The Heir    By Kiera Cass  Book Review

 

Didn't really feel like writing fanfic today so instead I did a book review.

I know I said I’ll have it up by Monday and today is Thursday but things got really busy with school and life so please forgive me!

 The Heir by Kiera Cass is the 4th book in the Selection series book with 342 pages. Book 1 is known as The Selection, book 2 is The Elite, book 3 is The One, and she is releasing a 5th book The Crown on May 3rd 2016. Unlike the other 3 books which follow America Singer, The Heir is told from her daughter’s point of view, Princess Eadlyn Schreave. Much like her mother, Eadlyn is very stubborn and at times a very frustrating character. The whole plot of this book is that for the first time in history the throne will be held by a queen with no king by her side and Eadlyn is pressured by her parents America and Maxon to hold a Selection. Eadlyn agrees but makes a rule, if she does not fall in love within 3 months, she does not have to marry anyone participating in the Selection. I found this book unique compared to the other books in the series because now, the Selection is told from the person who is selecting.

  To begin the book and mostly through the middle, I was not exactly fond of Princess Eadlyn. I found her to be obnoxious and not being considerate of other people’s feelings. The first time Eadlyn decides she is going to do an elimination from the Selection, she decides to barge into the Men's Room and start telling people to leave. I personally didn't know what to think about this but kind of laughed at the men's reactions, but it did seem quite mean.

  The first time Eadlyn decides to go talk to Ahren before the Selection even started, I really enjoyed their bond and communication together. I was from that moment on a huge Ahren fan. I also really like Osten (Eadlyn's youngest brother) but didn't exactly get to know Kaden too much and I felt like he was just a background character.

  We find out in this book that Marlee had two children Kile and Josie, and Kile is chosen to be in the Princess's Selection but nobody knows who put his name in. Eadlyn hates both of Lady Marlee's children but as the book progresses learns that Kile at least isn't who she thought he was. We also find out the Aspen still works at the palace and is now known as General Leger and is now married to Lady Lucy (America's old maid), we also learn that Lucy cannot have a child and has been trying for quite some time. There is a scene were Eadlyn over hears Lucy and Aspen talking about this and it brought tears to my eyes.

  The Selection boys all have interesting characters. My personal favourite is Henri and Erik. Henri doesn't speak English and Erik is his translator. I find Henri so heart-warming and I feel bad that because he doesn't speak English it holds him back. Let's talk about Eadlyns and Eriks relationship because guys THEY ARE SO CUTE TOGETEHR! Every little interaction they have with each other makes me smile. My favourite is when Eadlyn is in the hallway crying and she doesn't realize that Erik is there waiting at her bedroom door to talk to her and when she stands up she sees him and  they have this whole conversation about how Henri was thinking that by kissing Eadlyn that he was doing something wrong and the whole time their talking I’m like AWWWWW. Then there is Kile, who she has known all her life. They have this one scene were Eadlyn and Kile are in her room and she asks him to kiss her in the hallway and Kile agrees if Eadlyn talks to his mom about leaving the palace they agree on these terms and when they are kissing we find out that what was supposed to be only a fake kiss meant more to Eadlyn then it was supposed to. Then throughout the book there are two more scenes were they are kissing. The only thing I didn’t like is that they never talked and even when Kile tried to talk Eadlyn would get mad at him and leave, which was really annoying. We also meet Jack, who Eadlyn goes on a date with. She brings him to watch a movie anw while they were walking there Jack is trying to lead the way but doesn’t know where he is going and Eadlyn keeps telling him it’s the wrong way. When they finally get the the theatre, she asks him what her wants to watch he says “Something with action”. He basically picks the movie without any input from Eadlyn. This was now the second sign that there was something up with Jack, because he also mentions something about he wants Eadlyn to be scarred and snuggle up to him during the movie. When the movie is over and they are walking back to Jack’s room he starts to say these wired things like “That way you just barged into the Men’s Room and started eliminating people was totally sexy.” And things like that. He then pushes her agests the wall and starts touching her, she begs him to stop and eventually breaks free running away to find guards. She finds them and yells at them to get Jack out of there the guards run to start looking for Jack and Eadlyn sees Ahren. Eadlyn explains what happened and Ahren ends up punching Jack. Oddly I liked this part because it showed how Ahren loves Eadlyn and stands up for her. That night Eadlyn sleeps with her 3 brothers this was one of my favourite scenes in the whole book as it shows that royal or not, at the end of the day they are still a family who loves each other.

    We have all of this drama around Eadlyn only holding a Selection to distract the country while Maxon tries to come up with a way to bring the country peace once again because people are rebelling against the elimination of the casts. Eadlyn you can tell is clearly trying to help her dad out but sometimes ends up just bringing more negativity. Like when she talks to the women from Calgary in the Women’s Room and then the lady blabs about it to the reporters about Eadlyn saying some things that basically state that she doesn’t like the Selection. Which is of course true, but the public is not supposed to know about it. At times I found this kind of annoying that there is so much drama about this, like just make a public statement and move on.

  Now, since that pretty much sums up some of my favourite or most memorable parts let’s talk about the heartbreaking ending. So, in the end after Eadlyn talks to Ahren about Camille and how he should “Explore other options” Ahren decides he is going to elope with Camille and move to France. The thing is, he doesn’t tell anyone. When Eadlyn figures it out, she finds a note that Ahren left her. The note basically says that he figured out why Eadlyn has said what she said to him, because she didn’t want Ahren to leave, and Ahren couldn’t not leave so he desided to elope with Camille and move to France. One thing that I did love about the ketter is that Ahren was very honest with Eadlyn and told her what she needed to hear. Ahren told Eadlyn that her people don’t exactly like her, which I knew was true but still felt bad for her he also told her that the stuff Maxon is dealing with is much worse then she knows. After reading the letter, Eadlyn is found by a guard and the guard tells her that America, her mother has had a heart attack. By now, reading this made me cry. Then Kiera Cass writes us this heartbreaking secne were Maxon is beside America’s bed and hes crying and you can just tell by the way that she describes Maxon that he still really loves America and this scene was so cute and romantic it made me cry even more. We end the book at this, not knowing if America will be okay or not. But I really, really hope that she is. I don’t want America to die, because what will happen to Maxon? Eadlyn will most likely call off the Selection and then she doesn’t get her love story and America’s and Maxon’s love story comes to a sad end and just all of the feels. Plus what about Marlee and Lucy and ASPEN?!? She just can’t die.

That’s all for my book review on The Heir by Kiera Cass, overall I would give this book a 90% ish, because I have loved the Selection series ever since book one and even though this wasn’t as good as my favourite book The One it was still a above average book and still had all of the characters that we know and love from the first 3 books. Thank you all for reading.

      -Katelynn