STOLEN

Drakonrydder Nat and her guy-for-hire Wes are at it again.

In a dystopian world destroyed ages ago by global warming, heroine Nat Kestral fought like hell to reach an Edenic place called Blue (Frozen, 2013). This sequel finds her there, training with white-haired, handsome Faix, messenger to the queen of Vallonis, and longing for her lost love, Wes, who’s found enough trouble of his own in a quest to find his long-lost sister. Readers are plunged right in the middle of the action from the first page, and the story unfolds in alternating chapters told from each character’s perspective. Readers will definitely need to review the first installment of the series to catch themselves up, and this one is chock-full of fantasy-novel–esque character and place names that may have them wishing for a dramatis personae or a map. The novel takes off with a start-and-stop sensibility, but the authors do provide the back story eventually (and cleverly), and the plot takes off from there. Everything feels mostly real, with the exception of Nat’s dark phase in the first part, which renders her more a cheesy Bella (“an artist unable to paint; a poet unable to write”) than the fierce fighter she is.

A sputtering start leads to an action-packed adventure for patient fans.