For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in the palace and compete for the heart of the gorgeous Prince Maxon.

But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself- and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.

Review:
As everyone in the book blogging community knows, this is a book with a pretty cover and not a lot of substance with a lot of drama surrounding it. Author vs. blogger drama aside, I went into this book prior to hearing about the conflict about it and having just read the summary and seen the cover. As you can clearly see, the cover is gorgeous and the summary sounds interesting enough, likening it to both The Hunger Games and the Bachelor. In hindsight, that should have set off warning lights as the Hunger Games is one my favorite  books and the Bachelor is, well, the Bachelor. The writing was where most of the faults in this book, it just lacked any sort of finesse. It was very ordinary, boring writing that didn't aid in keeping my interest in the slightest. The story was predictable and dull, just a typical teenage fodder book featuring a lot of angst over nothing in particular. I didn't understand why America was so against being a part of the competition, why she put up such a fight over everything. She was just too whiny for my tastes, she never stopped and looked at what she was gaining from the situation versus what she was uncomfortable about. Not many of the other were fully developed and explored, they seemed like they were there just to fill the background.

The end wasn't very eye catching, in my opinion. It was really predictable and set up what was going to happen for the next book fairly obviously. It's this predictability that really sealed this book's fate as mediocre at best. Almost the entire time I was able to accurately guess what was going to happen, really taking away from any suspense or gripping factors of the book. I'll probably finish this series off, but probably from the library instead of buying them. I give The Selection a 2/5. That score is without considering all the drama around this book.