This story takes place with Maxon and America's daughter, Eadlyn. Because she was the first born, she will be the first female that will rule the country, probably ever. All of this has partly come about from all of the changes that her parents have made. Like getting rid of the castes, and trying to make things more equal for everyone. Only things aren't going quite as smoothly as they could be. There are people not happy with how things have changed. And not just the ones who had been in the higher castes. Eadlyn has known her whole life that she will rule, and has gone to work with her father every day as soon as she could to learn the ropes. But with all the bad things happening, her parents decide that maybe it would be a bit of a distraction to hold a Selection for Eadlyn. Something that supposedly they hadn't been going to do anymore. Eadlyn is not happy about it. She doesn't feel like she's ready for a husband. And so at first she fights it, only agreeing to participate for 3 months to help with the distraction. Eadlyn comes up with all kinds of plans on how to scare the boys away so that she won't have to vote any of them out herself. When the selection occurs, the boys are picked randomly, much different than how they had been done. And one of the suitors is a boy that she's grown up with in the palace, named Kile, a boy she's always kind of argued and competed with. His younger sister is also a thorn in Eadlyn's side. She has taken her crowns and broken or lost them. Something she's not supposed to do at all.
As you can expect, the dates and spending time with all the boys doesn't go perfectly. Some are good dates, but then Eadlyn doesn't know if she wants them to be. She's never been one to open up to anyone really, and when one of the boys gets close, she leaves him abruptly and he is confused, and unhappy. There are more things like this. When she decides to do her first elimination, she ends up doing it in such a way that it doesn't turn out well. When she goes out in a parade at the beginning of the Selection, the reaction from her people isn't what she expected. Through all the boys and all the things going on, she learns a lot about herself, and how people see her. The Selection isn't over in this one book, so we have at least one more to go. I wish it was two more, but I think maybe there's just one?
I loved being back with the characters. I loved the friends who American and Maxon kept around, as family basically in the palace. I enjoyed the family interactions for the most part. But, like the suitors, I didn't quite "like" Eadlyn as much as I'd liked America. She had been spoiled, although she didn't necessarily act as much like a brat as Kile's little sister did. But she was so set on how she would lead, and feeling like that made her more important in that way, it was harder to like her. I did feel for Eadlyn though. Enough that I definitely could understand her feelings and sympathize with her when some of the boys turned out to be not so great guys, either violent, or a little too hands on. And as I said, I'm ready to read on and see if what she's learned in this first book will help her to actually pick a good guy and make the Selection what it is supposed to be. And the big thing that happened at the end of the book, well I am ready to know how that turns out as well. I'd call this another great addition to The Selection series.
