Double-Stacked Bookshelves

Allie Condie's Crossed takes the reader back to Oren, or at lease back to the people who used to inhabit Oria, and the fight for control of Free Will.  The story picks up with Cassia, now exiled to the outer provinces, and her struggle to reunite with Ky and find the Rising.  It also brings us a little closer to Xander and imparts some interesting revelations about his character.  The book is full of deception, sacrifice, secrets, and testing relationships.  As the characters struggle toward personal growth and the Rising, the reader is asked to question motives and actions on a constant basis.  Who do we trust?  Who should Cassia trust?  Where is everything going to lead?  Will the Rising be everything the citizens (and the reader) want it to be?  What will happen once Cassia is fighting from WITHIN the Society?  And who will she choose?  So many questions to answer! "Everyone has something of beauty about them....You notice t...

I have to admit...I have been SUCH a blogging slacker these past few weeks.  I could blame this on the term starting up at the beginning of the month, but that's really not a good enough excuse (honestly).  I'm sitting here and I have three books that I've finished and need to post reviews for.  Those three books have been sitting next to my computer for nearly two weeks.  See what I mean?!  Terrible...just terrible.  Anywho...enough of my slacker-tude.  It's Tuesday and we all know what that means:  Teaser!  I'm just about done with Steven Tyler's book , so this teaser comes from the book I'll be starting as soon as I finish that one, Allie Condie's Crossed , the sequel to Matched . "Xander smiles and in the expression I see surprise and cunning and happiness all mingled there together.  I've surprised Xander--and myself.  I love Xander in ways that are perhaps more complicated than I first expected" (36). I can't wait to see ...

I loved, Loved, LOVED this book!  Ally Condie's Matched , the first in a trilogy, was absolutely phenomenal.  I can not recommend it more.  A young adult installation, Matched is set in a futuristic society where, basically, your entire life is mapped out for you by government officials, the Society.  There is no free choice or free will.  You dress alike.  You live alike.  Your career choice is made for you.  You stay the course to keep in the good graces of the leaders. The story starts with Cassia Reyes on the day of her seventeenth birthday.  At the age of seventeen, all children, unless otherwise chosen, are "matched" with their ideal life-partner.  The government bases the choice on what will produce the strongest offspring.  At her matching ceremony she is surprised to find out that she already knows the person she's been matched with; an unlikely occurrence.  When she finally views her match card a few days later, so...