The Elite (The Selection #2) by Kiera Cass

Kiera Cass – Kiera Cass

Harper Teen

336 pages

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The hotly-anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestseller The Selection.

 

Thirty-five girls came to the palace to compete in the Selection. All but six have been sent home. And only one will get to marry Prince Maxon and be crowned princess of Illea.

 

America still isn’t sure where her heart lies. When she’s with Maxon, she’s swept up in their new and breathless romance, and can’t dream of being with anyone else. But whenever she sees Aspen standing guard around the palace, and is overcome with memories of the life they planned to share. With the group narrowed down to the Elite, the other girls are even more determined to win Maxon over—and time is running out for America to decide.

 

Just when America is sure she’s made her choice, a devastating loss makes her question everything again. And while she’s struggling to imagine her future, the violent rebels that are determined to overthrow the monarchy are growing stronger and their plans could destroy her chance at any kind of happy ending.

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I have very good memories of the first book. I loved it because of his cute love story because of his good way to enter in this world. But now, we don't have the advantage of discovering a story; on the contrary, I begin with little expectations. So, my relation with this book is completely different compared to The Selection. No very bad, but not very great either.

The first thing that I can say is a problem named America. She is so weak in this book, I didn't understand her at all! She has reaction and thoughts that made me mad. In the first opus, I loved her because of her temper, but now, every good side of her is vanished. It the most bad point of this book! Because of her reaction, she prevents a lot of good thing to happen. Briefly, in this opus, America is boring and a little bit (no offense!) bitchy. I can easily generalize this boring-temper to every character in this opus! Everybody has pissed me. I don't know if it was me or the author, but I was just really mad of this character who can't choose.

Negatve points expressed, I can pass to the good one. Action and plot is there. You can't be boring about it! There is action in a very good tempo, so we can't see the time pass, and it is awesome. Despite his 336 pages, The Elite can read very rapidly and I think that it is a very good way to love this book during his reading. If it was long, I couldn't bear America and every other characters. I hope that everybody will have to recover a good temper for the book 3. If not, I will be crazy.

Despite this problem with America, I can say, objectively that this book serves to explain a very good point in this story which was blurred in the first opus. So, in this book we discover the politic in Illea! It is just sooo intriguing to discover the background of this monarchy. The thing I discover is just amazing, I hope that (again) the book 3 will insist on this point.

Love Intrigue. I think that Kiera Cass has done too much in this point. It is so shocking to have this type of relationship, I didn't take care of this during my reading, but after I realize that it is strange and weird and unrealistic. Briefly, I hope better for the third. Even the romance is replaced to love affair which break everybody's heart.

Tension is here! Every girl in the Elite is friendly outwardly and "contest beast" in their interior. So, you will see that the naivety of the first book is over and the time is to competition! I understand that and it is better for the plot.

The end of this story (spoiler free, don't worry!) is just full of hopes for the sequel and the end of this trilogy. I hope that America learned lesson of this all story passed during this opus. If not, I will kill her and continue without her!

If I said cute for the first, this second opus is mainly stressful, hopeless and informative. I prefer the first, but we couldn't do without this opus, which is bad for our nerves and good for the plot.

“ What would it be like to simply love Maxon ? ”

Serious. Annoying. Stressful.

Love, a complicate feeling.

Walking Disaster by Jamie Mc Guire

Walking Disaster – Jamie Mc Guire

Simon & Schuster Inc.

448 pages

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Finally, the highly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Beautiful Disaster.

Can you love someone too much?

Travis Maddox learned two things from his mother before she died: Love hard. Fight harder.

In Walking Disaster, the life of Travis is full of fast women, underground gambling, and violence. But just when he thinks he is invincible, Abby Abernathy brings him to his knees.

Every story has two sides. In Beautiful Disaster, Abby had her say. Now it’s time to see the story through Travis’s eyes.

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When I saw that Beautiful Disaster had a second book, in addition, in Travis' POV! I was in shocked, but also excited to read it! I thought that it could be more intense because of Travis' situation in this relationship.

And ... I can easily conclude that this challenge is remained! This book is, from the beginning to the end, wonderful, powerful, just MAGNIFICIENT. In this book, we understand well every Travis' act. We begin to like him, defend him against Abby's accusation.

We discover Travis precisely, his feeling, his definition of love, his reason for acting as a jackass, everything about him and his life are in this book. Definitely, I liked him very much, more than Abby who was a little bit annoying. And in the Travis' POV, it becomes worse, she becomes as a sort of hell even if Travis is too lover to realize it. I'm not here to slander Abby, but she was just, sometimes, CRUAL.

This book will crescendo, I mean that the (apart prologue and epilogue) there is an increasing of feelings, of action, of everything that transforms this book in a wonderful reading. Firstly, it is so calm, so good, but without waves, but advancing means more action, more feelings, more heartbreaking thing because in this book, every feeling is multiplied by ten. After the middle of the book, everything becomes more intense and heartbreaking, and my heart lose.

As you can see, I repeat the word "heartbreaking" because it is the way this book it is. Heartbreaking because of Travis. He is so sympathetic, sentimental as a kid that ... it becomes a so cute story between them. We understand better than this relationship is not simple, on the contrary, it erodes them, but also completed then ... We understand better their fusional relationship.

Jamie McGuire wrote a wonderful prologue and epilogue. It permits to begin this story with a big touch of love, which permits us to understand well Travis' behaviour. I was on the edge of crying from the beginning. Ever you read prologue, you are sure to love this book. I can say the same to the epilogue which ends this book, this story, this whole "disaster" by an exceptional final. I had a stupid smile on my face while I read this epilogue. I think that this book stuff are the most important thing in this book because it permits us to not forgetting this book.

I also want to speak about this type of book with a different point of view. At the beginning, I was so skeptical about reading the same period, but with different eyes, but when I just finished reading it, I understand one thing. This type of book are more than same story, it shows us that every event are differently considered by person and that a character did the interpretation which influences the reader.

During this reading, I feel the same feeling that I felt in Beautiful Disaster. I thought that every smile that I make in the first book would not influence me in the second, but it did. Yes, because sometimes, replicas are the same. It was just an amazing and unaccountable feeling to discover again this complex story.

“ I didn’t say you’re a bad-person. I just don’t like being a foregone conclusion for the sole reason of having a vagina.”

Heartbreaking. Love. Amazing.

The meaning of freaking out love.

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie Mc Guire

Beautiful Disaster – Jamie Mc Guire

Simon & Schuster Inc.

416 pages

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The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University's Walking One-Night Stand.

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs—and wants—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

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Such a perfect book! Everything that I wanted is here, cuteness, beauty, violence, love, friendship... And also, Abby and Travis are just amazingly cute!

I began this book with a little doubt because it begins with a fight! It's not certainly the way I think a love story can begin?! But the sequel is good, awesome, amazing... we discover little by little the Travis' personality. He is a real jackass, but when the subject is Abby, everything will change. Of course, we also discover a girl who is not sure of her, she has a secret, but she is good, I liked her! Maybe she is little reserved, but this is Abby, we couldn't blame her for that.

This story is created step by step! Indeed, we have many step in their relationship... it's so cool to see the difference! They will change to love, for each other... I also said, but it's so sweet that I must repeat it. I loved the way the author advance the love between each other.

I want to say the only problem in this book. It's a big problem, its one chapter that I hated because it's not what I expected...I mean that, was too weird for me. It is the only thing that I hated in this book. I loved the rest of the book.

I said cute and sweet and it really is! There were plenty of sentences that I loved that I quote, it's so sweet. It reflects naturally the love's strength between our characters. They love is so intense that I lost me in their relationship that is apart from intense, so complicate, so wonderful... so complete !

Yeah! They love is complicate, and that is the basis of the plot. I don't want to spoil the story, but Abby's expectation of love and Travis' is not the same, not at all. They are so different, so unbind, but also so accomplice, so loving, so right... But is this reason or the love will win? I don't say the answer; you could read for that!

The end is S.M.A.R.T. I also love this final, it is so... [I don't have any good adjectives to describe this final]. It could be easy, but it is the final that this book deserves. You know, I want to spoil you, and say my every feeling about this book, but it would be bad for you, so I'll try to retain.

I can't finish this review without bringing some quote (without spoiler, of course) as :

“The more he smiled, the more I wanted to hate him.”

My final advice can be : read this book, it deserves it !!! If you read and doesn't like, you can come to me and complain, but please, read it !

Love. Love. Love.

The meaning of freaking out love.