The Selection
Kiera Cass, 2012
Romance Young adultScience fictionFantasy
A low-caste girl is entered in a royal competition for the prince’s hand, where televised courtship, real feelings and rebellion collide. A quick, bright-eyed read with a sharp, funny narrator whose longing for more than her caste allows pulls you along.
Feels like longing and hope. About love.
Who it’s for
You may enjoy this if you like royal courtship drama, reality-TV tension and a heroine with a temper and a conscience. Be aware it's the opening of a five-book series, so this volume ends with plenty still unresolved.
Why read it
It's a light, hopeful escape that still asks who gets to choose their own life, and the narrator's wit keeps the romance from feeling sugary.
A page from the book
A blessing for love that doubles as a warning.
I hope you find someone you can’t live without.I really do. And I hope you never have to know what it’s like to have to try and live without them. Kiera Cass.Kiera Cass's The Selection debuted in 2012 and became a New York Times bestseller; it is the first of a five-book series.
Books that feel like this
More by Kiera Cass
The Heir
Kiera Cass, 2015
A crown princess who never planned to marry is pushed toward a royal courtship, and toward the possibility that love might not be a cage.
The Elite
Kiera Cass, 2013
In a televised royal bride contest, a girl from the bottom caste weighs first love against a prince who is starting to matter.
The Crown
Kiera Cass, 2016
A princess who never planned to fall in love must choose a husband on live television while her country watches and her heart misbehaves.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is The Selection for me?
- You may enjoy this if you like royal courtship drama, reality-TV tension and a heroine with a temper and a conscience. Be aware it's the opening of a five-book series, so this volume ends with plenty still unresolved.
- What is The Selection like?
- A quick, bright-eyed read with a sharp, funny narrator whose longing for more than her caste allows pulls you along. Feels like longing and hope. About love.
- What should I read after The Selection?
- If you liked The Selection, try The Sun Is Also a Star (Nicola Yoon), Dragonfly in Amber (Diana Gabaldon) and Where She Went (Gayle Forman).
A taste of the feed
A word for the feeling that someone is already your future.
There’s a Japanese phrase that I like: koi no yokan. It doesn’t mean love at first sight. It’s closer to love at second sight. It’s the feeling when you meet someone that you’re going to fall in love with them. Maybe you don’t love them right away, but it’s inevitable that you will.
The Sun Is Also a Star · Nicola Yoon
The one thing he will ask to be weighed against the rest.
I will find you," he whispered in my ear. "I promise. If I must endure two hundred years of purgatory, two hundred years without you - then that is my punishment, which I have earned for my crimes. For I have lied, and killed, and stolen; betrayed and broken trust. But there is the one thing that shall lie in the balance. When I shall stand before God, I shall have one thing to say, to weigh against the rest." His voice dropped, nearly to a whisper, and his arms tightened around me. Lord, ye gave me a rare woman, and God! I loved her well.
Dragonfly in Amber · Diana Gabaldon
What you'd pay again, knowing exactly what it costs.
But I’d do it again. I know that now. I’d make that promise a thousand times over and lose her a thousand times over to have heard her play last night or to see her in the morning sunlight. Or even without that. Just to know that she’s somewhere out there. Alive.
Where She Went · Gayle Forman
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