The Crown (The Selection #5)
By Kiera Cass
Genre: YA Dystopian
Recommended Ages: 17+

When Eadlyn became the first princess of Illéa to hold her own Selection, she didn’t think she would fall in love with any of her thirty-five suitors. She spent the first few weeks of the competition counting down the days until she could send them all home. But as events at the palace force Eadlyn even further into the spotlight, she realizes that she might not be content remaining alone.

Eadlyn still isn’t sure she’ll find the fairytale ending her parents did twenty years ago. But sometimes the heart has a way of surprising you…and soon Eadlyn must make a choice that feels more impossible—and more important—than she ever imagined.

The Gist:

A fantastic ending to a series I could NOT put down. The romance grows and twists and turns and pulls at your heartstrings in this final installment.  It’s everything I could have hoped for in a fast-paced romantic-centric novel. By now I’ve completely fallen in love with Eadlyn and her leading men. I finished the book very sad there wasn’t more.

What I Liked:

Moreso in this book than the previous one we see just how much American and Maxon love each other. Guys, it’s seriously so refreshing to see this kind of love in a book, the kind where nothing is more important than your husband or wife. I hope Eadlyn’s marriage follows the same path as her parents.

Eadlyn takes her job as Princess and heir to the throne very seriously. It’s encouraging to see a young girl devote herself to studying how to rule a kingdom because she wants to do it well. She wants to prove she can be a good leader for her people. I admire her for that.

I also think we saw a lot of growth in Eadlyn in this book, and I’m always looking for that in books I read. I want to see characters learning from their mistakes and trying to be better people, and I think Eadlyn did just that in this final book.

What I Didn’t Like:

Again, I wish I could have seen more romance between Eadlyn and her top choices. Those were my favorite parts in the first three books and I felt like they were slightly lacking in this and the previous book.

Also, I just remembered that the main reason for having the Selection this time around was because of the undercurrent of unrest in the kingdom and the threat of people rebelling. We didn’t really see many evidences of that in this book, at least none that I can remember so to me that means even if they were there, they weren’t strong or plentiful enough.

The ending felt rushed to me. I felt like in the last half of the book speed through a lot of things and didn’t give me enough time to be convinced of her choices. It didn’t feel realistic and it left a tiny hole of something missing.

LunasLuckyRating: 4/5 Lunas