The One by Kiera Cass

TL;DR Maxon finally picks his future wife

TBR #1246, added May 30 2015

finished 6/1/16

I checked it out a year and a day after I added it to my TBR lol

I'll be honest. I didn't have a good relationship with The Selection series. I only read past The Selection because I'm curious about The Heir. Skipping to the sequel story without reading the original seemed kind of wrong.

The One was actually the most compelling book out of the original trilogy for me. It was actually just what I needed, since I was dragging my feet with the other library books I'd checked out. (Being part of a series probably helped with that.) It definitely helped change my opinion of the series as a whole.

The Selection series is good for constant movement of the story. In The One, especially, things always happened right after another. There was never any real down time. (It made the timing of events feel artificial to me, but the story was at least always going.) I also have to admit that the characters are good role models if you look at the traits like America refusing to be bullied into submission. There were a lot of good examples of standing up for what you believe in and treating others with respect.

There was also good character development in The One, though I don't remember if it was really supported by the previous two books or not. I don't remember enough of the events from those to know if the character development was really in character or if it was slightly artificial in order to wrap the story up nicely.

I'm not very happy with how the ending was executed. A lot of the subplot with the rebels didn't feel as dangerous as it should have, and their actions in The One also felt pretty artificial. Like, that they were only present to up the ante and not to actually influence the direction of the story. There was also a lot of unnecessary drama between the girls and Maxon, and I still don't think any of these kids are old enough to be in the running to take control of a country's government. There were a couple moments of petty high school-like drama and some very wishy-washy characters who easily got mad over a misunderstanding and then forgave it all too easily.

(I hope that wasn't too spoiler-y.)

I'm planning on reading The Heir if it shows up in my library. I haven't heard many good reviews of Eadlyn, though, and the preview at the end of The One makes me wonder if America and Maxon will still be in character. I guess we'll see. I'm mainly curious about the execution of The Heir rather than the story itself. (That's probably bad to admit, but as a writer I want to know how Cass handles it.)

TL;DR The One was the best out of the trilogy and I'm glad of my decision to pick it up. I'm not happy with how it handled a lot of the details of the story, but I can admit that gave me a better opinion of the series overall.

Final thoughts: The Selection trilogy is a good dystopian-like series for people who are looking for character-driven plots and action without too much running-for-your-life adrenaline or abysmal settings. (Like Divergent or Legend, for example.)