Books 43 and 44: Crossed and Reached

Book 2 in the Matched Series by Ally Condie. This was probably my favorite of the 3 books in this series.  In this book Cassia is in search of Ky who has been taken away from Society. In the process she begins to discover the truth about society and about herself and Ky as well as who Xander, her match really is as well.  The fast pace of them searching for each other in the Outer Provinces and the situation that is effecting society caused the book to be one that was hard to put down. 

I'd give this book 5 stars.

The final book in the series This was probably my least favorite of the series.  The book seemed to drag on with Xander searching for a cure and trying to help people fighting the plague, and Cassia trying to figure out who she could trust.  As the book moved on I could almost predict what was going to happen, and it did happen in almost that exact way.  I love character development so I would have really enjoyed the book more if after the story itself ended there had been a 5 or 10 years later chapter or two really wrapping up the lives of the characters.

Overall, when compared to Hunger Games and Divergent in terms of acceptability for teens this one wins out.  The story was intriguing, and for the most part the characters were well developed and their was a good deal of suspense involved.  The main reason it wins out is that there was implied violence, but the actual violence was not written out for you to read.  It also did not contain suggested sexual activity as the Divergent series did. 

I'd give this book 3 stars, but the series itself 5 stars.