The Selection Series book 4 - The Heir"

This is the fourth book in the Selection Series, but it is the start of a new plot line, so it is a good jumping on point. I don't feel like I'm missing anything. In fact, starting here helps me empathize with the new protagonist, Princess Eadlyn, the daughter of the original two leads. 

Her country used to have a caste system based on numbers? That's weird. Her parents weren't ALWAYS this fairy-tail-style romantic couple that she sees every day? Outright bizzare. So it's nice that way.  

This is a first-person perspective and it has an engaging narrative voice. We have a front row seat to Eadlyn's perspective on things, which is a big deal when she's grown up showing a particular careful image to the press, and now has to get more intimate with the Selection Boys. 

It's basically The Bachelorette, but with much higher stakes. And this time, it's basically a long-term publicity stunt to buy time for her father. He needs something to distract the country from civil strife while he works on a solution. Eadlyn turns out to be /terrible/ at this, because, as written previously, she has grown up hiding her true self from basically everyone, including herself, so she has no sense of perspective. 

The overall narrative meanders a lot. There doesn't seem to have been any sort of plan for Eadlyn's Selection other than "gather a bunch boys and film Eadlyn interacting with them". Sometimes big things happen out of nowhere, like Rule of Drama. Especially the ending. 

The ending is a big load of drama. It makes sense, sort of. The very first page foreshadows the ending, with its big shift of weight, and Eadlyn's shift of focus. So that feels earned. The other half of the drama bomb feels staged. Yes, staged, like the author is staging the events of Eadlyn's life in the same haphazard way that Eadlyn is staging the events of the Selection. If not for that, then I would think more highly of the ending. As it is, it feels like a manufactured cliffhanger, rather than a shifting a narrative weight Insert-Disc-Two sort of thing. 

Trickster Eric Novels gives "The Selection Series book 4 - The Heir" a C

Click here for my next book review:   PathFinder - First Edition - Core Rulebook

Click here for my previous book review: Shadow Guard - a Second Guard novel

Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.