"It takes longer to climb than it does to fall"

I guess I should finally get around to blogging about all of these books I've read in the past couple of months. It's been a while since I read a lot of these books though, so these will probably be fairly short. Sorry about that.

I'll start with Crossed, I suppose. Since I wrote about that one first.
My Pre-Reading

I enjoyed this book, although I'm not really sure it lived up to my expectations. I liked that it was written from both Ky and Cassia's perspectives, and I liked that Ky would find something out before Cassia and then she would make some mistake or decision based on wrong information. I still feel that Cassia is only trying to be with Ky because he's an Aberration. Although I'm sure they're supposed to be "really in love," I don't really think that Condie did a great job showing that. To me, their love is shallow and has no real reason. Except that it's difficult.

I feel like Cassia and Xander should be together, and it kills me how much Cassia hurts him every single time he tries to help her. Oh, and the fact that he's a part of the Resistance that Ky doesn't want to join and nobody tells Cassia because Ky is afraid he'll lose her to him. If she really loved Ky, that wouldn't make that much of a difference. I'm hoping that Xander and Cassia end up together at the end of the third book, but I really don't see that happening. Not with two books about Cassia and Ky. Unless, of course, Ky dies. I'm not saying that I want that to happen, but I can't think of any other way Cassia would choose Xander over Ky.

Back to Crossed though, I feel like this novel was a bit of a let down over all of the hype about how it was supposed to be SO EPIC and how Matched was only a set-up for HOW EPIC Crossed would be. I feel like Crossed is just another set-up, and I'm hoping the trilogy ends with a crazy epic finale. Not just running across the wilderness or whining about how you accidentally (or maybe purposely) got matched twice and don't know what to do.

I also felt like a lot of the characters were underdeveloped. Indie had so much potential, but didn't really turn into much. Ky was fairly stagnant, except we learned a little bit about his past. And Cassia was just all over the place. The other characters were mostly forgettable, and had very little depth (if any). Maybe I need to go read Matched again, but I don't feel like this book was anywhere near as good.

I'm not saying I hated the book - I definitely enjoyed it for the most part and am excited for the final part of the trilogy. It just wasn't up to par with a lot of the other books I've been reading lately, and I was definitely a little disappointed. I would give it a 3/5 though, and would probably still recommend the series to most people.


--Ashley