The Crown (The Selection, # 5)
By: Kiera Cass
Published: May 3rd 2016 by HarperTeen
279 pages
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian
Source: Borrowed from library
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Goodreads description--When Eadlyn became the first princess of Illéa to hold her own Selection, she didn’t think she would fall in love with any of her thirty-five suitors. She spent the first few weeks of the competition counting down the days until she could send them all home. But as events at the palace force Eadlyn even further into the spotlight, she realizes that she might not be content remaining alone.
Eadlyn still isn’t sure she’ll find the fairytale ending her parents did twenty years ago. But sometimes the heart has a way of surprising you…and soon Eadlyn must make a choice that feels more impossible—and more important—than she ever imagined.
So The Heir left off with Eadlyn saying that she knew which of the Selection that she should focus on. That left me thinking that she'd pretty much picked her candidate even though there were three characters that I felt were frontrunners. I had one that I was rooting for and I have to say that she didn't pick who I wanted. Yet I did see who she picked from a mile away and not just from The Crown but all the way back to The Heir.
Eadlyn has quite a lot on her shoulders when The Crown starts. Her twin brother has just run off to elope. Her mother has suffered a heart attack. She's thrown into the role of regent while her father takes over seeing to the care of America. And then of course there's the Selection. Not to mention that Eadlyn doesn't have the best public image. And so we begin with another mass elimination where Eadlyn cuts the Selection candidates down to the Elite. She can't do much to help her mother except to try to alleviate responsibilities from her father so that he can be by America's side the whole time. As for the public, Eadlyn is sure that choosing a husband will fix what everyone sees wrong with her.
I struggled with The Crown in some ways. I felt like Eadlyn got off easy when it came to eliminating contestants from the Selection. For the most part, when things got sticky candidates seemed to eliminate themselves rather than wait to be asked to leave. I don't know. This didn't feel right to me sometimes. Other times it did. I really thought things with Hale were a cop out and a total stereotype. I never could understand why Henri was such a front runner in her mind because there was no way she'd be able to have any meaningful conversation with him. This was pointed out multiple times, and I never really felt like there was a legit answer given. Of course, with the way things worked out in the end, the answer is a bit obvious, but I felt like it might not have been handled in the best way. And then there's also the fact that Eadlyn abruptly makes a huge governmental decision in a spur of the moment situation that would have cizmic repercussions. You can't just make those changes without major thought. And while the character could have been thinking about those things for a while, there's truly no indication that she had been. It all felt a bit "tidy" and quick for me.
Ultimately, I felt like The Crown fell a little bit short of what I hoped. I went into The Heir with low expectations and was impressed overall. That led me into starting The Crown with elevated expectations which resulted in me being disappointed. I was disappointed most of all with how easy things worked out in the end. I think I remember this being a complaint that I had with The One too, so maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. I guess in the end, I just felt like it was neither a really good nor a really bad book. The Crown gets 3 Stars from me. Have you read The Crown? What did you think? Let me know!
