Transitive Verve

Thoughts at a glance:  The Elite  - ** (It was okay) The One  - *** (I liked it) Okay, so I'm reviewing the two books together because I kind of marathoned through them one right after the other. I said in my review for The Selection  that the politics and history of Illea, the country where the story takes place, was more interesting than the Bachelor -esque story about Prince Maxon choosing his bride from 35 girls while the rest of the country looks on. Welp, still true. At the end of the first book, the field had been whittled down to 6. You'd think it'd have been over quickly after that, but it stretches on for two more books. Frankly, I got tired of America's back and forth of "I don't know if I want Maxon or if I want Aspen," followed by, "How can Maxon keep stringing me along like this???" Are we supposed to feel sympathy for her when she gets upset about Maxon's inability to commit when she behaves the same way? Well, Maxon ...

Thoughts at a glance: *** (I liked it) I kind of resisted reading this one for a while, based on the summary: 35 girls vying for the chance to be the prince's bride? It sounded like a YAF dystopian version of The Bachelor . I'm not a big fan of anything that furthers the societal notion that female relationships are fraught with contention and competition. I am not about that life, yo. But, I definitely wanted to see what the hype was about (since book #4 just came out recently), so I read it. I'm surprised that the Divergent  series gets so much flack for being too similar to The Hunger Games , when The Selection  is faaaaaar closer - it's set in a newly formed country sprung from the ashes of the USA, and instead of being divided into numbered districts, everyone is divided into numbered castes , with Ones being the royal family and Eights being the criminals and outcasts. The main story is that Prince Maxon has come of age, and the method for choosing a bride i...