"Matched"

A couple weeks ago while at Costco waiting to get new tires, I decided to buy a book to read just in case I had to sit for awhile. I figured I still had other repairs to get done on the van at another repair shop and wouldn't mind having a good book to take with me. I decided to buy the book "Matched" by Ally Condie. It's about a Utopian society. Other books I have read in this genre is The Giver by Lois Lowry, and The Hunger Games by Susan Collins.

In trying to keep an ideal society, the topic focused on in "Matched" is coming of age to be given a life partner. Each person can choose for themselves to remain single or to be matched. The government has people that analyze personalities in order to decide who to match with who. With several communities in their society, it is rare that the person being matched knows their new partner.

Cassia is the main character. She turns 17, which is the age they can be matched and received word that they have found a match for her. To everyone's surprise, her match is her childhood best friend! What could be better, right? But she soon discovers they had almost matched her with someone else. In fact, the other guy's picture shows up on her disc of information about her match. The rest of the book deals with Cassia's thoughts and emotions about the decision of her partner and whether or not their society is ideal with so many limitations. Cassia's grandfather leaves her with a secret, and Cassia discovers that many people she knows carry a secret that would cause trouble with the government. Is it fair that the government watches their every move and listens in on conversations.

The book is a real page turner, I rate it 5 stars! Sara snagged the book from me after the first 100 pages and we fought over it through the rest of the book. The cost of the book at Coscto was $11 and that is the same price amazon charges for the ebook. Sara convinced me it would have been much more effective to have it on ebook then we wouldn't need to fight over whose turn it is to read. So, this is the book that convinced me to buy a Kindle! I'd been thinking about getting myself one for a couple months anyway.