reading list! If you're anything like me, you'll get through them all very quickly!