Happily Ever After by Kiera Cass is a collection of short stories and novellas written from different characters' perspectives from the Selection Series. This includes The Prince, The Guard, The Queen, The Favourite, three scenes from Celeste’s POV, The Maid, After the One and Where are they now? The Selection series is similar to The Bachelor except that Maxon's a prince. It’s set in the dystopian world of Illéa. America, the main love interest, is a very poor girl growing up in Illéa. The Selection Series is my favourite dystopian series ever so I was really anticipating reading it and long story short, it did not disappoint! 

The Queen

This novella is told from the perspective of Queen Amberly and it follows King Clarkson’s selection and their falling in love. I thought this story was sweetly told and it was really interesting to see the origin of their relationship. 

The Prince

This novella is told from the perspective of Prince Maxon just as the selection begins, detailing his first interactions with America. Maxon is my favourite character so this story was a real highlight. I loved reading about Maxon's thoughts and hearing his inner dialogue. Some of the scenes in this book were also featured in The Selection from America’s POV so it was interesting to see it from his perspective. 

The Guard

This novella is told from the perspective of Aspen Leger, America’s first love and palace guard when she enters the selection. It follows the story of him and one of America’s maids, Lucy, who is one of the sweetest characters I’ve ever read. During the series, I was not Aspen’s biggest fan, I thought he was quite arrogant and needy but I actually quite liked getting to know his character a bit more and warmed to him because he became so vulnerable within his story. I felt after reading this, I understood him as a character more.

The Favourite

This novella is told from the perspective of America’s best friend, Marlee, who makes a huge mistake and has to suffer the consequences. Due to a tragedy (which I will not spoil!), this story was absolutely heartbreaking. However, it had one of the cutest endings I’ve ever read about, and everyone finally got their happily ever after!

Scenes from Celeste

This novella is told from the perspective of America’s biggest competition, Celeste, my second favourite character, because of this, this story was also one of my favourites. Celeste is so strong, cool, and powerful and does not take anything from anyone, I love her!

The Maid

This novella is told from the perspective of one of America’s maids during the selection process, Lucy. As I mentioned before, Lucy is so adorable and deserves everything, so it was so sweet to see everything finally work out perfectly for her. 

After The One

This novella is told from the perspective of America and is a bonus epilogue to the final book, The One. This was my favourite story in this book! I love Maxon and America so much, they are one of my favourite book couples ever, so the fact that I got to just spend one more day with them after their wedding was so special!

Where Are They Now?

This novella is told from the perspective of three different girls who were a part of the Selection process but did not get picked - Kriss, Natalie and Elsie. We get to see how their lives are now after Maxon and America’s wedding day and I feel it was just the perfect ending, as it wrapped everything up.

A perfect ending to a perfect series!

4/5 stars

Age rating (in my opinion): 12/13 and up!

By Abbie Rose Humphreys,

Aged 14