Book Review: The Heir (The Selection #4)

I fell in love with America and Maxon after finishing The Selection trilogy that I was thirsty for more. When I first started The Selection I knew there were two additional books that sort of served as an epilogue, but I didn’t think I would read them. That all changed after finishing the original trilogy and I didn’t know what to do with my life (yes, I really, really enjoyed them).

Now, after having finished The Heir, I wish I would have stopped at The Selection.

It wasn’t completely horrible, but it tore my dreams to shreds. Maxon and America are still there, but they are older and a little out of character sometimes, especially America. As for Maxon, he is always tired and trying to solve unsolvable problems.

The story is not about them, though. It’s about their daughter. Out of their four children, Eadlyn in the oldest and at 18 years old, she is being prepared for the throne. Following The Selection’s ending, Maxon does indeed get rid of the castes and more problems arise (I can parallel their situation to the time slavery was abolished, when even when the people were “free” they really weren’t). So in this story, people are still judged by the number they used to have when there were castes and there is a lot of discrimination. 

People aren’t happy.

The solution to all of this is, of course, to have another Selection. This time, for the future queen, Eadlyn. Believe me, not only is it not the same, it’s also a terrible idea.

There are a lot of things I don’t like about Eadlyn to start with… and then there are a lot of things I don’t like about the Selected. First of all, they were chosen at random. They didn’t even review the candidates before or did background checks on them. It just doesn’t make any sense. I mean, they will be let into the palace… you should at least know who these people are!

While Eadlyn is a spoiled brat, the Selected are the most self-righteous bastards alive. Really, it’s like they are all expecting the future queen to pursue them or she is just not a good person. It makes me sick. The combination isn’t pleasant as you go through the book. There are just too many things that don’t make sense. The best parts of this book are actually whenever we get to see Aspen or May or any of the old characters… everything else is just not enjoyable as the first book was.

The Heir ends in a cliffhanger, so I will read The Crown just to come full circle and hope the short stories she wrote from the original trilogy give me a better closure to these characters.

cheers!