My Thoughts On: The Prince by Kiera Cass

Posted March 18, 2013 by Asheley in Uncategorized / 4 Comments

The Prince by Kiera Cass
Series: The Selection #0.5
Published by HarperTeen
Publish Date: March 5, 2013
128 Pages
Source: Bought



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…
-(excerpt from Goodreads)




The Prince by Kiera Cass



My Thoughts:  Prince Maxon has just turned 19 years old and soon The Selection process will be taking place. In the castle, preparations are being made to bring 35 of Illea’s loveliest and most eligible ladies into the palace in order that one be chosen to be the future Queen. The Prince gives readers a glimpse into the mind of Prince Maxon during that time. Told from his point-of-view, it gives us the new-to-us perspective of a young man that is a little bit shy to meet all of these women for the first time. He isn’t thrilled about the prospect of the old tradition of weeding through a series of applicants to choose a wife for himself. 


As we are introduced to Maxon, he appears to be nervous and apprehensive, except for the scenes when he is around his mother, Queen Amberly. The Queen seemed to be loving and kind – her kindness seemed to make Maxon feel at ease. In contrast, the scenes when Maxon interacts with his father illustrate a cold man, overcalculating and not at all ‘in tune’ with the needs and desires of his son. I loved these extra glimpses into the personalities of the royal family – they make them all feel more developed and real to me. Of course, I loved the Queen the most for being so motherly with her son (the King – not so much). There is also another character that is introduced – a childhood friend of Maxon’s – she has an interesting relationship with Maxon. Her name is Daphne and she is from France. 


America shows up as well. The Prince merges with The Selection as Prince Maxon meets America when she goes to the gardens after nearly having a panic attack while trying to get outside for fresh air. The Prince carries on for a short time after that, parallel to The Selection, only from Maxon’s POV. 

***********************************************************

The Prince was an okay novella to add to The Selection series – overall it did not add that much to the story. It seemed to develop some of the characters more than anything. Here are the main points that I took away from this short ebook: 
  • We were able to spend a short time with the King, getting to know him in a King-First-Father-Second role. He is overbearing and not very kind, in my opinion. 
  • We are able to spend a short time with the Queen, getting to know her in a Mother-First-Queen-Second role. She is kind and loving to her son, seeking his happiness first based on what she tells him in this novella. I loved this little glimpse into their mother-son time together. I do feel like I know her a little more as a character. 
  • We meet Daphne, a French friend from Maxon’s childhood. Their exchange isn’t long but it is very interesting. 
  • Perhaps the most valuable piece of information that we glean from this short ebook is the glimpse into Maxon’s personality – he is nervous and apprehensive about The Selection process instead of the cool, calm, and collected Prince that he appears to be in first book in this series. It is nice to have this short glimpse into his personality from his POV because it helped when I read The Elite to see his character from a fresh and more accurate perspective. 
However fresh and more accurate my perspective of Prince Maxon after reading The Prince novella, I’m not sure that the short ebook is necessary to the flow of the series. It is very short. Some readers will not necessarily want to spend the money on the ebook when it doesn’t add to the plot of the series, and I can understand that. I would recommend to these readers to check their libraries and see if they have the ebook novellas available. My library does have some of these HarperTeen Impulse novellas available, so perhaps they are available elsewhere. I pre-ordered this one and read it right away because I love this series so much. I’m kinda glad I did, but I still wish it was longer.  

***********************************************************

Have you read THE PRINCE? 

Do you plan to? 

How are you liking these e-novellas? 




Asheley

About Asheley

Asheley is a Southern girl. She loves Carolina blue skies, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and NC craft beer. She loves all things history but prefers books over everything.

You can find her somewhere in North Carolina, daydreaming about the ocean.

Find Asheley on Litsy @intothehallofbooks!

Divider

4 responses to “My Thoughts On: The Prince by Kiera Cass

  1. I'm still sort of new when it comes to reading novellas, but I think, if I do end up loving The Selection, I may just end up wanting to read this. I love getting to know characters better!

    • Yes! I loved this one because I love this series so much and I enjoyed getting the POV of Prince Maxon, since we aren't privy to this information about him in The Selection. Plus I loved getting the extra scenes with his parents, The King and The Queen. I like the bonus stuff and I'm fortunate that lots of times my library will carry these novellas. I did preorder this one, though, because I'm a Selection fangirl.

  2. Man, I am so not a novella person. I really only read them if they're necessary to the story, like the Radiant novella. But I'm kind of addicted to this story and I basically want to devour anything associated it with it, soooo, looks like I'm going to have to read this!

    Thanks for the in-depth review, Asheley – you don't see a lot of reviews for novellas!

    • Oh my gosh, since they've started getting hot and heavy with the novellas lately, I've read them ALL. (with the exception of Isolation, from the Partials series by Dan Wells). I love them. I love them most when they are lengthy and offer substance.

      But I love anything to do with this series, period.

Leave a Reply

Want to include a link to one of your blog posts below your comment? Enter your URL in the website field, then click the button below to get started.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.