The One
Ratings314
Average rating3.7
Pretty much what I expected, given the first two. I liked this one more than the first two, however (I think it's mainly because Aspen was hardly in it). Was entertained by a couple plot twists, but that's basically it. Still the same maddening protagonist that we love to hate.
No, I will not be reading the fourth one. There shouldn't be a fourth one at all, in my opinion.
OMG!!!! I absolutely loved this book. It was the best one in the whole series so far. I loved the conflict between America and Maxon. I had all kinds of emotions while reading this book. For a moment I was so scared that Maxon was going to marry Kriss instead of America. I just can't believe all the shocking things that happened. I grew to love some of the characters that I hated in the last two books, and vice versa. It was so sad that Celeste and Queen Amberly died. I was not so heart broken by the King's death because of how he treated America and the selection process as a whole. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves love stories.
Short Review: I got through the whole trilogy in large part (like I think many) because I thought the covers were cool. The first book was flat, the second book better and gave me hope that the third could be really good. But it lost most of the external conflict in the story and was reduced to, “if you love me then why can't you send home all of the other girls.” “Well how can I send home all of the other girls if you won't say you love me.” There is just not enough meat to who says I love you first to sustain a book. So the trilogy ends as it started, fairly flat. It is disappointing because there is potential here. Just didn't carry through.
My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/the-one-by-kiera-cass/
The politics from book 2 continues but can't rescue the book from two simultaneous love triangles. Chapter after chapter of conflict hinges on passive aggressive refusal to be the first to say “I love you.” The rebellion is fleshed out slightly more, but only enough to make you frustrated that it's not fully explained.
Ahhhh I'm so pleased with the ending!
I'll write a proper review tomorrow, it's currently past 1am!
Review:
I'm so happy America finally came to her senses and allowed herself to love Maxon! About time! Maxon is such a sweetheart and so kind, and she's treated him like rubbish for ages, but finally she decided to show him how much she cares about him.All the deaths killed me though... First, her father? No, not okay. Then Celeste, and Queen Amberly. The King also died, but good riddance, says I! The sentence where Celeste was killed completely took me by surprise. I had to read it fifteen times before I was able to continue reading.And I can't believe Aspen actually married Lucy (well, they were going to get married anyway)! I think I mentioned them getting married in my review of The Elite, am I a psychic yet? Haha!
Actual review: 4.75
Aspen and Lucy?? It just didn't work for me. I finally came around to the idea of Maxom and America, but the .25 I took away is for Aspen's pairing.
Great ending to the series. I thought it was better paced then the previous two. Loved the endings for each of the characters.
If you've ever wondered what The Bachelor would be like with teenagers in the future, look no further!!!
With double the love triangles of Twilight and half the plot of The Hunger games.
I hate to be harsh because I can see the promise of a good story teller, but this book just didn't follow through.
I am so pleased with the way this fun and thoughtful series ended. While it was certainly a romance - after all, the whole point was to see who Maxon would choose - it was the other elements that kept me enthralled, and led me to root for America, Maxon, Aspen, and even, inexplicable, Celeste. I loved that even when America was conflicted, confused, and unsure of her relationships, she never lost sight of herself, and was never willing to settle or allow herself to be less than what she wanted to be. I appreciated the author's clear-eyed portrayal of a love that won't be easy, and of her insistence that this is NOT a happily-ever-after story. This is really, really good YA writing, and I will definitely be recommending it to lots of other readers I know.
The end was a little rough... okay a LOT rough. But I still enjoyed it for what it was. These books have been a great distraction and I enjoyed the ride.
I'd been desperate to read the concluding chapter in Keira Cass' trilogy ‘The Selection'. The dystopian story of a society where people are branded into castes or classes and forced to remain in that forever I has fallen in love with the fairy tale story of how America Singer is entered into a competition where the prize is to win the hand in marriage of Prince Maxon.
Books 1 & 2 had been largely about the growing relationship between America & Maxon, the competition and it's entrants and a little bit about the civil unrest growing in the fictional land of Illea. In the concluding book we know that Maxon must make his choice of wife and we pray his choice will be America - or do we? We still have America's childhood friend and first love Aspen in the background.
This book has so many similarities between recent young adult series it's scary. The fractured, segregated unhappy population forced to watch a public competition a la Hunger Games. The two heroes forcing us to wonder whom America will choose is very Twilight, Team Maxon v's Team Aspen mirroring Meyers books. It has all the things we loved about those books.
The final book in the series didn't waste any time in getting started, it dove straight in with no plot recaps, immediate action and it took me a chapter or too to reacquaint myself with who was whom and where we had left the action. Once if caught back up though I immediately became aware that in this book the focus would be equally on the civil unrest outside the palace as much as it would on the competition for Prince Maxon. As a result it meant we got to see a little more out with the palace walls and began to question the existing status of the country more as the book progressed.
I have a definite sense this series had run it's course, there is no way we could have got more books from the concept, there's only so many balls and functions that America could attend in pursuit of her prince and those secret trysts were getting ‘Old'. So much of this series has been about the lavish life in the palace but it was losing it's readership appeal and it's appropriate the series concluded. I also feel that that the ending of the book was lovely but I felt that Cass could have gotten another hundred pages or so from her characters. The events which shaped the books conclusion seemed to be shoehorned into a chapter, maybe 2 (they're short chapters) and I believe more drama and suspense could have been wrung from the events to give a less floaty and flimsy feel. It was all a little too quickly and neatly handled with no real grit about it.
All in all I've enjoyed my time with America and it was a great, if not original, concept. The books stand together as a great series for young girls and I'd recommend them to young adult readers who like their dystopian books with a large spoonful of sugar.
While this book certainly isn't winning any originality awards, it ended well enough.
So good! A very wonderful way to dissolve the love triangle too. it was very natural and fluid. I would've liked more on the rebels and liked more development on that storyline, but i understand it wasn't exactly prevalent to the love story. i just like politics :)
I don't know what it is about this series but I absolutely loved it!
I just finished this and I can't even explain what I'm feeling!
More to come later.
Eu gostei, de um modo geral. Confesso que primeiro li o epílogo para ter certeza de que o final estaria dentro do que eu esperava ~e não me arrependo por nenhum momento. Algumas coisas poderiam ter sido deixadas de lado para que outras pudesse ter sido exploradas mais profundamente - e o final foi realmente bastante corrido, como aconteceu nos outros livros. Sentirei saudade de alguns personagens que infelizmente ficaram pelo caminho. Maxon cresceu bastante, amadureceu como deveria ser. Aspen poderia ter tido mais oportunidades para conversar com America - porque suas conversas realmente não foram satisfatórias.