Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Read Because Of Another Blogger

Top Ten Tuesday

Hosted by The Broke and The Bookish

Top Ten Books I Read Because of Another Blogger

    

    

1. The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

          - Found this from numerous blogs giving it high ratings; and since Faeries are one of my weaknesses, I just had to read it.

2. Graceling by Kristin Cashore

          - I saw it on one of my friends on GoodReads and when I managed to find a copy at a nearby bookstore, I read it greedily.

3. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

          - I first caught sight of it from Kristi of The Story Siren. I fell in love with the entire series since then.

4. XVI by Julia Karr

          - Maria of Bookchilla: Reading is the Ultimate Aphrodisiac and a friend of mine from Goodreads put this on her TBR, and so did I.

5. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

          - I didn't bother to check this book out when I saw tons of copies of it on every bookstore I go to. But entering The Young Adult Book Club and other GoodReads groups that have a ton of girls giggling and ogling over Jace made me want to see what the fuss was all about.

6. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

          - There was a rave about this book all over the net so I decided to check it out too.

7. Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel

          - The same with Wicked Lovely, I saw this on Kristi's site. Basically, her blog was the first one I followed so most of the books I started reading were those that I saw there.

8. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

          - It had gone viral... and I got infected.

9. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

          - Definitely eye-catching so I understand why I saw it all over different blogs, sadly it didn't capture my heart.

10. Matched by Ally Condie

          - This had positive feedback from my Goodreads friends so I decided to read it too. I'm still bummed that I didn't feel the same about it as they did.

Matched by Ally Condie

        

Matched
(Matched #1)
by Ally Condie

Summary from Goodreads:

"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."

Rating:

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I really didn’t like this book. 

I’m actually shocked to find myself not liking this because majority of my goodreads friends have loved and enjoyed it. I often have similar likes and dislikes with them and it bothers me to fall apart with Matched. Oh well, we can’t agree on everything, can we? 

I loved the idea of this novel. The cover and the synopsis were all I needed to sit down and open Matched and start reading. The first few pages already settled me with how easy it was to grasp the concept of the story, so I said to myself, “so far, so good.” 

Unfortunately, that was the only positive reaction I found myself to have while reading this book. Most of the time I was cringing my eyes in utter confusion. I got the story; I just don’t see the point of things on why it was so devastating and dangerous to do this act or that. Some parts felt like the reactions towards the done deed was plain exaggeration. There wasn’t much history that explained what the Society is and their deeper motives of over-control. 

The characters didn’t help with my frustration either. I was already chagrined about how the story was turning out and then I struggled more with understanding the characters. I just couldn’t relate to any of them. Cassia was too naïve and selfish. Not to mention the fact that most of her actions were FED to her. If her grandfather hadn’t made her “wonder” about her choice of match, or if Xander hadn’t mentioned that Ky throws away the game, she wouldn’t even notice anything. Xander and Cassia’s love interest was an obvious set-up. They were chosen for each other so of course it was shaped to have “spark”. I don’t get Cassia’s fascination with Ky. Is it love or obsession? I don’t know. Speaking of Ky, I see that he really lives up to his character. He has mastered the skill of blending in and not drawing attention because he really didn’t stand out to me. 

One thing I do like about this book was how it was written. I guess that’s what kept me turning the pages and the feeling that I want to finish the book. The writing was rhythmic and sweet, and deep and beautiful, although the poetry in it was a bit hard for me to understand. I’m not a fan of poems so I had to read them more than once to get the idea, although I still failed and I thank Cassia for explaining it. 

I still do want to read the next books to come though. Maybe I’d get to appreciate this series with the other books.