American Royals explores the idea of a monarchy in America. Beatrice, the perfect eldest daughter, is in line for the throne. Her parents are pressuring her to get married, but want her to pick from a small list of potential suitors. Samantha the next oldest. She and her twin Jeff love to party, but Sam endures the wrath of the press while her brother is adored. Nina is Samantha’s best friend and often feels overshadowed. She’s secretly in love with Jeff.
Anna Bright’s The Boundless, the sequel to The Beholder, is an amazing finish to Selah’s adventure. Selah’s stepmother sends her across the seas to find a husband, and now she is not only worried about finding love, but also helping the resistance to defeat the tsarytysa. Her next stop is the Shvartsval'd, a kingdom inside the Imperiya, to meet Prince Fritz.
The Beholder by Anna Bright has the perfect hints of familiar fairy tales scattered throughout her book, but also has elements that make The Beholder an original adventure story about a girl named Selah. Selah is in line to be the Seneschal of Potomac, but her stepmother sends her away to find a husband without giving Selah much of an option, and her sick father doesn’t really have a choice either.
Kiera Cass’s second installment of The Selection series, The Elite, was good, but it wasn't as good as its predecessor. In this book, America struggles to decide between Maxon and Aspen as the Selection is narrowed down to six girls. Overall, this book was super frustrating.
In The One, the third book of The Selection series and the final installment of the original trilogy, Kiera Cass has managed to write a book that I loved and also frustrates me to my core. While The Elite frustrated me because of things that seemed meaningless, this book frustrated me because there was almost too much happening.
The Selection by Kiera Cass is a dystopian fantasy novel that follows America Singer as she is put into the Selection, a contest of 35 girls competing for the prince’s heart. I have been putting off reading this book for a long time because of its heavily mixed reviews, but I’m happy to say that I was not disappointed.
Always and Forever, Lara Jean, Jenny Han’s final novel in her To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy, provided the perfect ending to the series; however, it still lacked compared to the first book. In this book, Lara Jean and Peter deal with the prospect of college and all that comes with it, especially being in a long-distance relationship and having different schedules.
P.S. I Still Love You is the second book in Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series. Lara Jean and Peter are officially together, for real this time, but things get complicated when one of Lara Jean’s past loves shows up, and Peter can’t stay away from his ex-girlfriend, Genevieve. John Ambrose, Peter’s childhood best friend and one of Lara Jean’s past loves, finally got her letter. John and Lara Jean start to talk and begin to become close.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is a contemporary YA romance written by Jenny Han. The story follows Lara Jean, a girl who hasn’t had much experience with romance but suddenly winds up in a fake relationship. Lara Jean wrote letters for every boy she had ever loved; they were meant just for her, but one day, they were mailed out.
Lovely War, written by Julie Berry, is a historical fiction romance novel narrated by the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, as a defense for her infidelity to her husband Hephaestus with Ares, god of war. She speaks of two couples whose stories intertwine with each other, both of whom met during the first World War, and recounts their tragic yet beautiful tale to explain why love and war are attracted to each other and to demonstrate how love requires vulnerability.
