Matched by Ally Condie

“Is falling in love with someone's story the same thing as falling in love with the person himself?” 

Cassia lives in a society where everything is determined for you, what you eat, what you wear, where you work and most importantly who you love. At the beginning of the book we meet Cassia who is getting ready to be matched to her life partner. A glitch in system, starts Cassia on a journey of self discovery, she will learn to question everything she thought was right with the society she lives in.

I love the world Condie has created here, the society seems perfect on the surface but once Cassia takes off her 'rose tinted glasses' she see it for what it really is, creepy and sinister. A society that chooses your destiny for you.

Even though the plot was slow, I think that added to the believability of the story line, Cassia has grown up in this world, its what she has been taught to believe, so we go on the journey with her full of indecisiveness  and fear.

I loved the love triangle in this book, again it was believable  which is such an important quality in YA fiction, its often rushed and characters fall in love far too quickly. Cassia loves both Xander and Ky in different ways one is sweet and protective and the other is fierce and strong, Cassia fights with what she knows is right and what her heart is telling her to do. The build up of the chemistry between Cassia and Ky, is slow and steady, they learn to connect over poetry and little by little they learn more about each other.

I think the poetry aspect had to be one of my favourite things from this book, it was so sweet and charming, it was their forbidden fruit.

The ending was incredible. it was heartbreakingly sad and left me aching to find out what was next for Cassia. This book is a definite must for any fans of dystopian novels, don't be put off by its slow pace, its just the start in what I'm sure will be a wonderful series.

Crossed by Ally Condie

“Everyone has something of beauty about them.” 


After finishing matched last year I was really excited to read crossed (the second book of the trilogy), we join Cassia and Ky a few months after the ending of matched and watch them fight to be reunited. I really liked that the chapters alternated between Cassia and Ky and felt that we got to see more of who Ky is and how he came to join the Markhems. One thing I would say though is that I didn't feel like there was much distinction between the two voices, sometimes you had to double check whose chapter you were reading as they tended to blend into one. I'm undecided about whether I liked Cassia in this book, she didn't seem to be as 'kick-ass' as the first book and, I think I wanted her to be more but it seemed the new characters Eli and Indie out-shined her.

A lot of people don't think much happened in this book, but I couldn't disagree more, yes the pace is a little slower then that of matched but so many small clues were dropped and we got to learn a lot more about the society and the mysterious 'enemy'. The second book in a trilogy can always be a little slower, much more ground has to be covered in order to set up a fantastic finale and that's what I think Condie has done here.