It’s safe to say I spent a good while searching for the book that would match The Selection, so I’ve compiled a list so you don’t have to.
5) Matched, Allie Condie
Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty he’s the one… until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with Impossible choices, between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s ever known and a path no one else has dared follow-between perfection and passion.
This series is set in a dystopian community that reminds me a lot of The Giver and The Selection. I really enjoyed the series, even though it’s been a couple years since I read it. The dystopian effect reflects The Selection through and through. Even though I’m pretty sure it came out first… maybe The Selection reflects it. Who knows?
4) The Forgetting, Sharon Cameron
Nadia lives in the city of Canaan, where life is safe and structured, hemmed in by white stone walls and no memory of what came before. But every twelve years the city descends into bloody chaos of the Forgetting, a day of no consequences and no remorse, when each person’s memories-of parents, children, love, life, and self- are lost and forgotten. Unless they have been written.
In Canaan, your book is your truth and your identity, and Nadia knows exactly who hasn't written the truth. Because Nadia is the only person in Canaan who has never forgotten.
But when Nadia begins to use her memories to push beyond the walls and solve the mystic Canaan, she discovers truths about herself and Gray, the handsome and enigmatic glassblower, that will change her world forever. As the anarchy of the next Forgetting approaches, Nadia and Gray must stop an unseen enemy that threatens both their city and their own existence-before people can forget the truth. And before Gray can forget her.
I love this book. Absolutely love it. I even got it signed by the author when I went to listen to one of her panels! I sat for a couple of hours and read straight through it. It’s a serious page turner pretty much anyone can enjoy.
3) A Thousand Pieces of You, Claudia Gray
Marguerite Caine grew up surrounded by cutting-edge scientific theories, thanks to her brilliant physicist parents. Yet nothing is more astounding than her mother’s latest invention-a device called the Firebird, which allows people to leap into alternate dimensions.
When Marguerite’s father is murdered, all evidence points to one person-Paul, her parents’ enigmatic star student. But before the law can touch him, Paul escapes into another dimension, having committed what seems like the perfect crime. But he didn’t count on Marguerite. She doesn’t know if she can kill a man, but she’s going to find out.
With the help of another physics student, Theo, Marguerite chases Paul through various dimensions. In each new world Marguerite leaps to she meets another version of Paul that has her doubting his guilt and questioning her heart. Is she doomed to repeat the same betrayal?
As Marguerite raced through these wildly different lives- a grand duchess in Tsarist Russia, a club hopping orphan in a futuristic London, a refugee from worldwide flooding on a station in the heart of the ocean- she’s swept into a epic love affair as dangerous as it is irresistible.
This series is definitely unique. I’ve never read anything like it, sure dimensional travel is in a lot of books and TV shows, but this book incorporates it better than any I’ve seen. It weaves romance throughout the book making it a sub category in its own. It’s a little mature, much like The Selection.
2)Let the Sky Fall, Shannon Messenger
Vane Weston should have died in the category five tornado that killed his parents. Instead, he woke up in a pile of rubble with no memory of his past- except one; a beautiful, dark haired girl standing in the winds. She’s swept through his dreams ever since, and he clings to the hope that she is real.
Audra is real, but she isn’t human. She’s a sylph, an air elemental who can walk on the wind, translate its alluring songs, even twist it into a weapon. She’s also a guardian-Vane’s guardian- and has sworn to protect him at all costs.
When a hasty mistake reveals their location to the enemy who murdered both of their families, Audra has just days to help vane unlock his memories. And as the storm winds gather, Audra and Vane start to realize that the greatest danger might not be the warriors coming to destroy them, but the forbidden romance growing between them.
Okay, I’m a Shannon Messenger stan. All time favorite author, and she outdoes herself with this book. It is a fantasy book with species other than humans as the main focus, this is more of a slow burn romance, and Shannon Messenger is known to leave you on cliffhangers, these books are no different.
1)The Jewel, Amy Ewing
The Jewel means wealth, the Jewel means beauty, the Jewel means royalty.
But for girls like Violet, the Jewel means servitude.
Violet, born and raised in the Marsh, has been trained to work for the royalty. But after she is bought at the auction, she quickly learns the brutal and violent truths that lie beneath the Jewels glittering facade.
Violet must try to stay alive, and when an unlikely friendship offers her an opportunity, she clings to hope of a better life- until a forbidden romance changes everything. Suddenly, Violet finds herself in a different type of danger, one that may cost her a lot more than she bargained for.
This book is most like The Selection, because of the characters. They remind me so much of the characters of The Selection even if it’s only a few traits. I think it’s why I like both of these books so much. There are a lot of parallels within the two book, but I’ll let you find those yourselves.
Have you read any of these books? Are there any books you think should be on this list but aren’t? Tell me in the comments below!
~Eliza