Matched (Matched #1) by Ally Condie

Synopsis: Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow

Title: Matched
Series: Matched #1
Genre: Romance, Dystopian
Pages: 366
Ages: 12-17
Date I Finished: August 11th, 2012
My Rating: 4 Stars
Book Format: Paperback (I own)
My Word/Phrase: :( POOR XANDER ): (lol I've been talking about the boys recently in my "phrases")

Review:I loved this book a lot, and there were minor things I would touch up on, but they were kind of my personal opinion so I gave this book a 4 star. I'll star off by talking about what I thought could change and then I'll do the parts I LOVED. P.S. There are spoilers. Make sure you've read Matched before reading review.

Okay, I just HATED that Cassia basically ditched Xander. :'( I felt so bad. What did Xander do wrong? I feel so bad that Xander got left in the dust. Near the end I would've been mad if Cassia dumped me and then asked a favor to help find the boy she truly loved, just like she did to Xander...NOT COOL I really hope the sequel has Xander finding a better girl. The characters were okay. They seemed very similar to each other (Ky and Xander, Cassia and Em) but not quite the same, which didn't bug me that much. Also, this book was very similar to The Giver. I liked The Giver; I mean, it was okay. This book was better than The Giver though if I had to choose. This might be just because I like action, but there really wasn't much of it in this book. It seemed slightly slow, but every page had a huge part in the story!

This book DOES have a lot of pros, though. I'm a sucker for romance. The little things that Ky and Cassia did together were so cute! I loved how they did little, simple things: (kiss, write "I love you" to each other) Unlike this generation which is making out and grinding, basically. Also, I love the incorporation of the poems. Cassia kept thinking of the "do not go gentle" part of the poem and I love how she kept bringing it back throughout the story.

Ugh....CLIFFHANGERS. Well, this was a cliffhanger for me at least. SHE HAS TO FiND KY!!! Obviously, I loved this book a lot (mostly because of the romance) but there were some little patches here and there that I wanted to change because they kept nagging me throughout the story. The minor problems were basically how mad I was that Cassia just dumped Xander. POOR XANDER! He was MATCHED with her and now he has nobody :'( I hope Cassia chose Ky because she wanted someone like me to date Xander, of course. Anyway, I give this book four stars because, well, I'm not a critical reviewer ;) AND despite all the bad things I thought of, it was beautifully written and thr romance was just a sweet cherry on top for me. (And I'm still waiting for Xander to come find me and date me!)
★★★★