Review--Rise of the Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz

 

Ride with the tide!

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?

 

Rise of the Isle of the Lost is the third installment of Melissa de la Cruz's Descendants series that ties in with the movies. Apparently, the books occur between the movies and help pave the way for the movie storyline. But one can still easily read these books without needing to see the movies as well, for that's the boat I am in.

In this story, we learn about Uma, a villains' kid that Mal used to be best friends with. Friends in the Isle of the Lost is pretty subjective though, but call it what you will, these two were as thick as thieves, until they weren't. We learn of their falling out and how they basically turned into enemies. But Uma is still trapped on the Isle while Mal is "living it up" in Auradon.

Uma has plans for revenge. She wants off the Isle once and for all and ropes her friend Harry into helping her acquire a ship so that they can find Triton's triton that recently went missing. If they find that they can break the dome that covers the Isle and be free once and for all.

Subsequently, Mal and her friends are approached by a relative of Triton, asking for their help in finding the triton that she lost. It turns into a race against the clock to retrieve it before the villains catch wind of its disappearance, well, more than Uma that is.

This series continues to be on the cute and delightful side, and perhaps it's because of that that I found myself not quite as into this one as before. I know this is geared more towards the middle grade reading level and I am fast Disney fanatic and I still think it's a cute and fun read. But for some reason I just wasn't as into this particular storyline this time. Though I was all for learning more about the friendship between Uma and Harry. Probably because I was such a Hook fan in Once Upon a Time, lol.

Rise of the Isle of the Lost was yet another quick and entertaining read. While I did find my attention wavering, I still couldn't get enough of the pirates aspect of the story! Looking forward to seeing how this book series will end with the next and final installment, Escape from the Isle of the Lost.

 

 

Overall Rating 3/5 stars