'The Heir' Book Review

Title: The Heir 

Author: Kiera Cass

Genre: Romance, Dystopian 

'The Heir' Book Review

Let me start of by saying that I am 99.9% sure that The Selection is my favourite book series – ever. And I read a lot, so there is a lot of competition for me.

I remember being enchanted by The Selection’s book cover the first time that I saw it. I didn’t even know what it was about but I was desperate to read it! It took me over a year to finally get around to buying it (I know but I was a poor student and couldn’t afford it!) I don’t know why but every time I have the opportunity to buy the sequel at the same time, I never do because I’m always wondering – what if I don’t like it?

Let me tell you, I always regret it! As was the case with The Elite, I jumped online to buy it as soon as I finished the first book and then had to wait a week (a week!) for it to arrive. But I read that immediately as well.

The interesting thing for me as well, is The Selection has a consistent love triangle and I usually decide which couple I am rooting for straight away, but this wasn’t the case with The Selection. It took me two books to decide which couple I liked the most.

After that I had to wait a year for the final instalment ‘The One’ which has to be the most excruciating wait for a book ever. It was perfect. So, when I found out that Kiera Cass had decided that she was going to write another Selection book – I was elated. I was even more thrilled when I found out it was going to be centred on their daughter.

Now, for the last month or so, I have been placed on a self-inflicted book ban (basically, I’m not allowed to buy any more books because I already have around 15 that I haven’t read yet.) For some reason, I wasn’t all that excited for The Heir to come out. I wanted to read it, don’t get me wrong but I was planning to wait until I finished the other 15 books. And then it got to about 4 days before it was due to release. And I needed it.

I’ve read The Heir on and off for the last couple of days probably when I should have been planning lessons or marking books but this is a Kiera Cass book and so it takes precedence. I found it quite a slow introduction at first, I was quite apprehensive to whether I was going to enjoy it or not and I think that might’ve been why.

We have our main character, Eadlyn Schreave the daughter of our main characters from the previous series: Maxon and America. She’s the next in line to the throne and stresses about the job of being Queen, constantly. Which, I guess I can’t blame her all that much about. We are introduced to some familiar faces (May, Marlee, Aspen etc.) and new characters like Kile, the son of Eadlyn’s mothers best friend. Now, as an audience we already love Marlee because well, she’s Marlee. I’ve yet to find anybody on the internet that dislikes her as a character and if you do, what is wrong with you? (I’m kidding, sort of.) So for that reason being, you feel sort of inclined to like her children too, well wrong, because our main character detests both her son (Kile) and her daughter (Josie, a total pain in the arse.)

At the end of ‘The One’ we were left with the idea that America and Maxon were going to live happily ever after, get rid of the castes and the kingdom will love them forever. The one thing I like about Cass’s book is that it’s realistic, because well everybody isn’t happy – nobody knows where they stand anymore and so there continues to be uproars which puts a whole lot of pressure on our heroine. Enough pressure that her parents ask her to have her own selection, something she is not so thrilled about. But she has a plan.

Eadlyn Schreave doesn’t believe in falling in love which is the weirdest plot line of the entire book because her parents have had the most adorable falling in love story around. But okay, Cass, I’ll follow. She doesn’t take the selection seriously and doesn’t plan on falling in love and she hasn’t – yet.

Things aren’t planning out the way she expected, she actually likes some of the boys – including Kile who she originally hated and who unexpectedly ended up in the selection. She isn’t as loved by the public as she thinks; one moment includes people throwing food at her. Yeah. There are also a couple of incidents involving a few unsavoury boys, if you catch my drift. Pretty brave, Cass.

I have to admit, I wasn’t the biggest fan of our main character in the first half of the book, she comes across as spoilt and bratty – which she’s been brought up to be a princess and I respect that but she was a little irritating to begin with. However, this does reflect how it works in the book, our main men of the selection and the public do not know how to take our future queen until they begin to see a different side of her (some of them anyway) which is a reflection of my own opinion of her. Interesting.

Differently to the first book, there is no love triangle – it’s more like a love hexagon or something because Eadlyn likes a few of the boys though she’s only kissed two. Also, differently for me anyway, I know who I ship together this time and they are bloody adorable that’s all I can say. Don’t let me down, Cass.

Oh, and Cass – I have a bone to pick with you. That ending. Yeah, you know the one I mean. That ending that had me jumping of the sofa and running into my roommates room with actual tears in my eyes. Not cool.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Did I enjoy it as much as The One? Probably not but that book is also the third installment and maybe I’m  not as emotionally invested in these characters yet. All I know is, its going to be another excruciating wait for the next one!