Title: The Prince
Author: Kiera Cass
Series: The Selection #0.5
In: Happily Ever After (Kiera Cass)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Dystopia, Easy reading, Romance
Pace: Fast
Format: Novella
Publisher: HarperTeen
Year: 2013
5th sentence, 74th page: Reaching toward the back of the rack he pulled out a pair of denim pants.

Before thirty-five girls were chosen to compete in the Selection…

Before Aspen broke America’s heart…

There was another girl in Prince Maxon’s life…

The Selection, The Elite and The One tell us the love story of America and Maxon, but all from his point of view. It was incredibly enlightening to see some of his first impressions of the Selection process and America in The Prince short story. His awareness of his father’s manipulations and his reluctance to truly trust anyone lest they hurt him helped to make more of his somewhat questionable reactions to America and their courtship more understandable and enlightening.

I always found it hard to understand why a somewhat sheltered prince like Maxon would keep America in the Selection process after their first meeting and first date. However, by enabling a porthole through which to view his ideas and how truly close he came to dismissing her, it seems far more realistic. And honestly, when I read a romance story I want it to be realistic. Blinding devotion and an inability to view the others’ flaws is all well and good in fantasy-land, but it is incredibly unrealistic, and I find it more than a little painful to read about.

Image source: Fanpop