Happily Ever After – Kiera Cass
*Warning – may contain spoilers*
Publisher: HarperCollins
First published: 2015
Cover: Paperback
Pages: 387
Blurb: America’s story wasn’t the only one with
a happy ending…
Before
Amberly came to the palace… She was a Four in love with a One.
Before
Maxon met the girl of his dreams… He was the boy of someone else’s.
Before Aspen opened his heart to
someone new… He was determined to fight for his first love.
And
before Marlee could fall for a prince… She was swept off her feet by a guard.
Four
stories to fall in love with!
History of my copy: At the beginning of
May, I treated myself to a spot of book shopping. (You can find my book haul
post here.) Although I had been considering buying The Heir, when I had to
choose between the two, I ended up choosing Happily
Ever After as I wanted to finish America’s story.
I’m not really a short stories fan, but I read this
selection pretty quickly and rather enjoyed some of them. I finished it around 3 weeks
ago so I’m just going to give a brief review of each story.
Something that makes this book extra special is the
illustrations. They are simplistic yet capture the characters wonderfully.
The Queen: I love
Queen Amberly and only wished that she appeared in The Selection series more. She adored her son, Maxon, and was
especially kind to all the girls. Because of this, I was super excited to read
this story in an effort to find out why this wonderful woman ended up married
to the monster that King Clarkson is. Thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed. Whilst
I still dislike the couple, the story itself was rather sweet and it was nice
to see how the Selection was for these two. One thing I would’ve preferred
though was if there was a bit more history to the story. As the story was set
probably at least a couple decades before The
Selection, I felt as if things should’ve changed a bit within those 20
years. On the other hand, perhaps that’s just part of IllĂ©a – that it never
changes (until America became Queen of course).
The Prince: Whilst
this story was okay, I didn’t really feel much for it. I guess it was nice for
Cass to give us a background as to why Maxon is so terrible around girls at
first, but aside from that it didn’t really add anything to the series.
The Guard: Aspen.
Ugh. Hated him from the start and still hate him now. Honestly, his whole
character felt like an excuse to make Maxon jealous, to let America cheat and
just to have a love triangle. Yawn. Most of the story focussed on his feelings
for America and I really couldn’t care less about that, so I very nearly didn’t
finish it. I did power through, however, and whilst his relationship with Lucy
was a little better, it still didn’t do anything for me.
The Favourite: Marlee!
I don’t have much to say about this one, apart from the fact I loved it! The
whole scenario between Marlee and Carter was one of my favourite in The Selection series as it showed how
Maxon was ready to defy the set rules to protect not only America, but to do
what is right.
Scenes From Celeste: Throughout
The Selection series, I really loved
Celeste. That is, until she was ruined by making her good underneath it all.
She was the only girl besides America and Marlee that actually stood out and
was different. These scenes from her point of view were quite refreshing, and
did make her change of character feel a little more realistic. They were a nice
addition to the collection but still, I’d rather Celeste stayed a cow right up
to the end.
The Maid: Just
like The Guard, I wasn’t a fan of
this story. Lucy and Aspen, America’s closest maid and her ex, as if that
hasn’t been seen before. I will, however, admit that I did prefer this to The Guard as I liked hearing Lucy’s
views, and there was a lot less of Aspen pining over America.
After The One: If
you read my review of The One, you’ll
know that I was highly disappointed by the ending to America’s Selection. This
scene though was the ending I wanted. It was perfect. It was set long enough
after The One that everything had
died down, it was sweet, and it gave it that final conclusion. In my opinion,
this one part was written better than the entire final book and should be
included in it. I loved it!
Where Are They Now?:
This is a short update on what 3 of the girls, Kriss, Natalie and Elise, did
after The Selection. This did nothing
for me, mainly because all but America, Celeste and Marlee felt like the exact
same person so by the time I read these, I had no idea who Kriss, Natalie and
Elise were and so didn’t care what they were up to. I guess this was a really
nice addition for anyone who connected with any of these girls, but to me it
seemed really pointless.
To read or not to
read: Don’t read. For those of
you who absolutely adored the series, I totally recommend this collection. For
me, Happily Ever After contained two
good stories (The Queen and The Favourite) along with the notable After The One and Scenes From Celeste, which leaves 3 stories I didn’t particularly
like, along with the pointless Where Are
They Now?. With more bad than good, Happily
Ever After kind of left me a little disappointed.
| The Selection | The Elite | The One |
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