This review can also be found at BookShelfery. 
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 Well, what a ride! Let me start off by saying, I am so glad I ran across the big, bad review two years ago and decided to give The Selection a shot, because it's a series I have thoroughly enjoyed. Sometimes, a reader just needs their HEA. 
 I can't avoid spoilers from the previous two books, so you've been warned. I will attempt to be spoiler-free in this review for The One, however. 
 The One picks up basically where The Elite left off. There are four girls remaining (Celeste, Kriss, Elise and America) who are all vying for Maxon and a chance at the crown. King Clarkson is displeased with America's previous actions pertaining to Marlee and has made no secret he'd rather see her gone. There's will they or won't they between Prince Maxon and America, as they bounce between flirting and trying to navigate the complicated waters of the selection process. She struggles with believing he has feelings for her at time; he questions if she has feelings for him at all. Sometimes this made me want to pull my hair out and stress-eat! Just admit you love each other already! Gah. 
 Cass does more pulling at readers' emotions in The One than in either of the other two novels or either novellas. We're privy to Maxon's love letters, more looks inside America's childhood home, political compassion from America. (view spoiler)[ But the biggest of them all was getting me to love Celeste and then killing her off. WHAT THE FUCK, CASS?! I almost cried. (hide spoiler)] 
 The reason I gave The One 3.5 stars is not because I didn't like it enough to rate it higher. I think it's the strongest of all three books. It's because there were just enough naggling bits that bothered me. For instance, conflict for the sake of conflict. There is one scene toward the end of the book that just erupts, almost as if from nowhere, and I felt no sense of urgency reading it. In fact, it felt like a trope to move the characters in a direction the author wanted them to go, except she didn't know how else to get them there. Those who have read it will know what I'm talking about. 
 The plot with the Northern rebels just kind of dies off. A huge part of The One involves politics and the rebels, but the Northern rebel plot peters out before it ever really gets going, except for the scene I mentioned above, which didn't really even involve them, except for what is mentioned off-page. 
 Convenient deaths were pretty freakin' convenient. The One is technically a dystopian with lotsa romance sprinkled baked in, and what's a dystopian without people dying in it, amirite?! Some of the deaths, however, felt like plot devices. "Hey, I don't really need that person anymore *bang*." OH DRAMA! 
 (view spoiler)[And her Dad's death was a "problem with his heart"? GIVE ME A BREAK. I can't think of a worse way to go out in a book like this one. (hide spoiler)] 
 BUT, it was still a really great story! I laughed, I sniffled a tiny bit, I was rooting for my favorite characters. It's easy reading, but it's the kind you can get lost in and that's still the best kind to me.