Review for Matched by Ally Condie

"On her seventeenth birthday, Cassia meets her Match. Society dictates he is her perfect partner for life. Except he’s not. In Cassia’s society, Officials decide who people love. How many children they have. Where they work. When they die. But, as Cassia finds herself falling in love with another boy, she is determined to make some choices of her own. And that’s when her whole world begins to unravel . . ." When I first heard the synopsis for Matched I just knew that it was a book that I was going to love. I adore futuristic, dystopian books and with the star crossed love story thrown in it was as though this book and I had been Matched ourselves! (Sorry for the obvious pun but I couldn’t pass up on it!) I read Matched in 2 sittings. It’s one of those books that has so much going on and has you that gripped that time just seems to fly by and before you know it you’ve sat and read half the book. I found it impossible to put down especially at the beginning when were first introduced to this amazing, highly believable future.I loved how well developed and imaginative Matched was. A key point in a good dystopian book for me is when the author has created this fascinating new world. I loved learning about a world where society chooses everything for you, especially because I could see this happening someday. The world Ally Condie has created is so layered and with a fantastic plot taking place inside it there’s always something exciting going on. I really liked our heroine Cassia. She felt like a very real character that was brave and strong but also had her moments of vulnerability and doubt making her incredibly humane and endearing. What really impressed me with Matched was the loving relationship Cassia had with her family. I liked how supportive and involved they were with Cassia. It was nice to get that supportive realistic family rather than- as is the case with a lot of young adult novels- the heroine going against her family or the family not suspecting something’s going on with their daughter. I loved the strong family unit Cassia had and it reminded me very much of my own family and rung true to how a close family would behave under Cassia’s circumstances. As well as adoring Cassia and her family I also loved both of her love interests Xander and Ky. I surprisingly liked both guys and was a little bit torn between them myself! The only thing that let this book down for me was the romance. Although I liked Cassia and Ky as characters I didn’t really feel this great love between them until the end of the book. If I could have just felt that a little more this book would have been my idea of perfection. That being said Cassia and Ky don’t get that much one on one time together in Matched so maybe I’ll be more convinced in future books when they’ll hopefully be together alone more. Ally Condie has created a fantastic new world with a brilliant cast of characters to go along with it. The plots clever and the writings poetic making Matched a must read. I can’t wait to find out what happens next. Not the greatest of love stories but one heck of a plot! My Rating 4.5/5 stars ****1/2 Synopsis taken from Amazon