Julia and Liv Jaynes live in a huge mansion with Novak and Victoria, their parents. But Novak is more than a father; he is leadder of a group of people called the Puras who have extraordinary powers, and he and his leadership team are trying to keep everyone safe from the rest of the world. Julia and LIv participate in typical teen activities, like flirting and falling in love. Julia allows her extra powers to be seen by others when Liv gets into a life-threatening situation at the pool, and as a result, Novak decides that Julia has to attend a regular high school. In her adventures there, Julia finds and falls in love with a regular human, John, but she has to keep her relationship secret since she is a member of the Selelct and John isn't. Another major character is Angus, a kind of ne'er-do-well daredevil who lives on the edge of being left behind when the group moves again. Angus' antics get the unwanted attention of Novak. The threat is always there; if you mess up enough, Novak will make the decision to leave you behind when the group relocates and you will be left on your own in a society that doesn't accept or understand you. This book was a great teen read, with a mixture of suspense, romance and science-fiction that will appeal to all readers.

When this cover first appeared on my dashboard on Netgalley, I didn’t hesitate to click on it. I just love the simplicity of it and I really wanted to know why the butterfly was trapped in a bubble. The summary continued my interest in the book, but I will admit that by the time I got around to reading the book, I had quite forgotten what it was about. If I had reread the summary before starting the book, I would not have spent most of the first half of the book wondering why they had these powers. Various scenarios went through my mind, aliens in hiding, descendants of gods, genetic mutations caused by human experimentation, you know the typical stuff. So when the reason was finally revealed I was kind of like oh, is that all? It seemed to me like something was missing from this part of the story. Why did they feel the need to hide who they were? What is up with that? I also felt that Julia’s father acted more like a cult leader, and not in the good sense. He was way to controlling of everyone’s life in the group, and no one wanted to stand up to him. Thinking of her father as a cult leader made it easier to understand and accept some of her decisions through out the book.

I liked Julia, even with her abilities, she presented as a young girl who had a lot of doubts about who she was and what her role in her family was. Her character goes through a lot in a short period of time, and her attitude and understanding toward her family, her society and especially her father changes dramatically throughout the book. She was drawn to John almost from the start, but it was not instant love, their relationship did take a natural course, from initial attraction through getting to know each other to love by the end of the book. It was a sweet romance, even though it was a bit creepy that she could read his mind. John was also a likable character, although he had some flaws that might be hard to deal with.

The plot was interesting, but a little rough and slow moving at times. As I said before, the reason for their powers and their need for secrecy about them didn’t feel fully explained. I really wanted to know more about their past and what powers they had when they were fully developed. We only know about the powers through what Julia and some of the Lost Boys were able to do, not any one else in the group. Julia’s relationships with her family were not fully explained as were the reasons why the teens had been split into two groups in the first place. I’m also not sure sending Julia to a regular high school made sense, given their need to keep their abilities secret.

I did enjoy the story and the characters even with the few flaws in the plot. The ending was strong enough that it can be a stand alone, but I hope there is a sequel as I would like to know what happens to Julia, John and the other characters in this book.

It's hard not to compare this book to Keira Cass Selection series, but Marit Weisenberg does such a nice job introducing us to another dystopian future in this part science fiction/part romance YA novel that it was hard to,put down, and left me eager to read the next book in the series.

As a courtesy to the fledgling author, this review was NOT disseminated on the blog's social media accounts. The review stands, however, on the blog and on Goodreads.


I was delighted when Charlesbridge Teen granted my wish for this book late in the Spring. It's not often that publishers grant wishes. Thus I'm sad that I have not enjoyed their gift. The premise of the book- a race of superhumans (except not human) living among us, teen angst, etc. sounded interesting. I downloaded the book, wasn't grabbed by it, set it aside. I picked it up again this past week because I owe the publisher an review since it publishes in less than two weeks. I decided to try harder. But reader, there was no joy. The most I can say is that I liken it to the Twilight books, with the twist that here, the protagonist, Julia Jaynes, is like our old, wise and all-knowing (think psychic powers) vampire-but-not, and poor sweet John Ford is the smitten one who just can't stay away from hauntingly beautiful Julia and her tricky odd family, who want no part of him.

This book was inordinately frustrating, especially over the first 60 or so pages. We have a race of people who don't want to attract attention, who are all gorgeous, billionaire rich, living in an enclave, traveling in packs, doing superhumans things, who once again, did I mention, don't want to attract attention to themselves? Did I mention that they all look alike? Only maybe two dozen or so. No big deal. Inbreeding usually doesn't work this way, but... hey, it worked for the Targaryens. Until it didn't. As you begin to progress further, you don't really gain much of a feel about the sci-fi aspect of the story because it's basically a teen romance in the guise of a YA sci-fi story, (hence the Twilight analogy although John, thankfully, isn't spineless).

Overall, I found it disappointing, plus it ends in a cliffhangerish kind of way, where we are left wondering exactly where Julia and John will go from here if, in fact, we are really sure we care where they do.

This was one of those books that I wished for on a whim on NetGalley, simply due to the cover and I honestly wasn't sure whether I would get a chance to review it or not, so when I got the email saying that I had been approved, I instantly went and downloaded it and started it. It was so good!

I felt that the book was the perfect combination between Sci-Fi and Y/A. You could remove the Sci-Fi parts from the book and it would still be a pretty interesting read based on real life situations that many young adults/teens can relate to.

This book is about a lot of choices that we have to make; coming to terms with the idea that we just cannot have it all and that we may have to let go of some people on the way, accepting who we really are, who we want to be with and how far we are going to go to survive.

I can't wait for more Marit Wiesenberg novels. If you are a fan of YA, I would highly recommend this book to you!

I received a copy of this book in return for my independence honest review.
It made a refreshing change to have a new dystopian for YA readers.
I thought the plot lines were interesting and although slow to start,please keep with it as worth it as the story progresses.
Personally I didn't really form a connection with the main female protagonist. Due to this I enjoyed this book but didn't love it as I have with other YA novels in this genre.
Still an enjoyable read, hence the 3* Ideal for target audience who I feel will get much more out of it than I did

I really had a hard time getting into this book. I was so confused in the beginning. The beginning made no sense at all. Once I got past chapter 6 it all started coming together and I could not stop reading. I finished this book in basically 2 days. Now that I have finished this book I would recommend it. It was a really good young adult book. A little confusing at first but otherwise it had a good story line and was well written.

This story was a surprise. As a YA book I thought it would be juvenile but it was very well written with lovable characters with a twist.
I cannot wait for book 2!

This book was so entertaining and differnt from other YA books in the way of plot. I really liked the romance part of the novel and the superhuman abilities of the characters. Although there were some confusing parts due to typos and due to it being an ARC, I quite enjoyed the ride and look forward to reading the sequel!

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for my advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.


This book gets 3 stars from me because the main premise, this weird pure magical power, Julia's people have seemed plainly not believable. I just felt the whole time something didn't add up quite right (even after finding out the backstory to this). On top of it, the writing felt clumsy. Marit Weisenberg has talent and I am sure she will grow as an author. Her ideas are interesting and novel, but her execution is just a bit immature.

Select is a story of growing up in one world and suddenly facing a new one. It is about a girl falling in love with a boy from the wrong side of town. It is about a tight-knit community that fears change. It is about a leader who seems to have his group's best interest in mind but yet acts mysteriously and selfishly. Lots of things remain unspoken. Secrets are paid off so they never see the light of day. No one really knows what's going on.

I read this book fairly fast because I was truly interested in John and Julia's story, in how Novak dominates his family and their future, and in this sibling rivalry between Julia and Liv. I liked the characters good enough and think I could've loved them if the writing would've been more complex and evolved. All in all, this is a decent read. I can see this series going places and I hope that Weisenberg matures as a writer (which I really think will happen).

Julia, her friends, and her family are special - they are more of everything: smarter, prettier, and more athletic. They are also completely insular until an event at Barton Beach brings them into the spotlight. Julia is punished by being sent to a public high school and being instructed to suppress her power, or else. While at the school, Julia meets John and her world begins unraveling at a rapid rate. Over the course of the story, Julia is forced to grow up and face hard truths about her family.
All of this should have made this a spellbinding novel, but I never connected with it. Perhaps it would have been more captivating if I was a teenager.

I chose to read and review this book because the premise was fascinating. Super humans hiding among normal people and trying to stay hidden. These ‘select’ people have issues among themselves and the main characters family life is anything but happy. There are two main groups of teens in the story, one is a group of outcasts and troublemakers and the others are the “chosen” ones, being trained to use their special abilities. All of this sounds fascinating right? It should have been. Alas, the book doesn’t quite live up to its potential. I wanted more of the super powers and more adventure. Instead the main character is forced to leave her private school and attend public school as punishment and falls in love. Not a bad progression in the story but that became the focus of the story and I was really hoping for something else. Now that being said, the writing was good and the premise was a good one. I am really hoping that book 2 might pick up so I will likely give this author another chance.

I thought this was a wonderful read and I thoroughly enjoyed diving in to this new world. In places it was a little confused and slightly lagging in pace, however, the characters pulled me through and I can't wait to read more!

I really enjoyed this book. It was a super fast and easy read as the plot was interesting and fast paced enough that it had me hooked from the first chapter. This book is classed as fantasy but it also felt like it should also be a science fiction novel too. The stories protagonist, Julia, belongs to a special race of evolved humans and there is enough lore and science to the story for it to be believable.

Without spoiling too much, the summary does a good job at capturing the plot. The part I enjoyed most about this book was the relationship dynamics between Julia's family and her old friends and new friends. There was a particular strong emphasis placed on what it is like for Julia to be the black sheep of the family that I enjoyed and related to and it was refreshing to see how she found strength in herself and not just through her love interest John.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed the Twilight series and paranormal romance.

Thank You Netgalley for the ARC copy and this is an honest review!
Select is a pleasant surprise! After reading the entire book in a night, I found myself wishing for book 2. The main character, Julia Jaynes, is a seventeen year old finding out that her family is not exactly who she thinks they are. Plus, she is different in many ways from those outside her family. After an incident that almost expose her families secrets her father puts her into a regular high school to teach her a lesson. Julia reconnects with a young man named John Ford, who is just a "regular" boy. What Julia finds out is that love, family, and secrets can tear you apart or make you stronger than ever before.

Thank you to NetGalley, Charlesbridge, Charlesbridge Teen, and Marit Weisenberg for this Granted Wish advanced preview copy of Select for an honest review --




I was blown away to recieve this granted wish ARC, because the art and the synopsis grabbed me from the first time I saw it available/coming soon for publication. I couldn't help feeling the tug of love, also, being a Texas, that it mentions Austin right from the get go.

While the beginning of Select is a little slow, I feel it takes its time to slowly pull you into understanding the world. How Julia's world is constructed and why it's terrible to fall from such a high height. The way the cultish, but perfect life of hers begins to slowly peel back as Julia's view point widens to the world she was dropped in, we begin to feel the eerie dangers present that were oblivious overlooked or missed in the earlier portions of Julia's life.

I like that the love story in this novel wasn't instantly everything for both of the characters. That, they like we coming into the novel, are a slow and gradual gravity toward each other. Julia because she's displaced, to this place that is supposed to cow her rebellion, and John because of the novelty of Julia, who she is, where she comes from, what she can do.

I love all the twists and turns of the secrets of the book, and I'm incredibly hesitant about how to describe them, as no one should be spoiled on getting them just the way we all did as early readers. The depths of the machine behind everything is broad and you'll find yourself gasping, horrified, disliking characters you might have liked earlier, cheering for things that come to pass the way they have to by the end.

This book was a fast, hard, love, that demanded you read it in every free second you had, and I will be picking up a copy as soon as it is available!

This book was unique, fast-paced, intriguing and interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and am hoping that there is a sequel.

I was just so bored. The characters don't really have enough dimension for my liking, the character has random burst of emotions that don't really flow, and the ending really didn't make a full circle.

To be posted: 7/24/17, 10:00 AM, Central Standard Time
Post Link: https://thepagewalker.blogspot.com/2017/07/book-review-select-by-marit-weisenberg.html


This book basically has that Star-Crossed-Lovers trope. Julia Jaynes was born to a billionaire family with genetically superior genes than common humans. For decades, her kind is hiding in plain sight among the populace. And despite their great fortune and efforts, they are close to extinction. Meanwhile, John Ford is your average senior high school guy struggling to get into college through a scholarship.

The book synopsis said it all. Readers don’t have to look very far and grasp that this book has all the trending YA elements: (1) a certain group of people with inhuman abilities, (2) they need to keep their identity a secret, (3) intermingling is a big no, (4) angsty teenagers, (5) stunning beauty, and (6) a love triangle. If you are into all of that, then, this book is for you. However, I am looking for something… more. I was looking for something outstanding in the story that may trump those previous YA books. Something absolutely exciting or shock the senses that will remain with the reader for a long period of time.

Now, I am not saying that there is nothing great about this book. The story is really well-paced. I read the whole book for only a few hours without any back tracking. The general plot is very interesting. Julia came from a group of people who experienced genocide. Their number is small and nearing extinction. Now that’s a huge topic to explore, given with all the issues in world today. I was actually hoping the story to explore more of this perspective, rather than the love pursuits of the characters. And speaking of characters, I like them. They need more depth, not just their life grievances. But yes, I do like them.

Overall, this is okay. It has plenty of potentials and hopefully Ms. Weisenberg explores them all.

I'm very excited for the upcoming books to this. The world building was a bit slow but it all merged together. It kept my attention and I really grew to love the main character. I felt like this was a bit dystopian, sci-fi and paranormal all Mixed together. Get excited for this series!