The Heir Review

The Heir

Kiera Cass

Harper Teen 

May 2015

I'm pretty tough when it comes to The Selection series. Personally, I did enjoy parts of the first three books. But I just disliked all of the drama and the love triangle. In the second book in particular, America was so possessive over Maxon, even though she herself was secretly cheating on him. But anyway, The Heir had its moments for me. It's absolutely necessary for you to read the first three books before checking out this one. I've read all of them and even I was a little lost at times because I'd forgotten different characters and events from the other books. For fans of the series, this will be a pleasant and intense read.

Eadlyn is the daughter of Prince Maxon and Queen America Singer. This book picks up 20 years after the last book. The country of Illéa is currently in a bad place. Maxon got rid of the social classes and this caused even more of an uprising from the people. In an attempt to ease the tensions, Maxon and America convince Eadlyn to allow them to bring back The Selection. Despite having no intentions of finding a man to marry, Eadlyn reluctantly agrees to participate although she still plans on scaring away the boys one by one. Will she change her mind and actually find that The Selection isn't so terrible after all?

Surprisingly, I disliked Eadlyn even more than I disliked America in the earlier books. She's different from her mother in the respect that she has things handed to her, she's spoiled, and she thinks she's better than others. America was never really like that, she was just unlikable because of her jealousy and possessiveness. The most likable characters included her twin brother Ahren, who didn't have to host his own Selection because he's already found his future wife. I liked the strong bond that they shared and how Ahren was never scared to set his twin straight when she was totally out of line. It was strange seeing characters that we know from America's story through her daughters point of view. Meaning, she sees her mother's old boyfriends in a completely different light. It's just a new perspective that really brings something new to this story. Anyway, Eadlyn was still a difficult character to follow considering her attitude that stays pretty strong throughout most of the book.

As far as the romance goes, Eadlyn starts out having 35 guys to pick from. She immediately begins winding the pool down and cuts 11 guys, who she barely had one more than one conversation with. While there are many potential love interests, the main one is still obvious from the very beginning. This love interest I'm talking about is Kile, who is Marlee's son, America's servant and friend from the previous stories. He is selected to be one of the contestants in The Selection, much to his dismay. Kile and Eadlyn immediately bump heads, but they also pretty quickly form a mild friends with benefits relationship. Meaning, Eadlyn still tells him she dislikes him but she still wants to kiss him, which doesn't make much sense. I didn't like the way this relationship went down in this book and I hope it improves more in later novels. The other boy I liked was Henri, who doesn't speak much English. He has a translator named Erik who stays by his side at all times. While Eadlyn enjoys Henri's personality and company, she slowly grows closer to Erik as well, even though he isn't technically apart of the competition. It's unclear (but probably Kile) who she will choose, but this should become revealed to readers in the next book.

This was a quick read and I liked catching up with characters that we've grown familiar with. I didn't give it a higher rating because I was unable to click with Eadlyn at all really. She does grow more as a person there towards the end, but I just didn't like her attitude. It's hard for me to absolutely love a story if I can't get past how the main character treats other people. I do think that fans of The Selection will enjoy that the story didn't end with America.