Saturday, March 3, 2012

Crossed by Ally Condie

Crossed is the sequel to the amazing book Matched by Ally Condie.  It is the second book in the trilogy.  Crossed  continues to follow the life of Cassia Reyes and her quest to find the boy she loves and the redemption from her Society life, The Rising. 

At the end of Matched, the reader is left wondering what Cassia will do - how will she solve her love choice between Xander and Ky?  We know Ky is the man of the hour, but her childhood love for Xander is never far from her thoughts.  Crossed answers that question for us and much more.  And within this simple decision of love, Cassia is also to answer questions that are bigger than she is...what is the journey of life all about?  Is their ever true freedom - freedom from The Society, or freedom in The Rising?  Cassia believes with all her heart that The Rising is the answer she needs.  The answer to her love for Ky or Xander, the answer to who she can trust, the answer to save her soul.  It's the quest of a lifetime.

Her journey is long and hard.  She meets some she can trust and finds that others she thought she knew were keeping secrets from her, secrets that change almost everything.  She is challenged.  Ky is challenged.  And the true conflict of the story is how they meet, and sometimes fail to meet, the test in front of them.  They are both seeing the world as a different place, but for Cassia it is all new.  Ky brings his family demons with him and his status as an aberration, but Cassia has never known anything outside the comfort of The Society, until now. 

She proves to be a strong heroine, not afraid to take chances.  She endures, as well as anyone else,  scourging across unknown territory.  She will let nothing stand in her way of getting to Ky, The Rising, or back to her family; even back to Xander. 

Crossed as a sequel does not disappoint.  It hints enough at Matched to keep the reader engaged and wondering about the characters met before now, but moves forward in a way that introduces new characters, settings, and plot lines to the reader in an unobtrusive way.

This book is written from both Ky and Cassia's viewpoint, it shifts every chapter.  I must admit, I found myself enjoying the chapters from Ky's viewpoint more than Cassia's.  I'm not sure why, I can't quite put my finger on it.  Possibly because I believed so much in the suffering of Ky's character and knew the true heartbreak that would ensue for him if he was to lose Cassia in this book.  I kept reading to make sure Ky was safe and loved.  My heart bleeds for him.  I'm not sure how I feel about Xander, and sometimes how I feel about Cassia.

I can't wait for the final book to hit the shelves so I can devour it as quickly as I've devoured the first two.  Ally Condie - you certainly have my attention!



I can't find a date for when this will be released, but when I do - I'll post it! :-)

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