The Isle of the Lost: a Descendants Novel

Marc Notes: 20 years ago, all the evil villains were banished from the kingdom of Auradon and made to live in virtual imprisonment on the Isle of the Lost. The island is surrounded by a magical force field that keeps the villains and their descendants safely locked up and away from the mainland. But hidden in the mysterious Forbidden Fortress is a dragon's eye: the key to true darkness and the villains' only hope of escape. Only the cleverest, evilest, nastiest little villain can find it - who will it be?. Biographical Note: Melissa de la Cruz (www.melissa-delacruz.com) is the author of many best-selling novels, including all the books in the Blue Bloods series: Blue Bloods, Masquerade, Revelations, The Van Alen Legacy, Keys to the Repository, Misguided Angel, Bloody Valentine, Lost in Time, and Gates of Paradise. She lives in Los Angeles, California with her husband and daughter. Review Quotes: In a prequel to an upcoming Disney Channel film, the offspring of four familiar villains bond in an effort to impress their evil parents. Having grown to adolescence in exile beneath a magic-banishing dome on the titular island, Mal, Carlos, Jay, and Evie-the children of, respectively, Maleficent, Cruella De Vil, Jafar, and Snow White's Evil Queen-set out to fetch Maleficent's staff from her Forbidden Fortress. Along with having to pass riddle and other tests clumsily designed to get them to admit the banality of their parents' values, the quest forces the young would-be baddies to cooperate and even to moderate their 'tudes. De la Cruz turns the quest and its interminable buildup into a wordy string of trite situations in which every character trait is carefully explained lest readers miss something: "Lonely, Mal thought. I was lonely. And so were they. Evie, with her beauty-obsessed mother; Carlos, with his screeching harpy of a parent; Jay, the happy-go-lucky thief with a quick wit and dashing smile, who could steal anything in the world except his father's heart." Meanwhile, over in the United States of Auradon, Prince Ben, son of King Beast and Queen Belle, chafes at his lack of life choices and with an impulsive but unspecified notion at the end serves up a teaser for the film. A paint-by-numbers effort to market a spinoff that's likely to be equally ephemeral. (Fantasy. 11-13) Kirkus"Publisher Marketing: Evil tree. Bad Apple? Twenty years ago, all the evil villains were banished from the kingdom of Auradon to the Isle of the Lost--a dark and dreary place protected by a force field that makes it impossible for them to leave. Stripped of their magical powers, the villains now live in total isolation, forgotten by the world. Mal learns from her mother, Maleficent, that the key to true darkness, the Dragon's Eye, is located inside her scepter in the forbidden fortress on the far side of the island. The eye is cursed, and whoever retrieves it will be knocked into a deep sleep for a thousand years. But Mal has a plan to capture it. She'll just need a little help from her "friends." In their quest for the Dragon's Eye, these four kids begin to realize that just because you come from an evil family tree, being good ain't so bad. Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 04/15/2015 (EAN 9781484720974, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  de La Cruz, Melissa Melissa de la Cruz is the New York Times", USA TODAY", Wall Street Journal", and Publishers Weekly" bestselling author of many books including the Beach Lane series, the Blue Bloods series, which has three million copies in print, and the Witches of East End series, which is now an hourlong drama on the Lifetime Network. Frozen", the first book in her new fantasy series, Heart of Dread, is cowritten with her husband. She is a former journalist and has written for Teen Vogue", Seventeen", Harper's Bazaar", Glamour", Marie Claire", and Allure". Melissa attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart in San Francisco, which served as an inspiration for the school in The Ashley Project. She currently lives in Los Angeles and Palm Springs with her family.