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Hollywood Crush Poll: Best YA Novel of 2012

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MTV’s Hollywood Crush recently posted a poll asking you to pick your favorite book of the year and Reached happens to be an option!

From series enders (Ally Condie’s “Reached;” Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s “Beautiful Redemption”) to debut efforts (Kiera Cass’ “The Selection,” Julie Cross’ “Tempest”) to the book that left us all quivering in a puddle of our own snot and tears (John Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars”), it’s been another great year to read young adult. Though it may be tough to play favorites, that is the task before you. Cast your vote for the best YA novel of 2012 after the jump (or else we’ll send a hydra demon after you!).

Make sure to cast your vote here!

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Lots of Links from Ally Condie

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If you didn’t know, REACHED has been doing increasingly well since being released just about 2 weeks ago. Ally Condie, our awesome author, took to her blog to post some links to articles, reviews, etc. Check them out below!

In case you missed it MTV.com posted the official Reached playlist!

Amazon has named REACHED as one of the best books of 2012 for Kids and Teens. It’s currently #1 on the list!

Entertainment Weekly posted a review of Reached.

“There’s no shame in crying at the end.”

There will also be an interview with Ally in the November 23rd issue of the magazine (the one with Star Wars on the cover).

USA Today featured an article on the series.

 Author Ally Condie says a “casual conversation about marriage” with her husband, an economics professor at Brigham Young University, triggered the most popular series of books for teens since The Hunger Games.

John Green, author of The Fault In Our Stars, mentioned Reached in a tweet and on a Tumblr blog post (Ally mentioned that she’s a fan of his work).

 

Seventeen and Just Jared Jr. both chose REACHED as their book club pick.

We could never imagine our free will being taken away or having our lives pre-planned for us or having arranged marriages come back into style.
-JJJ

Penguin Teen (publisher of the series) did an author spotlight of Ally.

What’s your favorite thing about your book? I like the endings of each of the books in the series. It’s fun to take a character to a specific point in their journey and have that sense of arrival…and also that something new might be on the horizon for them.

Also, just a reminder, Ally is on a book tour for REACHED right now. Check out the schedule here to see if she’ll be in your city soon.

Make sure to check out Ally’s blog posts here for her personal and book-related updates!

Official Reached Playlist

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Happy Reached day! Along with the release of the book, Ally Condie has also released the official playlist for Reached through Hollywood Crush. Here’s what she had to say:

I love making playlists for the books, and it’s one of my favorite ways to interact with readers—it’s fun to hear their responses to the songs on the list! When I was writing “Reached,” these are the songs I listened to most. I tried to arrange them a little in the order of the story—which songs seem to fit the beginning, middle, end, etc., but they all work for the whole story.

Here are some of the songs and their significance:

1. “Save the World” by Swedish House Mafia. I picture Xander walking down the street to this song at the beginning of “Reached,” and I love the mood it sets.

5. “All the Rowboats” by Regina Spektor. Love this song, its allusions to museums and art, the way it fits the story…especially a certain scene involving Xander in the middle of the book.

12. “Land of Hope and Dreams” by Bruce Springsteen. I love the line about the “brother” and being a good companion for the ride. This song, with its epic-sounding feel, is great for the end of a series. Substitute the word “ship” for “train” and it’s pretty much an exact fit.

You can listen to them here:

 

You can check out the entire list of 13 songs and their significance over at Hollywood Crush right here.

The Salt Lake Tribune: Article on Matched Trilogy

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The Salt Lake Tribune recently posted an article on the trilogy, entitled “Three’s company for Utah writer’s ‘Matched’ trilogy.‘

Some authors embarking on a trilogy of novels might find the focus of their story narrowing toward the end. Ally Condie, somewhat to her distress, found her narrative road widening the longer she traveled it.

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Make sure to check out the entire article here.

“ONE MORE WEEK! AND ANOTHER STAR! AND WILLIAM SHATNER”

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As promised, we have another new blog post from the wonderful Ally Condie. Just one more week until the release of the much-awaited conclusion to the trilogy, REACHED! This week she gives a briefing on her upcoming Reached tour (see here for dates) and tells us about some starred reviews of REACHED. She also says that she will be revealing the official playlist for REACHED one week after the book’s release (20th November).

If the series is good enough for William Shatner (‘s paper cutout) then it’s good enough for anyone, right? ;)

You can read the starred review by Publisher’s Weekly here and the full review from Kirkus here.

See the entire blog post here and make sure to check out more on Ally’s blog.

Reached Tour

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Ally Condie will be doing a tour across the US to promote REACHED, kicking off with a launch party in Salt Lake City. See the listing of events below:

Are You Team Ky or Team Xander?

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The PenguinTeen app on Facebook posted a new poll asking whether you want Cassia to end up with Ky or Xander. Make sure to give your input!

Calling all MATCHED fans–in REACHED, you will finally learn which boy Cassia chooses. Are you Team Ky or Team Xander?

“Matched” Sketch by THEgurlONfire on deviantART

Happy Birthday Ally Condie!

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Happy Birthday Ally!

Today, November 2nd, we’re wishing our lovely author, Ally Condie, a Happy Birthday!

Thanks for your amazing books you wrote that we all got to read and enjoy! Thanks for your amazing characters and the wonderful world you created for us. We hope you had a fantastic day and wish you an extremely happy birthday and many more to come.

Updates From Ally Condie

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Just 2 more weeks until the release of REACHED! As promised, our author Ally Condie made a blog post today answering a question and posting some reminders. Here’s the question and answer from the post:

As part of the preparation for the release of REACHED, I’ve been answering lots of excellent interview questions. One of the ones that I hear a lot is, “How do you feel now that the series is over?”

I keep saying that the series doesn’t feel over to me yet, because the readers don’t really have the last book. I know there are a very few galley copies out there, but there aren’t lots of ARCs the way there were for MATCHED and CROSSED. So, right now, I just feel excited and anticipatory (and yes, nervous) because the series does NOT feel over. It feels like things are just beginning…because when the readers at large have the book, that’s when the story starts to feel finished. Right now it’s just waiting for all of you. :)

She also posted a few links.

You can visit our fellow fansite the TheSociety.net for a recap of her recent Twitter chat here.

You can preorder a MATCHED trilogy boxed set (as mentioned in a previous post), which includes a signed copy of REACHED, right here.

You can also order signed, personalised copies of the books The King’s English Bookshop before November 13th.

Make sure to check out Ally’s blog here!

Fancasting Ky Results!

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We’re doing a fancasting here on Matched Fandom, if you don’t already know, and we recently posted a poll for you to vote on your choice actor for Ky Markham. Just a refresher, the choices of actors included: Logan Lerman, Drew Roy, Landon Liboiron, Chace Crawford, Kevin Zegers and Zac Efron.

The most votes went to…

Logan Lerman

Logan Lerman got the highest number votes, with Drew Roy bringing up a close second. What are your thoughts on Logan?

So far, our dream cast consists of Emma Roberts as Cassia and Logan as Ky. Who’s next? Make sure to take part in our next poll!