THERE ARE a lot of genres of books to choose from, and you’ve probably found the ones you like by now. Most people look for books that include all of their favorite genres, but those are rare to find. Three common favorite genres are comedy, romance, and dystopian. There are a lot of books that include two of those genres, but rarely all three. However, I have found a series of books, called The Selection, that is a dystopian romcom.

The Selection series includes 5 main books. The first 3 main books circled around the story of America Singer and Prince Maxon Schreave’s relationship. The 4th and 5th were about different main characters, but America and Maxon are still in them.

In the first book, The Selection, we were introduced to the palace. The palace was in Illéa, the United States 300 years in the future. Illéa’s citizens were divided into 7 castes, with 1’s being royalty and 7’s being the homeless. The higher your caste number, the poorer you were. Everything was very controlled, and there was almost no choice in anything.

In Illéa, people hate the caste system but don’t know how to seamlessly get rid of it. This created a lot of drama throughout the whole series, making the book focus on the broken society as well as the romance.

The selection was the contest America entered in the series, and the main goal of it was to become the next queen by winning Maxon’s heart. It allowed every eligible girl in Illéa that wished to enter to fill out a form. The forms were put it in baskets and later, 35 girls were drawn and flown to the palace to win Prince Maxon’s heart.

America and her family were 5’s. Her mother wanted her to enter because, while competing, each girl’s family received tons of money. She only entered to make her family and boyfriend, Aspen Leger, happy. She actually wanted to marry Aspen, even though it would mean she would be moved down a caste since Aspen was a 6. However, soon after she entered, Aspen broke up with her and her name was drawn. During her sendoff, she saw Aspen hugging another girl.

After being chosen, America decided to stay at the palace, but not for Maxon. She told Maxon that she needed to stay, although she didn’t wish to marry him, the second time they met. Maxon agreed to keep her as a friend. However, they soon fell in love and everything changed. The arguments they had throughout the series really made for most of the drama.

The fact that America was so in love with Aspen was very important to The Selection. America thought about Aspen a lot during the series. Although it doesn’t say, I believe many choices America made were because of Aspen. For example, she didn’t say she loved Maxon until The One, and I think it was because she was still holding onto Aspen. Later, we find out Aspen was doing the same. 

The series was so amazing that I couldn’t put it down the entire time I was reading. America was an incredibly complex character, and Kiera Cass, the author, has exceptional writing skills. Altogether, this series was an amazing read and I recommend it to anyone interested.