Stefanie's Thoughts: Rise of the Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz

Deep beneath the waves, King Triton’s powerful trident has passed through the magical barrier that surrounds the Isle of the Lost—keeping villains in and magic out. And when Mal’s longtime rival Uma, daughter of Ursula, gets wind of this, she can’t believe her luck. The tide has dragged in something good for a change, and Uma is determined to get her wicked hands on it. But first, she needs a pirate crew.

A storm is brewing back in Auradon, and when Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay hear that the trident has been washed away, they realize they’ll have to find it before anyone from the Isle does. Luckily, they seem to have a talent for locating missing magical objects.

As Uma readies for the high seas alongside Harry, son of Captain Hook, Gil, son of Gaston, and the toughest rogues on the Isle of the Lost, the reformed villains of Auradon devise their own master plan. And with King Ben away on royal business, they won’t have to play by all the rules. Using bad for good can’t be totally evil, right?

The thrilling, perilous race to the trident puts old friends—and current enemies—against each other with the future of Auradon on the line. Both teams might like to make waves, but only one will come out on top of this one.

Hi everyone,

Today I'll be reviewing the third book in the Descendants book series. Let's just start off with how much I loved the Disney channel movie (yes I'm 27 and probably shouldn't be watching it, but it's Disney so I have too), or just how excited I am for the sequel this summer!

The first two books in the series were fantastic and I thought it was just a fun idea to have a book series for this world. Seeing how my favorite Disney characters grew up and having kids just honestly makes me feel, well, old. Beast shouldn't have a teenage son named Ben, because that just means I'm super old...

But enough on that.

I loved the addition of Uma, daughter of Ursula. What a great antagonist! (Side note: can't wait to see her in the new movie this summer). I was also happy Lonnie was in this one as well. I just wish Ursula herself would have been included; imagine the terror that would have been brought to Auradon if she had made an appearance! I think too, Uma was too much focus of the story; I wanted more Evie, was she even in this?

My only other negative was that this book had a lot less humor and jokes in the dialogue. Book one was so much funnier in comparison and I'm wondering if this is due to just where the book flows in book chronologically; it'll be between the second book and the upcoming movie. I get they wouldn't want to spoil any of the movie plot, but a few more jokes or digs at the parents would have been nice. I always enjoyed when Mal would make fun of her mother.

I loved all the little Disney references throughout; they did this with the other two books and I'm glad that it was included in this one. The beginning mermaid festival reminded me of the beginning of The Little Mermaid movie and the whole setup of how Ariel meets Eric.

It's such a fast plotted book that I read it in a day and a half, because I didn't want to do anything else but read it. That's what so great about these books and the uber amount of Disney goodness that is inside them. I remember reading the first one and thinking I was back in junior high, because that's just how much I loved it.

I missed the plot being set in Audadon though; I loved the idea of ships and getting to visit the Isle again, but Audadon remembered me so much of Halloweentown that I wanted more of the plot to be set there.

This was a great summer read and high on my to-read list. It was one book I actually made myself read the day it arrived in the mail; I didn't want it to be like the others where I pre-order and then forget to read it until Christmas. I'm probably just so excited for the movie the book couldn't wait.

If you liked the movie or the first two books I can see you liking this one. No it's not as good as the other two, but still an enjoyable read as we get to see what the crew gets up to in-between the movies.

4 out of 5 star read for this.

Until my next review,

Stefanie