But for the mountains was really powerful and thought provoking. At times it made me tear up and others it had me giggle. You could actually taste the sarcasm in the words at points.

I think that the main character has such a compelling story that you want her to break through and honestly I was glad when she had that moment.

This book reminded me of The Selection, but much darker. The opening was jarring and wish I had been more prepared for it. Overall, I enjoyed this book and would be interested in reading more in this series.

(B-) 83% : The Selection but darker.
ARC provided by author/publisher in exchange for an honest review. this Do NOT affects my rating.

Trigger Warning: Rape, Sexual Abuse, and Physical Abuse

Non-spoiler Section 📕
This book is almost identical to the selection. I liked the selection so I can't say that's it's bad, but I genuinely don't know how they didn't get copyrighted for this book.

This book we follow Arden, who is one of the lucky girls "Selected" (See what I did there) to be apart of the National Women's Institute. Just like the selection they are competing for the Prince. Of Course just like America, Arden, start out by saying she doesn't want him. From there the girls compete in little tasks and test to prove their rank and find who it worthy to marry the prince. All the while this is going on, there is a subplot about Arden's past and some other people that are trying to harm her. Which let me just say, if I changed the name of the main character is basically the plot of the selection.


Me explaining why these two books are the same

However with that all out of the way let me just say, I did enjoy this book. To go more in depth, I basically binge read this book in one day. I love the selection, so finding a new book that was very similar, but also NEW, was obviously something I wanted to read. I do wish that the book strayed more from the Selection. I don't know if that was the authors goal, but it was just so similar I was just kept drawing parallels.

Now let me talk about the thing that I loved most about this book and why I like it better than the first Selection book. I rated the first Selection book a 3.5 Star rating. Know you might be wondering why I gave this one more. That was the way the author handled trauma in this book, it was beautiful and really shined a light on a lot of things that happen in today's society. The way she talked about it was lyrical. The writing style was, in my opinion, lyrically beautiful. She gave the female characters depth and showed that women are more than objects. That we want things and we can be ambitious, but also be pretty. I loved seeing the main character deal with her trauma. I thought that this book gave me insight on to how I can help others as well. That is why I liked to more than the first Selection book. It was more mature and dealt with topic in a sensitive and brilliant way.


Now let's move on to the spoiler section of this review. If you plan on reading this book I wouldn't read any further, unless you are like me and like to have things spoiled.
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Spoiler Section 📖
Now let me draw some real parallels between this book and the Selection

Arden = America
Maxon = Declan
Beck = Aspen
Zerah = Marlee
Meredith = Lucy

If you have read or are going to read this book, isn't it soooo similar?? Like I mean the characters are copied and pasted into this book, but with more trauma. Moving on from that I did really like the characters.

Arden, was probably my favorite character. I loved seeing her work through her rape and sexual abuse. She learned that while it was apart of her it didn't have to define her if she didn't want it to. I thought the way the author wrote her character was brilliant in this aspect. Seeing it from her POV we could see how deep the trauma was because of her inner monologue which added a nice depth into some of her actions. I'm glad that she didn't really end up with anyone at the end of the book because she realized the only person she needs is herself, but I feel like too much of this book was based off a love triangle that will never pay-off. The only thing I didn't like about her character was the fact that she is a pick me character.



I just feel like as women and as a feminist the next step we need to take is to stop putting down other women because they aren't "quirky" like you. Just because someone is like other women, they like makeup or they want to be a housewife doesn't make them less of a woman. Everyone has their own choice to do what they want. Cool, you don't want to be housewife and you want to be a politician, that's great, just don't put down other women because they want too. That's their choice too.



Declan, is kind of a confusing character. I hate to say this but I feel like his character to me just came off kind of flat. If he was bread he would be white bread, and for that I am sorry. However, I feel like he had no character motivations. Some of the things he would do just weren't explained or just wren't explained in a way that made sense. For instance, the way that he was kissing other girls. In the Selection (I can't stop comparing) When America found out Maxon was kissing other girls he said that he had never had relationship before and he just wanted to have options because the one person he wanted, America, wouldn't have him. When Arden found out Declan was kissing other girls there was no explanation. There was a fight and then they kissed and never talked about it again. He goes on for the rest of the story that he always knew Arden was the one and he could never ever want anyone else. Then why kiss other people????? Like Maxon had to, you just did? Idk, some of his character choices didn't really make sense and I feel like they were just added for drama.

Quotes I liked
"The point is, don't give up because your mountains block the sky."

(hide spoiler)]
besides that this book was a really fun read. I wouldn't say it's my favorite book, but I also wouldn't say it's the worst. I did really enjoy reading this book as a guilty pleasure and I recommend that you read it too.

I have some complicated feelings about this book. Starting with the good stuff first, the cover is beautiful and the synopsis did its work drawing me in. The book itself is well written and the main character is complex and layered. Arden is a girl with not much to look forward to. When the story begins, she's fairly hopeless, stuck working in the home of a benefactor that regularly assaults her. With that said, throughout the book she rises above her adversity and strives for more. The issues I have may honestly just stem from he fact that I'm not a huge fan of books that use sexual violence and misogyny as plot devices. The entire system that Arden is trapped in is built to keep women like her down and for some reason the way to beat the system is male attention. Although it's great to see main characters move past their traumas, I'm not sure how much I like the message this type of trope sends to young readers.

Issues aside, this book was interesting and engaging. I sympathized with Arden and rooted for her until the end, which is why this book earns a 3.5 from me.

Sadly this one just didnt mesh with me at all. The book starts out with a character being raped and it just didn't get better after that at all. This book was full of clueless people that just didn't want to know what was happening. And although that does feel like real life. I just couldn't get into it. Which was sad since this was sold to me from a friend saying its a dark Selection story. Which I would have totally loved.

Words can’t describe how much I enjoyed BUT FOR THE MOUNTAINS by Erin Riha but I’ll give it a shot! I rated this a 4.5/5!

After growing up in a benefactor’s house with a negligent man and his abusive son, Arden is surprisingly accepted as one of 18 candidates to the National Women’s Institute. The premise reminded me of THE SELECTION by Kiera Cass, but there was a depth to Arden’s character that made the story much more compelling to me. At the Institute, Arden confronts her past and tries to develop a life for herself in a world of arranged marriages while surviving threats from all sides.

I thought the depiction of trauma was really well done and accurate in a way that many young adult books are not. Arden exhibits symptoms of prolonged sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, and her internal journey is placed in higher importance that the romance storyline. I didn't especially like the love triangle aspect, but it drove the story forward. I also would have liked to see a conversation between Siobhan and Arden to add another perspective on arranged/political marriages. The ending was hopeful, and I would love to see a sequel.