Stolen

Gr 9 Up—In this follow-up to Frozen (Putnam, 2013), readers are reunited with Nat, who as reclaimed her flying drakon and has left the love of her life, Wes, in order to defend her lost homeland, Vallonis. Nat finds growing support among the populace and with ships filled with pilgrims seeking "The Blue," the mythical nickname for her lost kingdom. When the Remaining States of America soldiers find a way to magically disable her drakon, she rejoins her mysterious guardsman Faix in an attempt to learn more about her own power. Meanwhile, Wes has attempted to settle back into his old life in New Vegas without Nat. Still looking for his lost sister Eliza, he suffers further setbacks when the slyph (mage) Liannan and the two dwarfish smallmen on his team mysteriously disappear. Wes is ultimately recaptured and redrafted into the army against his will. As his trajectory propels him closer to the ocean and to Nat, he struggles to find his place in the growing war between the marked (humans with powers) and the wealthy elite. De la Cruz and Johnston further the adventures of the frozen dystopian wasteland. The story slightly drags as Nat learns to harness her newfound abilities, but the narrative is intercut with Wes's thrilling quest to save his sister, which picks up the slack. Readers who haven't read the previous installment will be lost, but fans of the first book will no doubt be very happy with where this action-filled trilogy is headed.—Ryan P. Donovan, Southborough Public Library, MA