4 out of 5 stars

This was such a fun, light read for me right when I really needed it.  I’ve been in such a bad book slump lately and I think this one finally got me out of it.  I have heard numerous good things about this book and while I didn’t love it, I definitely did enjoy it.

As a Five, America knows all too well how it feels to be poor and how hard she has to work to get her family’s needs.  She is in love with a Six named Aspen who is even poorer than she is and that causes the two of them to break up because he feels he will never be able to fully provide for her.  When America gets chosen to participate in The Selection she can think of a million things she’d rather do but she knows that she made a promise to Aspen and she knows it would make her family happy.  When she meets the prince she knows there’s no way she can fall in love with him while still pining for Aspen so the prince and her form an unlikely friendship and she becomes his spy for the other girls competing to win the prince’s heart.  When America starts to question whether she really could love the prince, all of a sudden Aspen reappears in her life and she has to question what she wants and who she really loves.

I hate how this book ended only for the fact that I now have to read the second book to find out what happened.  It was definitely out of my norm of what types of books I’m normally drawn to but I still really liked it.  I loved the character America and how she didn’t buy into the whole selection process and was still being true to herself and where she came from.  I loved how she treated her maids as equals instead of looking down on them as servants and I love how she was so caring towards the other girls even though she was competing with them.

I also really like Keria Cass’s writing style.  I never got bored or thought that certain areas were drawn out or boring.  The entire book held my attention and I loved wondering what was going to happen next.  I’m definitely excited to read the second book and hopefully can enjoy the rest of the series.