Crossed by Allie Condie (book review by Eleni)

Author: Ally Condie
Release Date: March 13th 2011
Publisher: Speak
Series: Matched #2
Pages: 367
Rating: 3 stars
Buy at: Amazon , Barnes and Noble

The Society chooses everything. 
The books you read. 
The music you listen to. 
The person you love. 
Yet for Cassia the rules have changed. Ky has been taken and she will sacrifice everything to find him. 
And when Cassia discovers Ky has escaped to the wild frontiers beyond the Society there is hope.
But on the edge of society nothing is as it seems...
A rebellion is rising.
And a tangled web of lies and double-crosses could destroy everything.

Review:

Personally, I wasn't so impressed with this one. And that's why it was so hard to rate this book. I didn't know if it deserves two stars or three but in the end i decided with three so the following reasons.

It's not an amazing book lets be clear about that. It is more like a cliche boy loves girl , girl loves boy, they risk everything for each other and one of them ends up doing something he considers wrong just to please the other person.

I expected this book to be a little more adventurous than the first one but in the end it was blant and boring. It was really really really predictable and for not even a second I didn;t doubt my guesses...and in the end I was right. But the writing was really good and although I wanted to drown myself, I continued reading because at some point I felt something for the main protagonists of the book. It was not strong but it was there so I finished the book.

As with all the young adult books , this one is not an exception of the rule , it follows the pattern of every second book - the couple loses each other and they both begin a journey of finding each other and themselves. Lame but what can we do. 

The characters were okay and the descriptions were really good too but the plot needed a little more adventure and action and also the characters needed stronger targets. Stronger motivations for doing what they were doing.

Other than these I don't have anything else to say about this book. It wasn't exciting and I expected a little bit more than that.

Matched by Allie Condie book review by Eleni

Author: Ally Condie
Release Date: November 30th 2013
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Series: Matched
Pages: 369
Rating: 4 stars
Buy on: Amazon , Barnes and Noble


 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.

Review:

When this book released back in 2010 i didn;t want to read it because of all the aftermath of the Hunger Games and the infamous controlling society. Well, now that i read it I felt so guilty and stupid that i didn;t earlier. 

The story takes place in the future, in a world where The Society rules everything and in a world where people are being watched and monitored all the time. In a world where there is no knowledge of history and art and any chance of creation. In a society where they choose who to marry and love...and then we meet Cassia. A girl that obeys all the rules and does everything by the book until she sees Ky and reads a poem. Then everything changes.

Being fascinated by the boy she can't have and being intrigued by his otherworldly knowledge of things she never knew Cassia finds herself falling deeper in love. I loved the way the author took his time with the characters. You can actually feel the need to read more and lose yourself in the magical and painful world of Ky and Cassia. 

This book is all about taking control of your life and be who you want to be. Do what you want and get what you want. It;s a book about the power every person hides inside him and how he or she decided to use it. I hated the Society a lot and i actually thought that i could never live in a world like this and that made me feel more about the characters. The characters are well developed and down to earth, to the point where you can actually relate yourself to them.

This book is all about revolution and you can feel it in every single page. I am sure that all the fans on Divergent and The Hunger Games will love love love this book.

The Dark and Hollow Place by Carrie Ryan book review

Author: Carrie Ryan
Release Date: March 22nd 2011
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Pages: 375
Rating: 3 stars

There are many things that Annah would like to forget: the look on her sister's face before Annah left her behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, her first glimpse of the Horde as they swarmed the Dark City, the sear of the barbed wire that would scar her for life. But most of all, Annah would like to forget the morning Elias left her for the Recruiters.  
Annah's world stopped that day, and she's been waiting for Elias to come home ever since. Somehow, without him, her life doesn't feel much different than the dead that roam the wasted city around her. Until she meets Catcher, and everything feels alive again. 
But Catcher has his own secrets. Dark, terrifying truths that link him to a past Annah has longed to forget, and to a future too deadly to consider. And now it's up to Annah: can she continue to live in a world covered in the blood of the living? Or is death the only escape from the Return's destruction?


Review:

To be honest i am a little disappointed with the series. 
When i started the fist book in 2010 i was amazed on how different it was from other books of it genre. Ryan made me shiver with fear while reading it and i still remember and carry the urge to read it again.
The second book ,of course,as usually happens didnt meet my expectations. A lot of things were similar with the first one and gave me the feeling that Ryan didnt really try her best.
And here we come to the last installation of the Forest of Hands and Teeth Trilogy..the dark and hollow places was similar to the first to book as to finding love and losing lose..the only difference here is that everyone lives happily ever after and blindly in love. The book had some scary parts but apart from that it wasnt something great. 
I found some points extremely stupid and crazy...i was pulling my hair in utter desperation. Although i liked Annah a lot i found a lot of similarities with her sister Gabry (a.k.a. Abigail) although those two grew up separately and lot different with one of them having no memory of her past. So i came to question those similarities as telepathy cuz i didnt find any other explanation. there is no way that two people to be almost the same when they grow up completely differently. Ryan wanted to show that family remains family and those traits that you get to adopt in your first years of living stay with you forever..wrong Ryan wrong.
Anyway i would suggest you read only the first two books of the trilogy if not only the first one.