Does This Book Need to Exist?: A Review of The Heir by Kiera Cass

Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.

Back in 2024 I finished reviewing my favorite trilogy from high school. Yeah, I’m talking The Selection, baby! But The Selection technically isn’t a trilogy, it is a five book series. Though some readers (i.e. me) choose to view the series as a trilogy. I’m sorry, sometimes I pretend The Heir and The Crown don’t exist. I’m changing that today. The last two entries do exist, and I’m gonna talk about them. Spoiler alert, I don’t particularly like The Heir and The Crown…

Please welcome to the stage, officially, The Heir by Kiera Cass!

As always, a spoiler alert is in order. If you’re read any other review on the site then you will know I simply love to spoil the entirety of the books I read. This is your one and only warning. Also, I do have a brief content and trigger warning. The Heir includes a scene which features sexual harassment and assault. Now let’s crack in.

Twenty years ago American Singer and Maxon Schreave found each other in his Selection. Now it’s their daughter’s turn to find romance. Eadlyn Schreave wanted to put off marriage for as long as possible. But life has other plans.

Upon taking the throne, King Maxon dissolved the caste system and life in Illéa was good. The country rejoiced, revolts were over, the rebels were no more, but lately a new unrest began rearing its head. To distract from the issue, and in order to formulate a plan as to how to deal with this new unrest, Princess Eadlyn must host a Selection. There is truly no better distraction than the idea of a fairytale.

Unbeknownst to anyone outside of the royal family, Eadlyn plans on ending the Selection after three months, and she will not be proposing at the end of it. Those were her conditions. This story is not going to end in romance. But life is funny like that, and one entry may slowly be capturing her heart whether she likes it or not.

Cue the fairytale romance!

Eadlyn, Eadlyn, Eadlyn, where to begin with Eadlyn. I believe it is safe to say Eadlyn was not a beloved heroine back in the day when The Heir first released. I know I was not a fan of her way back when. She is…horrible. Objectively she is not a good person. She genuinely does not like anyone outside of her immediate family. Her cares are solely on herself, she’s blind to anyone else’s struggles. Eadlyn is the furthest thing from likable and I still don’t like her nearly a decade later.

Our unlikable main character only does four things throughout The Heir. Complaining about how it’s unfair that she’s the next queen of Illéa, complaining about how stressed she is at all times, complaining about anyone and everyone outside her family and making them cry and hate her more, and finally, complaining that the public does not like her. I suddenly remember why I only read this book once. Eadlyn is insufferable. She makes for a terrible main character. One whose story I don’t want to read. I don’t care about her and I don’t want her to be happy because she’s such a terrible person. Now yes, she is 18-years-old, she is extremely young and thrust into the role of crown princess without any say or choice in the matter, but that does not excuse her bratty, self-centered nature and the way she acts.

Continuing with the characters, I hope no one wanted to get to know the guys who were Selected. Virtually no time is spent with them. Really only six of them matter. You have Kile who is Marlee’s son and grew up in the palace with Eadlyn, you have Henri who is a cinnamon roll–sorry for using such antiquated language yet again–and his translator Erik, then there’s Hale who is into fashion, Ean who offers Eadlyn a marriage of convenience, and finally Fox…who is just there. Please don’t ask me anything about them. They’re set dressing for this “romance.” And one of these characters manages to win Eadlyn’s heart despite Eadlyn virtually never seeing these men. If you can find the beginning of a love story in this book, please let me know.

The sad part is, I knew exactly who Eadlyn was going to fall in love with when I first read The Heir. While no time is spent with any of the guys, the moment Erik, who isn’t a member of the Selection, showed up at the initial meetings, I knew. I knew Erik and Eadlyn were going to fall in love. I hoped there would be good banter, secret longing, stolen kisses, the urge for these characters to find a way to be near each other at all times, but that never happens. Literally nothing happens in this book. The only thing that occurs is Eadlyn complaining.

If you took a shot every time Eadlyn complained of something, you would die of alcohol poisoning.

Listen, I love the original The Selection trilogy. Is it good? Not really. It’s a bit of a mess at times, things don’t always make sense, America Singer is an incredibly stubborn heroine who often does stupid things; yet I enjoy every minute of it. America is a fiery heroine who isn’t afraid to speak her mind or standup against injustice. And the idea behind the Selection works as the story is set in a dystopia. A tyrannical government hosts a televised bride show under the guise of any young woman of Illéa, regardless of caste, could become a princess. The Selection is held to give the populace the tiniest bit of hope while in reality it’s a way for the tyrannical government to control people without them knowing.

In The Heir, the castes are gone. Maxon and America have worked hard as the king and queen to undo the oppressive systems the previous kings had in place. By the time the events of The Heir take place, the Selection doesn’t work. Illéa is no longer a dystopia. Like I said, the Selection was used as an oppressive tool, it was a smoke and mirror show, and with the lack of dystopian setting the idea of the Selection is quite clear: a weird, televised bride show meant to distract from actual issues. The only way a Selection can hope to work in this world is if the heir is likable; which Eadlyn is not. 

The Selection should never have been turned into a five book series. The One perfectly wraps up America and Maxon’s story. The Heir is wholly unnecessary and the main character is insufferable. Perhaps my thoughts and feelings would be different if Eadlyn was a better character. But she’s not. She’s a point of view character who I hate. The Heir is objectively not a good book and I recommend reading The Selection series as a trilogy and pretending the fourth and fifth books don’t exist. But come back next week when I review the fifth and final book.

Come back next week to wrap up The Selection series!

With that, I shall bid you all adieu. Thank you very much for joining me today, Book Nerds. I hope you had a lovely time here at RHRML. I will see you all again next week when I review The Crown. If you can’t wait that long then you can give Reading Has Ruined My Life a follow over on Instagram (@ReadingHasRuinedMyLife). I post there almost daily so come back often to revel in literary goodness. You can also follow the blog on Twitter and BlueSky (@RHRMLBlog). If you want something not related to books, then may I suggest my podcast Nothing to See Hear? The show stars me and two of my dearest friends as we talk about everything and anything. We have episodes on ghosts, cryptids, Barbie, Scooby-Doo, Disney, gay vampires, bad 90s wrestling, and so much more. May I specifically recommend one of our first episodes in which my bestie Amanda told all of her sleepwalking stories? That’s a good one! You can currently listen to Nothing to See Hear on Spotify and YouTube.

Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.

See y'all then, bye!