the elite – Zakiya N. Jamal

POLL: Which One of Kiera Cass’ Novels Has The Best Cover?

Posted on August 21, 2015August 20, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Blog

The cover of Kiera Cass’ newest (actually rereleased) novel, The Siren, was revealed yesterday and it’s just as gorgeous if not more so than all The Selection series covers. Actually is it more gorgeous? Vote in the poll to cast your vote for the best cover. If I had to choose I’d go with The Heir but that’s just my personal opinion. What’s yours?

Results of last week’s poll:

Which book character did Shailene Woodley play best?

With 50 percent of the vote the winner is Hazel in The Fault in Our Stars. I don’t know though. I really liked her as Aimme in The Spectacular Now. But you guys chose the winner so I won’t argue. Stay tuned next week to find out the results of this week’s poll.

Woman Crush Wednesday: America Singer

Posted on April 22, 2015May 21, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Blog

First, if you’ve never heard of America Singer that’s because you haven’t read The Selection series yet and that’s a shame. Please get with the times.

Moving on, America is gorgeous with her long red hair and ice cold blue eyes. Besides that though, she’s smart, funny, brave, and stands up for what she believes in. She loves hard and won’t let anyone stand in her way when she makes up her mind about something (which can sometimes be a bad thing).

In The Selection series, America is entered into the selection, a competition of 35 girls to win Prince Maxon’s heart and become queen. It takes place in a dystopian world where the U.S. (now called Illéa) is ruled by a royal family, by the way. I won’t say what happens in case you haven’t read the books (which, again, you really should) but what makes America stand out is she never went into the selection to become Queen. She didn’t even really want to be there in the first place.

However, once she figures out what she really wants she’s not afraid to go after it whole heartedly. The way she stands up for her friends, her maids, her caste (yes there’s a caste system; please read these books), and the castes below her is extraordinary, thereby making her beautiful both inside and out.

Book Review: The Guard

Posted on February 12, 2014February 12, 2014 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Books

This is going to be a short one because this isn’t a full book, it’s a novella. Either way there may be spoilers so beware!

First, if you haven’t read the first two books in The Selection trilogy this novella is going to make no sense to you. Therefore you should stop reading this right now and go read those books and The Prince novella while you’re at it.

If you’re all caught up you know that this trilogy is (sadly) coming to an end and one of the greatest appeals for getting this novella was the sneak peak of the last book in the trilogy, The One.

Before you get to the sneak peak though you have to actually read the story (well you don’t have to but why wouldn’t you?). This short story documented parts of the second book in the trilogy, The Elite, but from Aspen’s point of view. Let me just say from now, I’m team Maxon. That being said I wasn’t too excited to read this, I really just bought it for the sneak peak.

Even so, I’ve loved everything I’ve read by Kiera Cass so far so I figured it would only be fair to give Aspen a chance, and I was glad I did. I loved this short story and it made me like Aspen a little bit more. I’m still team Maxon but now I feel like I wouldn’t be completely angry if she ends up with Aspen. I won’t be happy but I’d accept it.

Anyway, with this novella we get more insight into why Aspen let America sign up for the selection in the first place and that he really does love her which is good. Also, it was interesting to see so much behind the scenes things with the guards that we don’t see with America. For example, we get a peak into the sketchy going ons of the King. Though we still don’t get all the answers about the clear corruption that is happening in the kingdom it does make you hate the King even more.

Also, the Aspen/America love scenes did make my heart swell and I forgot how much I first liked them together. It was also interesting seeing America through Aspen’s eyes. I wish it had gone further so we could see how he felt when he saw America (SPOILERS) show the secret book to the whole kingdom but sadly it ended before that.

Even so, I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, I did not enjoy it as much as the special sneak peek at the end. I’m not going to say anything because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone and truly nothing major happens but still it’s pretty good. It’s also strange because Kriss and America’s friendship/competition is clear from the beginning of the novel so you know that’s going to be a major part of the book which will be interesting. Also, we can see early on that although America is willing to fight for Maxon’s heart there’s still a (big) part of her that wants Aspen.

Oh, these love triangles. This is why both of these books made my list for books I can’t wait to read this year.

If you haven’t purchased The Guard yet definitely get it soon unless you’re concerned you’ll just become way more anxious for the release of The One, as I am now. If that’s the case then maybe you should wait.

You can purchase The Guard online as an e-book or you can get both The Prince and The Guard novellas as a paper back book. The One comes out on May 6. Pre-order it now!

Stars: 4 out of 5.

Borrow or Buy: Borrow. If you can get this from the library I say borrow it. I enjoyed it and I don’t regret buying it just because I know it would’ve been a long wait from the library and it was cheap. However, I could live without owning it. It was good but it was OMG-amazing.