3 Stars. This is definitely NOT a spoiler-free review so you have been warned!
First and foremost, Eadlyn had such a personality change from The Heir to The Crown that it gave me whiplash. This spoiled, selfish, brat of a girl all of a sudden becomes a kind of decent person, and while I always appreciate some character development, that was a little too much of a change to happen all of a sudden. The Heir leaves off with her still having such an attitude, although she did change a little bit in the process of book four, but when I picked up The Crown, the first thing I noticed was that she was actually kind of decent? Why? What changed that suddenly made her so willing to be nice and generous and care about her country above all else? That left me frustrated during the beginning, but gradually throughout the book I started ignoring it and focusing on the plot which, trust me, had its fair share of plot holes but we'll get into that later.
My main point of reading this book was for the boys, and let me tell you why. While we really don't get to experience much of them because 90% of the story is Eadlyn's internal monologue on what she's possibly going to do to maintain her position of princess without the people rioting (something that she constantly worries about but we
never actually see in the book). They all had such potential to be unique and beautiful characters that I wanted to learn more. It's fair to note this first:
Eadlyn drops the Selection down to a final six Elite in the beginning of the novel. Having said that, let's talk about the boys.
Hale is so sweet and kind and he develops so much throughout the book that I would gladly read a spinoff about him and the other remaining Selection candidates. Honestly, he does the bravest thing in the book when he shows Eadlyn his dedication to her but expresses his true feelings, and for me that was great.
Also his relationship with Ean sounded so precious that I really, really wanted another novel just to learn about how they fell for each other. While Ean wasn't my favourite, I approved of him because he didn't have to say much for Eadlyn to know how he felt about her and the palace and the Selection process. Kile developed a lot in this book too. He went from being someone who really didn't care about Eadlyn and the castle and wanted to run away from it to actually wanting to do things to change the castle and better it. Finally, Henri is the cutest little human being in the world. I wanted to pull him from the pages of the book and tuck him in my pocket to protect him forever because he's too sweet for this world and deserves so much better than having to deal with Eadlyn in any context. He was the only one who seemed to do whatever he could to make sure that everything was so bright and cheery, and he tried so hard to learn English for Eadlyn!!! Little sweetheart!
As for the others, they were all okay in their own ways.
Here's where the nonstop spoilers come in.
Eadlyn falling for Eikko (Erik) was so...not well written? I have to admit when they first talked in The Heir I knew she was going to pick him or Kile, but there was little to no interaction between them that deserved this whole big romantic storyline that she seemed to narrate in The Crown. Having said that, their little romance was cute. I loved the way they exchanged rings in their own way because it showed that they had feelings for each other, but I thought it was downright stupid that Eadlyn kept insisting it'd never be because she was required to pick a boy from the Selection when she insisted in The Heir that she had the ability to call off the Selection at any time when she agreed to it. Also let's once again talk about Henri, because the ending scene where he grabbed their hands and told them both that he loved them and that they had to be together was SO CUTE.
Speaking of that ending scene, the most ridiculous thing in this entire book was King Maxon's declaration about him committing treason. When Eadlyn ran up to him begging to marry Eikko I was expecting some hesitation but then an okay from him because he had his same spiel with America, but no off he goes into this story about how his dad beat him up as a kid and there was a mistress and half-sister drama with Lady Brice and NO. Just no. That was so unnecessary and immediately diverted my attention from an actually semi-decent ending for this overall average series. That was not necessary Kiera Cass, not in the slightest, and it jarred me out of actually caring about the book.
My overall feelings towards the book are basically summed up as cute, but will never read again. The Selection series was overall an average set of books that honestly should've stopped at book three, but that's fine. I didn't mind this book too much, the fourth I could've completely done without. Am I attached to Eadlyn? Absolutely not. I want to know more about the boys, though, but if anything else does come out attached to this series, I doubt I'll ever read it.
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