The Crown by Kiera Cass

The Crown 

by Kiera Cass

Released: May 3, 2016
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: The Selection, Book 5
Preceded By: The Heir
Page Amount: 279, US Hardback
POV: 1st Person (Eadlyn)
Buy it here: Barnes & Noble•Amazon

OVERALL:

Plot-17/20
Characters-17/20

Creativity-17/20

Writing-18/20

Pace-9/10

Ending-9/10

= 87/100 B

★★★★/5

SUMMARY:

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.-Goodreads.com

REViEW:
WARNING: May contain some vague spoilers about the plot of the novel.

Seeing as I loved The Selection trilogy and enjoyed The Heir, I made sure to pre-order The Crown so I could find out what guy Eadlyn would choose in her own selection the day the book was released. I devoured this book in one day because, like Cass' other novels, this book was quick, adorable, and fun. When you go into this series knowing that it is addictive fluff, it is incredibly enjoyable.

When I was reading this book, I was kind of surprised that there wasn't really any plot other than Eadlyn deciding which of the selected she will marry. This is because the original trilogy seemed to always have a political subplot to aid tension to the selection. However, in The Crown, I feel like Cass focused entirely on the selection while trying to add in little tidbits of political and social drama. This bothered me because it seemed like the drama with Marid and his family as well as the caste uproars were added as an afterthought. Both political events seemed to have no purpose other than eliciting drama and an ending. I wish Cass would have either introduced this political plot earlier and spent more time on it or instead focused on character development to drive this novel. I would have loved to see Eadlyn rush to choose her man because she was maturing and learning to love rather than her rushing to marry in order to avoid another proposal. This book just had too many things going on for a short 279 page book.

Even though I didn't get the exact transformation of Eadlyn that I had wanted to see, I was still happy with her growth. She was still annoying at times, but her voice was realistic and consistent. She really grew on me during the course of this book. I genuinely cared about what guy she wanted to marry and admired her for her ambition. However, I was really upset that Maxon and America relinquished nearly all of their power to their young, immature daughter without a second thought. I'm thoroughly shocked that they wouldn't even really help Eadlyn transition to regent. That seemed really out of character to me and really lessened my opinion of both America and Maxon. I understand that this is Eadlyn's story, but come on, most of us readers are only reading this book because we fell in love with America and Maxon. 

Anyway, as for the boys in the selection, oh how I loved them. I wish we could have spent more time in this novel exploring Eadlyn's relationships with each of them. I really could have used some more Kile action, but I was happy to see more of Hale. I was happy with who she picked, but I wish I could have seen more of how she started to fall for that particular guy because it seemed like instalove to me. For over half this novel, she barely seemed to consider this guy and then all of a sudden she was like "I love him." It seemed very abrupt to me. That being said, I wish I could have seen her relationships with all of the boys blossom more throughout this novel, but I was thoroughly happy with how it all ended.
The ending was cute. Although the book did not end the way I had originally had hoped, I am very happy about how everything concluded. By the end, I firmly believed that this was the only way that things could end for Eadlyn. However, I did wish that America and Maxon weren't pushed to the side. I know that this is Eadlyn's story, but I really wished to see the Schreave family interact more. Nevertheless, I closed this book feeling elated because of how cute and fun this series is. I know I stated a lot of things that I wish Cass would have done, but quite honestly, I did love this book. It was a sweet end to The Selection Series.

My Favorite Part: How everything wrapped up. I was pretty comfortable with the ending of this fun series.

ALL iN ALL:
Do I recommend this book? Yes, this book made me smile.

It's a Book Thing
Review by Macy ♥