Do not go gentle into the night...

In a place where the Society chooses everything for you- where you work, what you eat, who you love- Cassia managed to find a different love.

The Matching Banquet is a ceremony where every seventeen year old's name is dropped into a database in order to select who their life mate will be. The computer decides who will be placed together to be married later on, and this is the person they will create a family with. Cassia is pleased to discover she will be placed with her long time friend, Xander.  However, the microchip she was given does not show Xander's information; it shows Ky's.
Ky is an Aberration, an outcast to the Society who is forced to live alone and cannot be matched. So how did he end up on her screen? There's something about him that is so different and so dangerous that Cassia cannot help but investigate.
Although this information is baffling, Cassia also receives a poem from her grandfather before he passes on. It is not one of the 100 the Society has cleared. Her grandfather tells her she is stronger than the pills the Society delivers, and he informs her to not go gentle into the night. What does this mean? Matched by Ally Condie is a journey in which Cassia must discover the truths the Society is keeping, but also she must decide is her love for Ky worth the risk, or was it simply a mistake?
Haven't read it? GO READ IT! It was probably one of THE BEST books I read last year. Truly amazing. Condie's writing is a dream so you float right through. Plus it is an incredible dystopic society. Everything is thought out, and the secrets just get deeper and deeper.

Crossed is the second in the trilogy. And unlike some authors who decide they want to drag out their series, Condie is pretty confident this is a trilogy. Crossed gives Ky a voice as well as Cassia, and the two are on a mission to find each other again and break free of their chains. It begins a couple months after the last one leaves off. It was an amazing read, although my five stars went to the first book. The writing was more amazing, the adventure was just as heart wrenching, but for some reason my heart just wasn't in it as much as in the first one. The characters really discover who they are, what their purpose is, and what they want for their future in the second book. Of course, it needed to be written in order to explain how each character ends up in their state of mind. I'm not saying it's bad, I just liked the first one better. The Hunger Games is a perfect example of a series where the second book is the weakest. I am even more anxious for the finale.
Condie does a really neat thing with these books. On her blog, which yes I am a dork so I visited the site, she has a play list for each book. That's why it takes her so long to finish her series, she puts so much love and effort into it that it makes readers believe it. I love her use of poetry, paintings, music, and voice. It is truly an amazing series by a very talented author. Do yourselves a favor and read this series. It won't disappoint.
Plus the site for the books is really fun. It has bios, the book trailers, and a mock matching. I entertained myself for about forty-five minutes just matching myself. So have fun, and don't go gentle into the night.