The Selection, by Kiera Cass (The Selection #1)

Synopsis:

For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon.

But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself--and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.

I've had this on drafts for quite some time now, and wanted to publish it as soon as possible. I had read about The Selection on many different sites, and also heard from a friend, and the opinions were so different... Some people hated it, some people loved it... So I decided to give it a try. 

The synopsis makes it sound like a typical romance love-triangle novel, but it kind of surprised me. The idea isn't that unique, but Kiera Cass develops it well, transforming a kind of simple plot into something nice and fairytale themed, a princess story. There's the girl, her poor boyfriend, and then there's the prince. At first sight, the easiest thing would be to thing that the prince is rich and all that but he's not a good person and that's all. That would be easy. But he's not. Prince Maxon is amazing. He's rich, handsome, smart, funny, a complete gentleman, a good friend, trustworthy... Absolutely perfect. And it doesn't take much for America to find out. About half into the book I decided I prefered Maxon way over Aspen, but it has nothing to do with being shallow. Maxon grows really close to America, but he doesn't love her as much as Aspen does, or that's what it seems. Aspen's love was epic. And now America has this huge problem. She makes friends with the Prince, and he promises to send her home when she's ready and wants to leave, but she doesn't seem to want that, not now that she's finally made some friends, even if they're from places far away from her hometown. 

I enjoyed life in the palace, and I really like the Queen. I want to know more about her. I love Maxon, but I don't think I know yet who's America going to choose (that's why it's a trilogy). I think the storyline is too simple and the characters aren't that deeply developed, but I enjoyed reading it and will go for The Elite and The One. 

An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green

Synopsis:

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact.

On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun--but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl. Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself.

This book was amazing. I was attracted to it since the moment I first heard about it, and it didn't disappoint me. After reading The Fault In Our Stars, I felt like reading more of John Green, and I've started to really admire him. I want to read Looking for Alaska next. 
So about the Katherines... the title itself was very intriguing, and the synopsis. There's Colin Singleton, and he only dates girls named Katherine, which is incredibly weird. And then you meet Colin and you grow fond of him and all... 
There aren't that many characters in this book. I mean, there's many people in the background, such as the Katherines (Katherine XIX is more important than the rest of them), but there's only a few characters that have importance in the book. There's Colin, and his best friend Hassan, and they both decide to go on this road trip that's supposed to help Colin move on from his last heartbreak, when Katherine XIX dumped him. And then the two guys from Chicago end up in this town Gutshot in Tennessee, in the middle of nowwhere, where the archduke Franz Ferdinand is supposed to be buried. There they meet Lindsey and her mother Hollis, and Lindsey's friends Katrina, Chase and Fulton and her boyfriend Colin. After they're offered a job there, Colin and Hassan decide to stay for a while, and that's where the story takes place, in Gutshot, TN. 
Okay, I kind of felt like Colin and Lindsey were going to end up together since the moment they met. She's a girl, Colin's single, and she's not a Katherine, which is why the story is different from the rest of Colin's life. I really ended up liking Katherine XIX, so I would like to have known more about her, but that's not her story. 
I enjoyed anagrams because it had been a while since I read a book that included them, and I didn't hate the fact that Colin was obsessed with his theorem and maths were used a lot to explain it. Some people that have read it the only thing they do is complain, about anagrams and about maths, but that's a huge part of what makes the story unique. 
I loved the plot. The idea was original and nice, and no one had thought of writing that before John Green did. The characters are developped in a way that reminds me of TFIOS, and I love the way John Green writes. It's beautiful. 
The book is addictive, with all these random facts that Colin knows about everything and this way Green has of making us love the characters. I really, really enjoyed reading it, and I hope to see more of John Green soon :)