Book Review: Matched

Are any of you on GoodReads? I just joined. I like seeing what my friends are reading and also being able to share what I have and haven't liked as well.

Anyway, here's my latest review... I'll try to link any others I may write as well. Enjoy!

*******

Matched by Ally Condie

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Alright, I gotta be honest, I almost flounced this one. I just didn't find it that interesting or compelling. I think I would have rated this a lot higher if I had read this *before* I read The Hunger Games trilogy. Sure, they are totally different stories but there are just too many similarities to ignore (dystopian society, suffocating government, love triangle, rumored rebellion, etc) and to be quite honest, Matched to me read like a watered-down version of The Hunger Games.

Granted The Hunger Games trilogy is a super intense, brutal, disturbing story that I practically whined through while reading (thanks for consoling me, Jeannie!) and I often questioned its classification as a young adult novel. On the other hand, Matched very much read as a YA story and I think after just reading Anna & the French Kiss, I was ready for something a little meatier.

In general, this story was pretty much "meh" to me. As an example, the long-awaited exchange of I love you's left me with a ho-hum feeling. Or when a male character lightly brushed the hand of a female character, the author described it with off-the-charts sparks. But I never felt the chemistry, never felt the *swoon*.

I will say that I did like seeing the transformation of the main character, Cassia. Her passive behavior (aka i do whatever the society tells me to do) in the beginning was driving me nuts :P

Anyway, if you've never read a dystopian story, I'd recommend it (always fun to discover new worlds). Otherwise, I'd skip. I'm not even planning to read any potential sequels to this story.



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Playing with Polyvore

Experimenting with Polyvore... have seen this used on a lot of blogs and wanted to try it myself!

Here I made an image set of the everyday makeup products I use. Want to know more details on them? Click the image and get more info on each individual item! Handy!

Everyday Makeup by audgepodge1 on Polyvore.com

I've seen this tool used more often to show fashion ideas - like "must have items" or "wish list" etc...

I think this would also be a great tool to pass along to some of my photographer friends who do fashion shoots. Instead of scouring the web for magazine fashion images, they can use this tool to quickly compile some inspiration looks for use as a "concept board" with their wardrobe stylists!

Give the tool a try... very easy to use!