Review Detail

I liked the first book of this series. The whole Bachelorette thing was new and interesting. A normal girl has to compete with 24 other girls to marry the prince, never seen that before in a book. The book had a good pace and I liked the relationship of prince Maxon and America. The whole dystopian theme in the book was not really there, but just as YA romance book it was pretty good. So I was excited to read the second book: The Elite. The cover looked amazing, so I had my hopes up.

But when I started reading the Elite, I soon discovered it was not merely as good as the Selection.
The whole Bachelorette/competition thing was reduced to a minimum. There were a few challenges for the remaining girls, but the concept that made book 1 good was gone.
Another thing that made me not like the book was America constantly getting mad at Maxon for spending time with other girls. She just could get her mind around it that he did that because he had to in the competition. She was constantly doubting herself and being jealous of the other girls. Her character therefore came accross as weak and insecure.
Also the 'violent' rebels that were described in the summary were non-existent. Sure there were a few 'attacks', but nothing really happened with that and they sure were not violent.
The worst was that the whole plot of the book only revolved around the love triangle of America, Aspen and Maxon. America and Maxon in the first book were cute together, but adding Aspen, her boyfriend before the Selection, in the second book did certainly not make the book better. A love triangle as such is not bad, but America became really irritating because of it. She was constantly changing her mind who she wants to be with and this most of the time without apparent reason. This becomes very annoying after the third change, make up your mind already! The character of Aspen also was not developed, to me he just remained this annoying boy who kept getting between America and Maxon.
With this book I got the feeling that if I skipped half of it I would still understand everything perfectly. The ending was pretty boring, no cliffhanger or anything and I am not sure I will read the next one. So, the first book was not good as a dystopian book and this one is not even good as a romantic one.

I would not recommend this book, the love triangle is just too annoying and all-consuming and the protagonist is unlikeable.

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