Since her mother’s heart attack, her father looking like he’s about to have a heart attack, and her recent decision to embrace the idea of love, Eadlyn has decided to step up. She will start representing Illea for the first time on her own, and she’s not going to end the Selection with an engagement. She’s going to get married. Finally, she’ll be able to win over the public.

But the one she loves isn’t one that will be accepted by Illea’s public, and with a dark horse threatening overthrow unless he’s chosen, Eadlyn is

I would like to start with “I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!” on several fronts. I knew the reason why Ean was so pragmatic and uncaring about winning Eadlyn’s love. I knew that Lady Brice had a cool secret backstory. And best of all, I knew Erik or Eikko would be the one!! The chemistry was palpable and I loved that Eadlyn finally cut through her confused feelings and insecurities to see how Eikko was the one that made her feel seen, feel safe, made her all-consuming, blissfully happy.

And yes, it’s dramatic because he’s not even the Selection, and it will probably hurt poor Henri’s feelings to have his translator end up winning Eadlyn’s heart, but the final love confession, “speak now” moment makes it all worth it. It’s so heartwarming the bond between the three of them.

Not that her interactions with the other men, narrowed down to the six Elite aren’t heartwarming. It’s clear that Hale and Eadlyn will continue to share an unbreakable friendship after Hale reveals his big secret. Same with Kile who was really close to being the final choice because of how comfortable they were together. But Eadlyn cared too much about his dreams to trap him in the palace as a king cosort when he could be out there in the world as he always wanted to be, making houses and mansion that show off his talent and sustainable ideas.

And if all this gushing isn’t a sign of how much I enjoyed this, I must say it nicely ties into Eadlyn’s development in showing that she’s finally opened herself up to others. Once a lonely princess burdened with duty, she now has a close circle of friends inside the palace and outside of it.

Which brings me to Eadlyn’s newfound friendship with Neena, Lady Brice and Josie. The first whom she unintentionally insulted a lot because of their differences in status. I’ll admit, this one felt a bit superficial compared to the close friendships America gained with Marlee and her maids, Lucy, Mary and Ann. While Eadlyn did come to acknowledge Neena’s skills by promoting her to lady in waiting/advisor, and tried to help with Neena’s long distance boyfriend struggles, it did feel bit more like a plot device. You know, like when America helped that random prostitute Patricia in The One and it was never mentioned again. I mean, give these people some resolution for their attempted good deeds.

Eadlyn’s friendship was Josie was also a bit superficial as one chapter allows them to really talk and admit their flaws (Josie only seeing the perks of being a princess and annoyingly being her shadow; Eadlyn treating Josie like a nuisance for every little thing). But I choose to think that for Neena, Josie and Eadlyn this is just the beginning and it will grow into deep bonds for life just like Marlee, Lucy and America. As for Eadlyn and Lady Brice’s friendship, I’l get to that in a moment.

Speaking of Lucy, Marlee and America, Eadlyn’s choice to not choose Kile leads to some real truth bombs. As Eadlyn says that they have been avoiding tough topics from Lucy’s infertility to America/Maxon not talking about the hard parts of their Selection. Marlee feeling obligated to stay in the palace because of how Maxon/America saved their lives has been trapping them. They’re all friends, they’re not obliged to each other and with some communication, they work out those issues. It’s a minor plot point but I enjoy this contination from the original trilogy.

On the political side, Eadlyn is proving herself on the stage too. The first day is hard as she’s still reeling from her mother’s heart attack, and when one advisor says that Eadlyn is too emotional to make decisions (like whether or not to go to war with France over Ahren’s elopment), she shuts that down and actually fires the man. It’s an awesome moment, and allows Eadlyn to assert her power and opens her eyes to see how Lady Brice has been a steadfast friend at her side. She’s not shouldering the burden of governing alone. Basically, women supporting women, love to see it.

This continues throughout the novel as Eadlyn works to find a solution for post caste discrimination by hearing from the people through town halls. This ties into the wider narrative drama as Eadlyn’s supposed ally, Maraid Illea, uses his popularity among the rebel to integriate himself into the palace, warning that if Eadlyn rejects his proposal to be married, he could use his popularity to overthrow her and the monarchy as outdated and unhelpful to the general public.

I know, such a sneaky bastard, playing right into Eadlyn’s biggest insecurities of being a romantic pawn whose power is diminished because of her age, gender and inexperience. Yet those same town halls give her a solution that helps seize back her power which I’ll get to in the conclusion.

I really enjoyed the family dynamic between Eadlyn and her brothers in the wake of America’s heart attack. Just the family in general as they’re so fun and loving, and the baseball scene between them and the boys was really cute. They all felt very real and well-rounded in those scenes, showing how Eadlyn isn’t as alone as she thought.

My one nitpick is that in the previous novel, Erik seemed to have hinted at an angsty backstory with his comment that people aren’t as they appear on the surface like his parents. But when he taks about his parents here, they seem very normal and sweet. So I don’t know if that was changed from the previous novel to the next or if I was reading too much into that line. Either way, the potential of that line was disappointing.

Overall, I found this to be a fantastic conclusion to the series and Eadlyn’s arc from being open to love and friendship, seeing that she can still hold power while being feminine and making mistakes, and accepting that some pockets of the public will criticize her but she’s doing her best. Finally, the choice to turn the system into a constitutional monarchy is a brilliant way of demonstrating that Eadlyn no longer needs to weild the power and responsibility alone, but she is giving it back to the people because only they can change their lives with their vote just as Eadlyn changed the direction of hers with one kiss.

5 stars.