Rise of the Isle of the Lost A Descendants Novel

I hate doing this (especially considering how much I love the first two books) but this book was an exercise in frustration. I love the characters, the setting and the fact that the world is expanding. That's all great. Through most of the book, we follow three different groups: Mal and her team doing the react portion of the ‘villains act, heroes react' saying, Ben and Lonnie solving some irrelevant border dispute and newcomer Uma and her gang of pirates back on the Isle. That's fine. I love having multiple perspectives. But almost every chapter we change which group we're following. And the chapters are short, averaging less than seven pages a chapter. So, by the time I get fully involved in one story arc, we're switching on to the next. Honestly, I came to dread the end of the chapters and each time the story switched to one of the other groups, I felt my interest wane.

Also, and this is purely preference because I've come across other stories that do this and I have never liked it - though I've never heard anyone else complain about it, the problem was resolved by using time travel magic. I'm sorry, but this is something - a crutch - that I just don't like. It was set up though, so, that is something.