Reached

Reached by Ally Condie

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Summary (From Back Cover)
Cassia's journey began with a momentary glitch in the otherwise perfect facade of the society. After crossing canyons to break free, she waits, silk and paper smuggled against her skin, ready for the final chapter.
The wait is over.
Cassia has raged against those who threaten to keep away what matters most - family, love, choice. Her quiet revolution will soon explode into full scale rebellion.
In the gripping conclusion to the bestselling Matched trilogy, Cassia, Ky and Xander return to the Society to save the one thing denied to them for so long: the power to choose.

Review
It's been a steady and enjoyable series, maybe not one of my all time favourites but after it pushed away from some of the cliche YA plots in the last book it's become a series I would happily recommend.

Ky and Cassia are FINALLY back together (after dragging that out in the last book) but now they have other things to worry about. Although when I say finally back together it really doesn't last long, with Cassia being sent back into the society and Ky staying outside it in hopes of being trailed as a future Pilot. But as a deadly toxin is released into the society everyone is forced to acknowledge that the perfect world they live in is flawed. Both the Rising and the Society will have to fight it out to keep control over what's left of civilisation.

In this book you also get a better look into the workings of the mysterious Rising which we were properly introduced to in the last book, Crossed. You find out about this Pilot figure and what the people outside of civilisation have been doing all this time while the people inside the city have been living their perfectly manufactured lives.

I think that this is one of the best conclusions to a book series that I've ever read. Now, I'm not saying it's my favourite book of all time but more often than not you find that the last book in a series can be kind of sloppy and/or rushed, leaving questions unanswered and the reader unsatisfied with how their beloved character's story ends. But with Reached you get the feeling that as much thought and time and effort has gone into making the story as complex and exciting as any of the other. It answer's all unresolved questions and leaves you feeling content as you close the back cover.

I don't want to give too much away with this one, but I will say I was happy with the way the love triangle played out and thoroughly enjoyed the last instalment of the Matched trilogy. If you haven't read these books then give them a whirl because they're well written and overall just bloody exciting!



Official Book Trailer for Reached:

If you haven't read my reviews for the other two books in the Matched Trilogy give them a gander here...

MATCHED    .    CROSSED

Crossed

Crossed by Ally Condie

Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary (From back cover)

The Society Chooses Everything.

The books you read.

The music you listen to.

The person you love.

Yet for Cassia the rules have changed. Ky has been taken and she will sacrifice everything to find him. 

And when Cassia discovers Ky has escaped to the wild frontiers beyond the Society there is hope. 

But on the edge of society nothing is as it seems...

A rebellion is rising.

And a tangled web of lies and double-crosses could destroy everything.

Review

After everything that's happened there's no way Cassia is just going to let Ky go, and with the help of Xander she doesn't have too. Told from both Ky and Cassia's point of view this instalment of the Matched trilogy follows Ky on his quest from answers and Cassia in her hunt for Ky. 

After being taken from his home in Matched Ky finds himself on the edge of The Outer Provinces, segregated from The Society, fighting an enemy that might not even be there. Knowing that he can't go back to his previous life Ky finds a way to leave and heads into The Carving's hoping to find some form of freedom. 

Cassia meanwhile has been taking assignments that will get her closer to The Outer Provinces, closer to Ky. Finally making it, she finds she's always one step behind him. She's got nothing left, just her determination to find the truth, to find the boy she thinks she loves and a stash a the blue pills. 

In the first book, Matched, we were told about the three pills all members of The Society are forced to carry at all times. The Green Pill will instantly calm you, The Blue pill is said to have enough nutritional value to keep you alive for several days and then there's The Red pill. The Red pill is only ever allowed to be taken when the officials tell you to do so, no one knows what it does. That is, not until now. At the end of Matched everyone was forced to take the red pill but Cassia didn't, and she finds out that this pill clears your memories. No one remembers what happened with Ky, no one remembers taken the pills but Cassia does. However, it would seem that there may have been more than one lie told about the pills The Society makes them carry, and Cassia is about to find out the hard way. 

Cassia's chosen her side, she's chosen Ky, but will she be able to survive the harsh world that lies within The Carving's? Will she be able to stay strong long enough to find the person she loves? Or has she chosen the wrong boy entirely?

Personally I'm team Ky, and that's not because I think he's the better choice. In fact if I had to choose I would choose Xander every time. But I hate stories of unrequited love, it's over used and clique, which makes me want Cassia and Ky to find each other and have that happy ending. That way Xander can go off and meet someone who actually likes him. But even if Cassia id find Ky, according to The Society Xander is her Match so I'm wandering what Condie will do in book three. I'm imagining the whole of The Society crumbling down at the hands of a teenager. That's how these books usually go. As I've said before I enjoy reading these books but they all have every similar base-lines. 

Overall it's a good sequel. I'm always a little worried about the first sequel in a series because it can fall flat in comparison to the first book. However, this continues on from the first book nicely answering some of our unanswered questions from book one and giving us a handful of new ones for the third instalment. Although, I will admit at times I found it a little frustrating how the two main character's continues to narrowly miss each other. After a while the whole you just want to skip ahead until they find each other. But in general I think if you enjoyed Matched you will be happy enough with Crossed. 

Official Book Trailer for Crossed:

Link to my review for **Matched 

Matched

Matched by Ally Condie

Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary (From back cover)

On her seventeenth birthday, Cassia meets her match. Society dictates he is her perfect partner for life. Except he's not. 

In Cassia's society, Officials decide who people love. 

How many children they have.

Where they work.

When they die.

But, as Cassia finds herself falling in love with another boy, she is determined to make some choices of her own. 

And that's when her whole world begins to unravel...

Review

The first thing you notice with this book is that it has quite a few similarities to a couple of other well loved YA books. It's set in a a future where there have been strict rules and regulations put in place to make controlling the human population easier, but of course there are pockets of rebellion that can't be tamed. Think Divergent or The Hunger Games. Saying that it doesn't make this any less of a good read, in fact I really quite enjoyed it, even if I did get a serious case of deja vu at times.

So the story starts with Cassia's matching ceremony. The matching is something every person must do when they reach the age of seventeen. They've all been matched with someone who society has decided is they're idea partner, however, when Cassia goes up to find out who her match is there's a technical fault and shows her someone else. So now Cassia has to go through the process of courting her match with the knowledge that there may be someone else out there, someone she may be more suited to. The story follows her as she tried to figure out what went wrong and what she finds will tare apart everything she believes about the world she lives in.

Overall it's a good story, even though it's another love triangle. However, unlike a lot of other ones you'll be torn between the two boys as neither of them have any obvious faults. I really liked the way Condie creates, what on the surface, seems like an ideal world. Pushing the idea of an organised society that works. Though, as they book goes on you come to question whether or not the sacrifices these people have to make are worth the piece of peace?

It's a easy read, which lovers of The Hunger Games and Divergent will really enjoy. Definitely worth a read.

Official Book Trailer:

The rights to Matched were sold to Disney in 2010 and is in the process of being turned into a movie. Adam Shankman is set to produce the feature while Kieran Mulroney has been hired to write the script. As of present this is no release date for the film.