Crossed (Matched #2) by Ally Condie‏

Description:

Rules Are Different Outside The Society

Chasing down an uncertain future, Cassia makes her way to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky--taken by the Society to his sure death--only to find that he has escaped into the majestic, but treacherous, canyons. On this wild frontier are glimmers of a different life and the enthralling promise of a rebellion. But even as Cassia sacrifices every thing to reunite with Ky, ingenious surprises from Xander may change the game once again.
Narrated from both Cassia's and Ky's point of view, this hotly anticipated sequel to Matched will take them both to the edge of Society, where nothing is as expected and crosses and double crosses make their path more twisted than ever (Goodreads). 

My Thoughts:

Crossed is book two in Matched series.  I have to say that I was not that impressed with Matched when I read it few months ago (read review HERE).   But since the library had this book and it was free I decided to read it.  I am sorry to say that I would not go out a full price for this book based on the first book. I have seen a lot of good reviews about this series and I personally just do not see it. But after I finished Matched I was hoping that Crossed would be better, after all this is new and upcoming author (at least I think she is, but then again I might be wrong).  I was willing to give the series a second chance by reading Crossed like I said since they had it at the library.  But I have to say that Crossed is a letdown for me, which saddens me because I really do like the idea of this book. 

Second book is told from two POV, Cassie and Ky. In this book we learn more about Ky and who he is, where he is from. But I have to say I felt nothing for these characters, I had no sympathy or sadness or anticipation. Rather I was counting the pages till I was done reading this book. I really did not care whether Ky and Cassie found each other. I was bored with the constant monologue Ky and Cassie were having with themselves. Constant monologue about their love with each other and how they long to see each other again and how they long to recite poems to each other. The thing is I did not see or feel that love between them. It wasn’t very much believable that Cassie and Ky are in love with each other, they barely know each other. Also we see Xander come back in this book, he is only in one scene, but Cassie does think about him. Xander is Cassie’s match and he has a secret that Ky knows about but not Cassie. Is the author attempting a love triangle? I really do not understand Cassie and her reasoning for risking everything. I am not talking about the Society, but her family. She risks everything for a boy she barely knows and leaves her family behind in search of him. Talk about boy crazy!!!

I found the story line to be lacking, it just was not developed enough. The whole time I spent reading this book I felt that there was this wall that prevented the author from moving onto the next level. I do not know even if that makes any sense as to what I am trying to say by this. The story never reaches its potential because we have this constant chatter about Ky and Cassies love for each other. The author never explains who the Enemy is? Is Enemy the resistance, the villagers or someone else? There is never enough information about the Society, Enemy, or villagers, or resistance. I now that you can’t give everything away if the first few pages but there needs to be some background story. I just feel that there is not enough of background story but there is too much of Ky and Cassie story. The part about poems and writing, the author never explains why the society decided to do this. Why only keep hundred poems or hundred painting and so on? 

Overall as much as it saddens me to say this, this book was a disappointment. I was hoping that second book would be much better, but it was’t. There was not improvement in the story line or writing. Rather we have the same story line but in different location with few new characters. I have to say that for the most part there was nothing major happening in this story. There was not a lot of action, there wasn’t any anticipation as to what is going to happen next. But rather we have Ky and Cassie traveling in the outer provinces. Cassie searching for Ky and resistance, while Ky is just running away from the Society and hoping to see Cassie again. I really can’t see how the author will end the series in the next book because there is nothing to end with this series other than to bring Cassie and Ky to live happily ever after somewhere where society can’t reach them. If you have not started reading this series I would not bother reading it. But if you still want to read because you want to judge the book by yourself my advice is don’t expect too much from it. Do not get me wrong this book had a lot of potential but that potential was never brought forth to the readers. 

I give this book 2/5 STARS – Happy Reading!!!

Matched Series:

Matched

Crossed

Reached - Coming November 13th, 2012