Crossed - Ally Condie

Title: Crossed
Author: Ally Condie
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Genre: YA, Dystopia/Utopia, Romance
Pages: 367
Rating: 4 Stars

Crossed was such a pleasant surprise! I honestly didn't know what I was expecting from Crossed because of how much of a let down Matched was for me. I was never really able to get into Matched  while I was reading it or connect to the story. I felt like it dragged a lot and never had that much of an exciting plot line. But I felt the complete opposite about Crossed.  I was able to get interested in this story from the start and was really pleased with the plot/how quickly it picked up.

In this sequel to Matched, Cassia is hell bent on finding Ky. She doesn't know where he is or how she is going to get to him, she just knows she is, no matter what it takes. In turn, Ky feels the same way. His only concern is finding Cassia again and being with her. They both are in pretty bad circumstances, her in a working camp and being sent to the Outer Provinces and him already in the Outer Provinces, in a group that is slowly being killed by the Society for being Aberrations/Anomalies. They both befriend a few people throughout their journeys, introducing new characters to the story, Vick, Eli, Indie and Hunter. Even though they stay together as a group, they don't all have the same agenda. Cassia and Indie are dedicated to finding the Rising and helping in the fight against the Society. Whereas, Ky wants nothing to do with Rising or the Society because he doesn't trust either. But Cassia and Ky are both conflicted in what they want to do because they don't want to put their plans above their love for each other.

Crossed was so much better than Matched in many different ways for me. Firstly the plot was so much better, it had an actual story line that you can follow and intrigued me and made me want to keep reading. Now that I've finished this one, I kind of feel like Matched was just setting the readers up for what the following books will bring. Most of the time fillers are in between books but it feels like this series started with a filler. Matched didn't have an intriguing story line like most debut novels have that set up the rest of the series. It kind of just ambled on without too much going on, other than Cassia and Ky "sneaking words" and the ending of the story, nothing really that interesting went on. Crossed had so much more going on for me. Cassia was basically risking her life to find Ky and Ky was doing the same for her, you learn a lot more about Ky and his childhood and see a little bit more of Ky and Cassia's relationship without them having to hide from the Society.

There was a little bit lacking for me though and a friend on Goodreads also said it too, so I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought it. But i felt like Ky and Cassia's relationship was lacking a little. I just expected them to be more expressive now that they're out of the Society and no longer sneaking things on the Hill. Other than that I really loved this book, way more than Matched! I did miss Xander in this book though, other than his quick little part in the beginning. I really love his character and think he's just so sweet. He puts his feelings for Cassia aside and tries to help her over and over (even though he didn't know about the blue tablets (I hope)). I just wish there was more of him in this one. I'm assuming there will be in the next because they both are now part of the Rising. More to look forward to!

One really cool thing (at least to me) that I noticed about this series, is how much the covers give away about the story! Each cover's bubble is a color of one of the pills the Society gives to the Citizens. Also, on the first cover, Cassia is completely encased in the Society's bubble. The second cover, she's punching a hole through the bubble and in the third, she's completely out of the bubble. Which gives the impression that she is really going to go against the Society in the last book. Can't wait! :)

I really enjoyed this read and look forward to the last book! :)