This series is like a trashy reality show and I love it. It’s like the Bachelor, but in a castle.

While America irked me at times, I was ROOTING for her. I’m so glad she finally broke it off with Aspen because they were playing a dangerous game in the second book. Maxon was also a bit annoying at times in the sense that he kept telling America she was the one, but he wouldn’t say “I love you” and he kept leading Kriss on too. Honestly, this series would only be one book long if America and Maxon just communicated. I also feel like the ending was so rushed and the interesting plot twists had no effect on the storyline. 

Overall, I did enjoy this series, I just wish the ending was more thought out.

The pace of this book is a little off as it builds up the budding romance and conclusion of the main plot introduced in the first two books for the majority of the book just to close it all out rapidly towards the end, giving vague, unexpected solutions/answers to ongoing conflicts and subplots. However the overall story is still as heartwarming and endearing, with needed character highlights and encouraging changes strived for early on. 

(As per request from my good friend Charly, here is an Elaborate Review™, at the best of my ability)

I will not lie to you. Had I read this when I was younger, I would have eaten it tf up and licked the plate. I can practically FEEL the itch to re-read this series, highlight the dramatic almost-declarations of love that seem to linger unspoken in the air between America and Aspen/Maxon from the very moment the characters stepped on the page. I can FEEL the urge to recreate the hundereds of thousands of ballgowns that seem to be the only thing these girls get to wear (apart from that ONE time).

But alas, I am a 26 year old Wattpad-veteran who was born and raised in silly, cringe fandom culture and not only survived it, but came out the other side a cosplayer, fanartist and reader with a fascination for dystopian sci-fi & fantasy, and so have also read Better Books Than This One.

Like I said in the review for the first book, it truly hits the sweet spot of Wattpad-One Direction fanfiction à la 2012 or something, combined with the tension and questionable, fictional United States to come, many centuries into the future. "Rebels" that seek to "take down the kingdom" of this fictional not-US-country that are lethal but necessary to start the revolution needed for a reboot of the dystopian society we find ourselves within (but also like... we get hundreds of "pretty" and "beautiful" dresses that could put any and every GirlsGoGames-dressup game to shame so...). We also (of course) throughout the book are "torn" between two ✨️super cute boys✨️ that represent America's past and potential future (the CHARACTER America, not the country. Though you could probably argue that it for sure can be applied to that too for Deeper Meaning™-purposes). I laughed throughout the entire first book, and dove into the second book thinking it would be more of the same. 

IMAGINE my DISAPPOINTMENT when this "love triangle" takes the front seat in the second book 'The Elite', and could have been an email. The entire book could be summarized in a single chapter, if you will. America completely disregards the very public display of potential consequences to the actions she takes, and keeps making them for the entire second book without a single moment of serious reconsideration. One of her closest friends literally risks death for the SAME CONSEQUENCES AMERICA MIGHT FACE IF SHE KEEPS THIS SHT UP, AND YET??? AND ✨️YET✨️??? Absolute madness. You could probably skip the entire second book and hop straight into the third one and Nothing Would Get Lost On You. The only thing that will make 'The Elite' the book to keep me up at night is that One Diary Entry explaining how to make a power-hungry leader take over an entire country with minimal effort. Hearing this diary entry just a few days after the US presidential election of 2024 hit the funny bone, but "not funny-haha, funny-✨️weird✨️". If you know, you know.

So, onto the third book. 'The One'. My god. If America did not yet get on your nerves at this point, if you had not yet lost faith and realized that "huh, yeah you know what, maybe Aspen and Maxon should just hook up instead and leave America out of this", this is the book to do it for you. America keeps swinging between her undying (please let it die please let it die pleas-) love for both boys, (DESPITE WHAT WE LEARNED IN THE SECOND BOOK, MIND YOU, AND ACTUALLY WAS ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS AND RULES WE LEARNED ABOUT THE COMPETITION, MIND YOU) while also swinging wildly between the mindset of "I don't love Maxon anymore" and being jealous SICK over him even MENTIONING another girl's name IN PASSING. 
Maxon does SO MUCH for her; stalls the selection, pulls strings, keeps secrets, saves people and she just goes ":/// naaah but you know what I don't know if you love me or not bcs you're still the 'first price' of this entire competition and keep dating other girls" while he LITERALLY SAYS, MULTIPLE TIMES, LITERALLY; "tell me you love me and I will put an end to the Selection. Just say the word and it'll be over". LIKE, BESTIE. YOUR MAN IS ON HIS KNEES FOR YOU. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?? 

Let me explain to you what the problem is; Aspen. Aspen is of course the problem. Because in this very vaugely described world with intricate political plays we could have spent time figuring out and exploring, the entire "dystopia"-genre only serves as a spinning wheel of random Situations™ we can force both blorbos into to either pull any variation of America×Cute Boy closer together or further apart. It serves absolutely no purpose other than to force this love triangle to be born out of drama (the bad kind) rather than Drama™ (the good kind). 

Anyway, the sequel series to this is about the heir to Maxon supposedly going through the exact same procedure but with 35 guys thirsting over the princess in question, and I have watched enough Bachelorette during sick days to know that it might be ✨️funny✨️ to see how that actually plays out. I believe someone else called this series "fast food", and I'm willing to agree; it's probably bad for you, not very great quality, but it tastes ✨️fine✨️ and sometimes you get something kinda fun out of it. Additonally, I have been so incredibly spoiled by the mere POTENTIAL of a canonically queer throuple in the Legendborn Cycle that I forget that 'The Selection' is an example of what traditional "love triangles" actually look like, and I will never be able to read about one the same way again. Absolute disaster. Just like every single live-sent tv program America was a part of in this series. 

Oh! Also! If you have not yet gotten an idea of what kind of series this is, I'll let you know now that out of the 35 girls joining The Selection, a couple names stand out among the ones that are named at all:

- Tuesday
- Tiny
- America (canonically named after the country of the United States) 🦅🦅

Solid conclusion to the series.

3.75 stars for this book. I loved finally getting to the end of America and Maxon’s story. They didn’t exactly get the picture perfect “Happy Ever After”, but the did end up together. 

Having said all that, the ending of this book felt a little too convenient and it definitely felt rushed. The rest of the series seemed to dig into some pretty deep emotional moments and contexts. In this last book, there’s a bunch of trauma that happens in the last 50 pages or so, but none of it is given attention or is really discussed. It’s all just kind of tied up in a neat little bow, glazed over without any weight or consideration really given, so that the story could end. It seemed incongruous with the rest of the series, and it’s why my rating wasn’t higher for this particular book. Everything was wrapped up, there aren’t any loose ends, but I wish it was done it a better way.