There's been a lot of reading going on around here! I did have to set aside my for-fun reading a few times to work on SUMMER HAIKUS but, in general, my kindle has been getting a workout!

First up, THE SELECTION, THE ELITE, and THE ONE. Yes, I read this whole series in about a week. I'm pretty sure each one of these can't be more than 80k words a piece, so I easily read one and went right to the next.

I enjoyed this series well enough. I wouldn't call it my favorite of all time or anything, despite how fast I read it. It's purely romance, which is fine in most regards, but these books tease you with a dystopian world that they never fully explain or explore. It is basically all America Singer (yes, that's the heroine's real name) in the castle, falling in and out of semi-love with the prince. They barely go anywhere else or do anything more than have tea or interrupted conversations.

And that's the one huge pet peeve I'm going to say about this series: the majority of tension is ratcheted up by interrupting conversations. Maxon is JUST ABOUT TO SAY SOMETHING, and then a guard runs up and interrupts him. ALL THE TIME. Each time I could feel that we were finally getting somewhere, I would say, “Don't get your hopes up, Stephanie. They'll be interrupted in a moment.” And it would happen EVERY SINGLE TIME. It got to be very frustrating so I started speed reading to get to the end.

There was also a love triangle, which honestly I wish I had known about ahead of time, because I just don't do love triangles.

But I still enjoyed it, so I recommend them if you like straight-up romance and don't mind love triangles.