Kiera Cass
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 likeof thepages 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 middleAmerican.
Is consistency too much to ask
sitelinkYouTube sitelinkBlog sitelinkInstagram sitelinkTwitter sitelinkFacebook Snapchat mirandareads I loved this book so much.
I read it in just one day! I couldn't put it down! I love Maxon so much lt, Apr. '
Bad news: I didn't like it
Good news: I finished it in one day to relieve me of my boredom at work
Better news: I liked it more than The Selection.
Or maybe that's simply because I knew what to expect, so my hopes weren't high to begin with
Still want that tiara.
I'vefull on ranted discussed about characterization in my review of the first book, and since the special cookie that is America still suffers from the same problems, I won't be going into characterization in this review.
If anyone wants to know every little problem I had with America, I will just sitelinkdirect you to my first review.
I'll get the good stuff out of the way first, before I bag this book to the gutters:
Purely as a romance, this book was alright.
Kiera Cass ought to stick to writing YA romance, Keep the dystopia / politics / otherelementsthatrequirecohesiveandlogicalworldbuilding to the pros, alrighty Or at least, . . I don't know plan it out a little better I'll get to that later,
Cass can really get me sucked in and riled up about the romantic tension in her book, This was not true for The Selection, but some bits really did get to me in The Elite.
For instance, what America caught Maxon doing and ended up forgiving him for that pissed me off, I actually found myself screaming in my head, what an asshole! jerk! Pick up your bags and leave, America! Right now!
America was actually a slightly better character.
I still didn't like her, but at least she grew a pair, I would have at least waited until the Queen was out of the room, or chosen a less physical way to stand up for her beliefs, but the bottom line is, at least she wasn't such a doormat this time.
And I think those were the only redeeming qualities I could find,
Well, those two and the fan art,
But now, on to the ugly.
What really lost this for me was one of the things I briefly mentioned in my review of the first book: The Worldbuilding.
It seems Cass did not learn from her previous book, In fact, having found some measure of success from it, she follows the same formula, I assure you, nothing is different,
The rebel attacks is one such example, I think in this book there were about, . . three four attacks to the palace, All of them within close timing to one another, Even America notes this herself
as if the author wanted us to know she realizes it doesn't make sense for it to
happen, but any logical explanations are brushed aside and made to seem irrelevant simply by our main character acknowledging this discrepancy.
I also have to add that, during one scene, we actually come to see that the rebels are young adults themselves.
So let me just rehash this just in case I'm not analyzing it correctly:
four rebel attacks within short time frames
at least one attack managed to cause casualties
time and time again the alarms were resounded only after the rebels had penetrated into the palace
the rebels may as well have been children for their youth
there is no sign of the King making attempts of chasing/capturing the rebels to actively prevent future attacks
there is no sign of any improvements upon the security of the palace.
In fact, each time after the rebels attacked, the event is not even discussed between the Elite, or even the royal household.
So not only is Iléa governed by a tyrant, he is also an incredibly stupid tyrant who utterly fails at the security of his own home.
How a King that cannot even protect his own palace walls manages to keep hold on an entire Kingdom baffles me.
But as if having ridiculously forced rebel attacks was not enough, just as it was in The Selection, nothing actually happened during the attacks!
Sure, everyone comes out of hiding to find the walls sprawled with: WE ARE COMING.
Oh I am just shaking in my undies, Sure, some guards and nameless servants were killed during the action, But none of the characters who mattered were ever in any sense of danger, making it rather useless to be honest.
If you don't believe in the absolute uselessness of Cass' attempts of having us worry for her characters take the scene where Maxon and his father flies off to New Asia to resolve some sort of conflict.
Upon their arrival, a brief paragraph was given on how they were never found, . . and then, a few pages later, we were told they were heading back to Iléa, No harm, no other mention of the conflict,
What a massively useless side plot,
sidenote: really New Asia Well done blocking an entire continent covering almostof the Earth's surface and comprising of over fifty different sovereign states and dependent territories into one massive entity under one kingdom.
Another odd thing I found about the worldbuilding is how utterly ridiculous it was that every new country in this book is a Kingdom.
I simply find it hard to believe that many, many years into the future, our world would have devolved into Sovereign Monarchies.
Italy is a Monarchy. Germany is a Monarchy. NEW ASIA the bloody whole CONTINENT I assume is under one Monarchy,
You see all that That's Asia, No country in their right mind would let the whole thing unite under ONE GOVERNMENT holy shit, I'm Asian and I'm terrified at the thought,
I'll end this review with a list of my pet peeves, The names.
America Singer sounds pretty tame compared to the whole lot,
Woodwork brings me straight back to high school,
Markson now this is just getting annoying,
Maxon Schreave snort,
Amberly Station Schreave sounds like a monopoly property card,
aaaaand my personal favourite:
King Clarkson BAHAHAHAHAHAHA
note: the amount of effort evident in my brilliant photoshop job corresponds to the amount of credit I give to this book.
Oct, '
Is that America Has she always been a ginger
Ah well, At least she isn't sniffing her own armpit in this one,
gt sitelinkMy review of The Selection
gt sitelinkMy review of The One
you can also read more reviews over at sitelinkmy blog.
It turns out I'm absolutely terrible at staying away from you, It's a very serious problem, Tears! Lovetriangles! 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 topof the Selection aka the Bachelor/Princess Diaries mashup.
She's joined by Celeste the Btch, 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 superhotandsuperrichroyalty and superhotanddowntoearthsoldier, 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 eyerollinglyawful 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 likeof thepages 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 middleAmerican.
Is consistency too much to ask
sitelinkYouTube sitelinkBlog sitelinkInstagram sitelinkTwitter sitelinkFacebook Snapchat mirandareads I loved this book so much.
I read it in just one day! I couldn't put it down! I love Maxon so much lt, Apr. '
Bad news: I didn't like it
Good news: I finished it in one day to relieve me of my boredom at work
Better news: I liked it more than The Selection.
Or maybe that's simply because I knew what to expect, so my hopes weren't high to begin with
Still want that tiara.
I've
If anyone wants to know every little problem I had with America, I will just sitelinkdirect you to my first review.
I'll get the good stuff out of the way first, before I bag this book to the gutters:
Purely as a romance, this book was alright.
Kiera Cass ought to stick to writing YA romance, Keep the dystopia / politics / otherelementsthatrequirecohesiveandlogicalworldbuilding to the pros, alrighty Or at least, . . I don't know plan it out a little better I'll get to that later,
Cass can really get me sucked in and riled up about the romantic tension in her book, This was not true for The Selection, but some bits really did get to me in The Elite.
For instance, what America caught Maxon doing and ended up forgiving him for that pissed me off, I actually found myself screaming in my head, what an asshole! jerk! Pick up your bags and leave, America! Right now!
America was actually a slightly better character.
I still didn't like her, but at least she grew a pair, I would have at least waited until the Queen was out of the room, or chosen a less physical way to stand up for her beliefs, but the bottom line is, at least she wasn't such a doormat this time.
And I think those were the only redeeming qualities I could find,
Well, those two and the fan art,
But now, on to the ugly.
What really lost this for me was one of the things I briefly mentioned in my review of the first book: The Worldbuilding.
It seems Cass did not learn from her previous book, In fact, having found some measure of success from it, she follows the same formula, I assure you, nothing is different,
The rebel attacks is one such example, I think in this book there were about, . . three four attacks to the palace, All of them within close timing to one another, Even America notes this herself
How was it possible that rebels had gotten into the palace two days in a row Two days in a row! Had things gotten so much worse on the outside since the Selection had begun
as if the author wanted us to know she realizes it doesn't make sense for it to
happen, but any logical explanations are brushed aside and made to seem irrelevant simply by our main character acknowledging this discrepancy.
I also have to add that, during one scene, we actually come to see that the rebels are young adults themselves.
So let me just rehash this just in case I'm not analyzing it correctly:
four rebel attacks within short time frames
at least one attack managed to cause casualties
time and time again the alarms were resounded only after the rebels had penetrated into the palace
the rebels may as well have been children for their youth
there is no sign of the King making attempts of chasing/capturing the rebels to actively prevent future attacks
there is no sign of any improvements upon the security of the palace.
In fact, each time after the rebels attacked, the event is not even discussed between the Elite, or even the royal household.
So not only is Iléa governed by a tyrant, he is also an incredibly stupid tyrant who utterly fails at the security of his own home.
How a King that cannot even protect his own palace walls manages to keep hold on an entire Kingdom baffles me.
But as if having ridiculously forced rebel attacks was not enough, just as it was in The Selection, nothing actually happened during the attacks!
Sure, everyone comes out of hiding to find the walls sprawled with: WE ARE COMING.
Oh I am just shaking in my undies, Sure, some guards and nameless servants were killed during the action, But none of the characters who mattered were ever in any sense of danger, making it rather useless to be honest.
If you don't believe in the absolute uselessness of Cass' attempts of having us worry for her characters take the scene where Maxon and his father flies off to New Asia to resolve some sort of conflict.
Upon their arrival, a brief paragraph was given on how they were never found, . . and then, a few pages later, we were told they were heading back to Iléa, No harm, no other mention of the conflict,
What a massively useless side plot,
sidenote: really New Asia Well done blocking an entire continent covering almostof the Earth's surface and comprising of over fifty different sovereign states and dependent territories into one massive entity under one kingdom.
Another odd thing I found about the worldbuilding is how utterly ridiculous it was that every new country in this book is a Kingdom.
I simply find it hard to believe that many, many years into the future, our world would have devolved into Sovereign Monarchies.
Italy is a Monarchy. Germany is a Monarchy. NEW ASIA the bloody whole CONTINENT I assume is under one Monarchy,
You see all that That's Asia, No country in their right mind would let the whole thing unite under ONE GOVERNMENT holy shit, I'm Asian and I'm terrified at the thought,
I'll end this review with a list of my pet peeves, The names.
America Singer sounds pretty tame compared to the whole lot,
Woodwork brings me straight back to high school,
Markson now this is just getting annoying,
Maxon Schreave snort,
Amberly Station Schreave sounds like a monopoly property card,
aaaaand my personal favourite:
King Clarkson BAHAHAHAHAHAHA
note: the amount of effort evident in my brilliant photoshop job corresponds to the amount of credit I give to this book.
Oct, '
Is that America Has she always been a ginger
Ah well, At least she isn't sniffing her own armpit in this one,
gt sitelinkMy review of The Selection
gt sitelinkMy review of The One
you can also read more reviews over at sitelinkmy blog.