Book: The Heir by Kiera Cass

Published May 2015 by HarperTeen|241 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: The Selection #4

Genre: YA Dystopic

Twenty years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won Prince Maxon’s heart. Now the time has come for Princess Eadlyn to hold a Selection of her own. Eadlyn doesn’t expect her Selection to be anything like her parents’ fairy-tale love story. But as the competition begins, she may discover that finding her own happily ever after isn’t as impossible as she always thought.

I liked The Heir, but not as much as the previous books.  I’ve really enjoyed the series, and while I’m glad that there’s another book in this world, I had a harder time liking it.

I was intrigued by Princess Eadlyn having her own Selection, but there is something about this book that makes me feel like maybe the series would have been fine without this book.  It just didn’t have the charm and the appeal the first one did.

I think a lot of it is because of Eadlyn, who is whiny, selfish and cold.  I didn’t hate her, but she made it really hard to like her. Which isn’t necessary in books, but she didn’t really change over the course of the book the way I would have thought.  I really hope what happens at the end of the book has a huge impact on her in the next book.  Which on its own, felt a little rushed, and one of the events, her twin getting married and leaving for France, didn’t have the impact I thought it would.  Mostly because I could not tell you anything about him. The new characters didn’t really stand out (they all kind of blend together, actually), and some of the characters from the previous books were quite different too.  Which is fine, given it’s been 20 years since the end of the Selection.

I was slightly disappointed that we don’t really see Aspen or America talk about their selection with Eadlyn. They’ve been through it, and maybe it would have helped Eadlyn.  Eadlyn does have potential, and she does know what she wants, but at the same time, she keeps everyone at a distance..alongside complaining about how much pressure she’s under.  Which I can understand, but she seems to not want it while also wanting it. It’s like she likes the power and the title, but the not the work that goes with it, and would rather someone else do it.  Maxon didn’t seem nearly as obnoxious as Eadlyn was.  It just made her really frustrating.

It is interesting to see it from the side of the one doing the selecting, and I have the feeling I know where it’s going.  I don’t know how I feel about seeing it from this side of it, though, because Eadlyn doesn’t really care about the Selection for 99% of the book.  And a world with no caste system, and a world where people don’t like Eadlyn (which isn’t surprising) had a lot of potential, and while we get glimpses of it, I also wish we saw more of it.  Maybe we’ll see it in the next book?

3 stars.  Overall, I did like The Heir, and I will definitely be reading the next book, but I just didn’t enjoy it as much as the previous books.