{My thoughts} – I always seemingly enjoy it when a book series follows in close relation to the previous book. I think that when they pick up right after the previous books have ended that it helps to give the reader the ability to find their place in the story and allows them to be pulled back in. This book did just that. It picked up right where Frozen had left off and it drug the reader right into the heart of an incredible battle between Nat and the RSA. During the battle there was a bunch of POV switching between the chapters, Nat and then Wes and it helped to keep the reader up to current information in regards to both of them as to what had happened since the last book had left off and what was happening in the present time of the book.

While Nat is fighting her battle she is also seeing glimpses of Wes and where he is and what he is doing and he is able to see the same. It throws them both off guard but also gives them relief to know that each of them are alright although they look like they are in some pretty tough situations. They still get to hold onto the hope that they will again see each other. They had promised each other that they would at the end of Frozen. Nat had to stay behind at the Blue to help protect it with her Drakon and Wes went back to New Vegas to try and find his sister, but after everything was said and done they’d said they’d be together and so that’s a hope that they are going to hold onto for as long as they can.

When the current fight ends Nat’s drakon has to go under ground to heal from it’s wounds and that causes Nat and the drakon to be distant to one another. In that time Nat starts to hear voices and she doesn’t know what to make of it. It is one voice in particular and she believes it is her friend. Her friend that was suppose to be safe with Wes. The more she hears the voice the more she wants to run to it where ever it may be. Her teacher Faix is with her and he hears the voice too. Together they set out to try and find where the voice is. They find it on an RSA ship and while they are there they run into Wes. This is a turning point for them both because Nat is forced to see that Wes is working for the RSA again and it confuses her because the last she knew it was against everything he believed in.

The whole time they have been separated Wes had been looking for his sister and Shakes his friend had found out where she was. Wes and Shakes went to try and save her but they were captured and it turned out that they were then forced to work for the RSA to ensure the safety of his sister and their friends.

This whole book then becomes and adventure to finding and saving Wes’s sister and their other friends that had been taken by the RSA. It just takes a bit for Wes to help Nat understand what was happening and why it had to have happened the way that it happened.

There was so much action and so much adventure in this book that it kept me pulled in until the very last page. It made me glad that I had the third book to read already because I don’t think I could have handled waiting for another book to come out. I was honestly very skeptical about starting this book because I had not been impressed with Frozen. This book impressed me beyond measure. It sucked me in from the beginning and it didn’t spit me back out until the very end. I am certain that even if you had your doubts with reading Frozen that this book will change your mind about the series like it had changed mine! ( )

{My thoughts} – I always seemingly enjoy it when a book series follows in close relation to the previous book. I think that when they pick up right after the previous books have ended that it helps to give the reader the ability to find their place in the story and allows them to be pulled back in. This book did just that. It picked up right where Frozen had left off and it drug the reader right into the heart of an incredible battle between Nat and the RSA. During the battle there was a bunch of POV switching between the chapters, Nat and then Wes and it helped to keep the reader up to current information in regards to both of them as to what had happened since the last book had left off and what was happening in the present time of the book.

While Nat is fighting her battle she is also seeing glimpses of Wes and where he is and what he is doing and he is able to see the same. It throws them both off guard but also gives them relief to know that each of them are alright although they look like they are in some pretty tough situations. They still get to hold onto the hope that they will again see each other. They had promised each other that they would at the end of Frozen. Nat had to stay behind at the Blue to help protect it with her Drakon and Wes went back to New Vegas to try and find his sister, but after everything was said and done they’d said they’d be together and so that’s a hope that they are going to hold onto for as long as they can.

When the current fight ends Nat’s drakon has to go under ground to heal from it’s wounds and that causes Nat and the drakon to be distant to one another. In that time Nat starts to hear voices and she doesn’t know what to make of it. It is one voice in particular and she believes it is her friend. Her friend that was suppose to be safe with Wes. The more she hears the voice the more she wants to run to it where ever it may be. Her teacher Faix is with her and he hears the voice too. Together they set out to try and find where the voice is. They find it on an RSA ship and while they are there they run into Wes. This is a turning point for them both because Nat is forced to see that Wes is working for the RSA again and it confuses her because the last she knew it was against everything he believed in.

The whole time they have been separated Wes had been looking for his sister and Shakes his friend had found out where she was. Wes and Shakes went to try and save her but they were captured and it turned out that they were then forced to work for the RSA to ensure the safety of his sister and their friends.

This whole book then becomes and adventure to finding and saving Wes’s sister and their other friends that had been taken by the RSA. It just takes a bit for Wes to help Nat understand what was happening and why it had to have happened the way that it happened.

There was so much action and so much adventure in this book that it kept me pulled in until the very last page. It made me glad that I had the third book to read already because I don’t think I could have handled waiting for another book to come out. I was honestly very skeptical about starting this book because I had not been impressed with Frozen. This book impressed me beyond measure. It sucked me in from the beginning and it didn’t spit me back out until the very end. I am certain that even if you had your doubts with reading Frozen that this book will change your mind about the series like it had changed mine! ( )

3.5 stars. I loved Frozen when I read it last year and I wish I had reread it before going into Stolen because there's a lot I forgot. Stolen picks up right where Frozen left off and it doesn't do much of a recap so it was a little confusing at first but I caught on soon enough. Since I loved Frozen so much I had really high expectations for Stolen and unfortunately I was disappointed. I still enjoyed the story but not as much as I thought I would. The beginning switches between Wes and Nat's POVs and in the beginning there didn't seem to be much going on from Wes' POV so I was much more interested in reading Nat's. The ending is of course the best part. The end had lots of action and twists, though some of which were predictable. I liked the action scenes but I thought they were kind of short and cut off. I wish those scenes were longer and I wished the whole book was longer as well, it would have made it better. I really like the villain in this story (I won't say who it is so I don't spoil anyone, though this was one of the twists that was predictable). The villain was perfect, very cruel and evil and I believed it. Overall I enjoyed it but I recommend rereading Frozen before jumping into Stolen if you haven't read it in a while. ( )

2nd book in series. Takes place a few months after Nat has gone to the other world The Blue as she is the last drakon rydder, and Wes has gone back to the frozen New Vegas in a quest to find his missing sister. Nat has been successful in beating the RSA's drones and so life in the form of plants and birds are starting to return to the icy apocolyptic wastelands.
Wes on the other hand, has had nothing but bad luck as the 2 little people he rescued and the slyph called Liannan have been captured.
Suddenly it all goes pear shaped for Nat too when her drakon is injured by a new weapon and she must return to the frozen world to rescue Liannan without it. Wes & Nat are destined to meet again...
Interesting take on magic being composed of energy from dark matter, and a world where global warming melted the ice caps but caused the seas to rise and plunge the Earth into a frozen wilderness.
Fans of Sarah Haas books will like this one. ( )

This is the second book in the Heart of Dread series. I liked the first book, Frozen, a lot more then this book. Frozen just had such an interesting blend of magic and science fiction and so much potential. This book was a bit boring and it was hard to get engaged in the story.

In this book Nat is fighting for Blue on the back of her Drakon and working with Faix Lazaved (from the Blue) to develop her powers as a drakonryder. Meanwhile Wes is still searching for his sister Eliza and is forced back into service in an effort to get her back. Each are fighting their own battles against the establishment and eventually they collide. The biggest question is where is Eliza Wesson and who is she?

I really enjoyed Frozen and I am not sure why this book didn't have the same appeal to me. There isn't a lot of description throughout so some of the settings were hard to picture. I also just had some trouble engaging with the characters. Nat and Wes are either separate or at odds with each other for vast portions of the book. Faix seems like he could be an interesting character but his character came across as very dry.

The plot was very predictable as well. I figured out who Eliza is fairly early in the book and was disappointed to find out I was right.

The story was okay but didn't really engage me or grab me. I had trouble sitting down to read this because I just found myself absolutely ambivalent about what was going on. This was disappointing because I loved the world created in this series and thought it had a lot of potential. I was really hoping this book would focus more on the Blue and the magic there but it didn’t.

Overall this was an okay book in this series. I didn’t like this book as much as the first book, Frozen. The characters weren’t as engaging as in Frozen and the plot was very predictable. Right now I am undecided as to whether or not I will continue reading this series. I still like the idea of an ice covered post-apocalyptic world where magic blends with tech; but I just felt like the world-building was lacking in this book ( )