Crossed (Matched #2) by Ally Condie

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile

Source: Borrowed from Bri

Edition: Paperback

Pages: 367

Rating:

Rules Are Different Outside The Society

Chasing down an uncertain future, Cassia makes her way to the
Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky--taken by the Society to his sure death--only to find that he has escaped into the majestic, but treacherous, canyons. On this wild frontier are glimmers of a different life and the enthralling promise of a rebellion. But even as Cassia sacrifices everything to reunite with Ky, ingenious surprises from Xander may change the game once again.

Matched and Crossed. I started and finished them both in the same day. To say that I was sucked in would be an extreme understatement. However, as to what I was sucked into, I am still not sure. It might have been the way the Society was run or maybe I was wondering about how the love triangle would play out. I don't know, and I probably never will.

Crossed is written from two points of view, Cassia's and Ky's. It seemed like it would be a great thing, especially since I had struggled through Matched wondering what Ky was thinking. I was excited to be inside of his head! But that excitement quickly turned to irritation.

Yes. The book was different. New characters were introduced (although I still don't know how I feel about Indie) and a lot of information about older characters was learned. However, since both Cassia and Ky get to have their points of view, some of the information seemed redundant. Ky would learn one thing, then a few chapters later, so would Cassia. I just wanted to yell at the book that I already knew that! It was frustrating to be reading about the same thing. I understand that both characters needed to have their input, but enough is enough.

There is also a lot of backstory that I never found. Indie, Eli, Hunter... After I was finished with the book, I still felt like there were a lot of loose ends that needed to be tied up. And I know that this is not the last book, but I certainly hope that all of my questions will be answered in the next one. I feel like there will be some strings and I will only ever to be able to guess about some things...

While they are in the same trilogy, it is difficult to compare Matched to Crossed. Matched takes place inside of the Society, and Crossed takes place outside of it. The challenges are different, as are the people. It brings a new element to the story, being out of the control of the Society, but the wild is not enough to change the general concept of what is going on.

If you have read Matched, I definitely recommend reading Crossed. There's no point to give up in the middle of the trilogy, but I don't think that this is one book that I will be raving about to my friends. I'm looking forward to reading Reached simply because I want to know how everything ends up. (Uhm, Xander, anyone??) But that's pretty much it. This book met my standards of mediocre, because that was where they were set after I read Matched.

Hey! I'm Katie!

Hey everybody!

This is my first post, so I'm kinda really excited about it!

Anyway, about me. I'm nineteen and I'm currently at college, majoring in Public Relations. I just switched over from Nursing, so I'm super pumped to finally be getting into something that I really like. I am a super nerd. I love Pokemon (Squirtle and Pikachu are my favorites), Naruto, and Team Starkid. I have a ridiculous obsession with eyeliner. And I have a super bubbly personality!

I love to read! Obviously, otherwise I wouldn't be part of this. I'm one of Briana's sorority sisters (and I love her to death<3) I can't wait to actually get to write a review! I'm reading a ton of books right now, so be prepared! I don't have a favorite book or series for that matter, so I'm open to reading anything.

I hope I can meet some awesome new blogging friends. So... just talk to me. Email me. Whatevs. Haha. But no, really. Let me know if there's anything you'd like me to review, or if you just want to say hi, that's cool too!

Divergent (Divergent #1) by Veronica Roth

Publisher: Harper Collins

Source: Bought (Barnes and Noble)

Edition: Hardcover

Pages: 487

Rating:

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves… or it might destroy her.

Before my review, I have an interesting story to tell... This past semester in college, I took a class called Young Adult Dystopian Literature; what a dream, right? (The only downside was it was Saturday at 9 AM...) Prior to the beginning of classes, I emailed the professor and asked her which books we would be reading because I was ridiculously excited for this class just like any other YA book lover would be. She threw a few titles out like The Hunger Games, Feed, Uglies and more, but was also taking suggestions. At the time I hadn’t heard anything but amazing things about Divergent, so I figured I would recommend that book along with a few others that I had really wanted to read. Luckily, she took Divergent into consideration and chose it as a book for the class!

Now that story time is out of the way… I loved this book. Everyone in the class really appreciated that I chose to recommend this book because they all loved it just as much as I did! Even the male students (who didn’t seem to enjoy many of the female-narrated books [Uglies, Matched]) really enjoyed this one. I think the main reason I enjoyed this book was the non-stop action. I hardly ever read books with this much action in them (besides The Hunger Games,) and I really think I should read more because it had my adrenaline pumping constantly.

You didn’t think I was going to forget to mention Four did you? He’s the second main reason why I loved this book so much. I dare you to read Divergent and not get butterflies for this . I swear it’s got to be almost impossible. By the way, now that Four's real name has been revealed, am I required to call him that? I’ve grown to love the name Four and am having a hard time parting with it.

I hope everyone that’s reading this review takes this sincere recommendation I’m giving to you right now, and go buy/borrow/beg for this book. I can almost guarantee that you won’t regret it and if you do, I give you full permission to yell at and slap me for hyping this book up for you.

I plan on being one of the first people in line to get an autographed copy of Insurgent at BEA and need to prepare myself on being professional, and not a crazy fangirl. Even though inside my head the only thing that will be going on is "OMG VERONICA ROTH IS SIGNING MY BOOK. MY LIFE IS COMPLETE."