A world where all your decisions are laid out before you. Who you will marry. Where you will work. Even when you will die. A strictly regimented Society where everything that you have ever done and ever will do is predicted by the Officials and their computers. Almost everything from the past is destroyed. Only one hundred poems, songs, and movies that were chosen long ago, remain as a window to the creative minds that once were. This is where we meet Cassia on the day she is to be Matched. 
 At the beginning, this book was really slow going for me. Even though I felt it was quite predictable, it took its sweet time getting to the good stuff. At first, I felt the love triangle was just another overused ploy, but then I started to actually get to know (and love) all the characters. Cassia, the dreamer, was Matched to her best friend Xander. It is very unusual occurrence to be matched with someone in your own province, so she is both surprised and thrilled that she gets to spend forever with Xander. Oh Xander, how I love that name. I can only think of Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and even though the descriptions don't fit, I go with it anyway. Xander is a great guy; exuberant, lovable, sweet, all things that a girl would want. Then Ky comes into the picture (quite literally) and surprises Cassia with his deep, introspective ways. He holds so many secrets and Cassia can't help but find out what lies there. 
 I was so angry at Cassia. How could you do this to Xander!! He's so great. But I suppose if she did just settle then what kind of story would this make? So then I got to know Ky along with Cassia and I think I can see why she fell for him. You can't help but wonder. And that is a main theme throughout this book. What if? 
 The only problem that I really had with the book was the writing style. It was filled with short, non-descript sentences that just fell flat. I enjoy adjectives now and again. The author also seems to flip flop in writing style. Sometimes I need more of a description of something. For example, I wanted to know more about the school, her neighborhood, etc. I felt like I really got no good details about the place, so that made it difficult to picture being there which I like to do. Other times she describes unimportant events too much which makes me impatient and bored. Overall, I enjoyed Matched, and I am thoroughly glad that I stuck it out through the rather stagnant first half of the book. It ends on a somewhat cliffhanger. I'm not throwing things around the room in aggravation or anything, but I'm certainly wanting to know what happens next in Crossed. 
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