Book Review – The Crown by Kiera Cass

December 5, 2021
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The Crown by Kiera Cass
Series: The Selection, #5
Published on May 3, 2016 by HarperTeen
Genre: Young Adult, Romance
278 pages
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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.

Review

I just can’t give this book a rating of 3 or less like I did on the previous books of this series. It was surprisingly good! My! This book certainly gave us a lot of things to talk about, but I’m still in awe that I don’t know if I can give a proper review lol, so please bear with me.

I can already sense a really good change of Eadlyn’s character as early as its first few pages, and I really liked that. In The Heir, she was portrayed as this tough, snobbish and self-centered person, but in this book, it feels like she’s a whole new person. And yes, she certainly redeemed herself in this book big time. I don’t like to admit it, hahaha, but I was cheering her on all throughout this book. I’m still not a big fan of her, but you’ve got to give the girl credit after all that happened.

Speaking of which, there’s so many things that happened here that I don’t know where to start, lol. The Selection was narrowed down so fast which I really think was unfair to some, especially those that didn’t get the chance to have one on one with Eadlyn. Well, the circumstances call for it and Eadlyn doesn’t have any other choice. The good thing though is that she was able to pick the right guys to be part of the Elites. And speaking of Elites, something happened and that really surprised me. But altogether, I was happy with what Eadlyn did after that. She certainly changed a lot for good, and I really really liked that.

As for her family, my! I guess you can really never go wrong with family. Despite not liking the main character, I was still able to enjoy The Heir because of the family aspect, and as for this book, I have to say that Kiera Cass leveled it up which left me teary-eyed. It was really good. But it wasn’t just heartwarming scenes, Kiera Cass dropped another revelation which really made me angry and touched. I was angry with this specific character, that even if he’s already dead, all of those horrible things he did still haunts. And I was also touched on what Maxon did. I am trying not to care for him again, but reading the previous book and this, it’s hard not to, hahaha. This guy along with Aspen are the best father in this book, period.

Aside from her family, we were also able to see more about those people that are closest to her. In the previous book, there were a lot of characters mentioned but it felt that the author kind of forgot about them. But in this book, everyone has given their spotlight which makes me enjoy this story even more.

Unlike the previous book, there’s a new two-faced character here that deserves all of my hate. I still can’t believe his parents would approve, especially his mother, about what he’s trying to accomplish. His “defeat” is still not yet totally settled but knowing him, I’m sure he still has a lot on his sleeves. Actually, it feels like an open ending for me, I guess that’s what the next novella is for.

I have to warn you though, the next thing I will be mentioning below would be a very big spoiler so feel free to stop here if you don’t want to get spoiled, *wink.

I really thought the romance was good. I love Eadlyn’s interaction with Kile even before and reading this book solidified my decision to root for the guy. I also still adore Henri, he’s such a kind soul and it hurts me a little that he can’t communicate normally with the other guys because of language barrier. I also would like to mention Fox because he was such a charming guy really, and I felt sorry for what happened.

As for Erik, I always feel guarded whenever I read about him so I was really surprised about his “romance” with Eadlyn. Sure they do have some moments sometimes, but it just didn’t work for me. Kile is definitely a popular choice, and I would like to believe that some readers expected it to be him too, so I was… really surprised. Kiera Cass certainly made us believe that the two of them will end up together after all of that build-up. Man!

Well, whatever, it was still a good ending overall. I may not have rooted for Erik but I won’t deny that I was a little (yep, just a little, wahaha) moved by the ending.

After all of those things I’ve mentioned above, I believe this story should deserve my 5-star rating eh? But I’m a sore loser, hahaha, I still can’t believe Kiera Cass “changed” the obvious and dropped Kile (even though he’s still happy at the end and he’s not really romantically in love with Eadlyn), that’s why I am deducting the half star, wahaha.

So yep, just don’t mind the rating, hahaha. The Crown is my favorite from this series and I can’t wait to hear what you think of this book too 🙂

Other books in this series that I’ve reviewed: