Nielsen, Jennifer A

Ascendant King Jaron believes that his kingdom, Carthya, is at peace, so he and his bethrothed, Imogen, are sailing home from a trade mission when their ship is attacked by Prozarians, and Jaron and several of his friends are taken prisoner; the Prozarian captain seems to believe he had something to do with his parents' deaths and they also know a great deal about Jaron's long-missing older brother, Darius, the rightful heir to Carthya--who may be alive after all.

When King Jaron returned to Carthya he brought with him a device that supposedly shows the way to a great treasure, but now everything is going wrong: Castor, the son of an old enemy, is conspiring against him and wants the throne for himself, his fianc?e, Imogen, seems to have turned against him, and the Prozarian Monarch has invaded his kingdom and taken Jaron's castle--but Jaron has a lot of experience at hiding and escaping, and he is not willing to leave Carthya or Imogen in the hands of his enemies.

When the lethal plague known as the Scourge returns to Keldan the victims are sent to Attic Island, and Ani Mells of the River People is among them--but Ani does not feel sick, and with the help of her best friend, Weevil, she sets out to uncover the truth of what is happening, and expose the lies the people of Keldan have been told.

In 1942 sixteen-year-old Chaya Lindner is a Jewish girl living in Nazi-occupied Poland, a courier who smuggles food and documents to the isolated Jewish ghettos in southern Poland, depending on her forged papers and "Aryan" features--but when a mission goes wrong and many of her colleagues are arrested she finds herself on a journey to Warsaw, where an uprising is in the works.

657 days ago Meg's British father left their home in France to fight the Nazis, leaving some codes in a jar for her to decipher, and Meg and her French mother moved to the Perche, a region in France near Normandy known for its forests; now Meg watches the German soldiers in town, and sometimes carries messages for the French resistance--but suddenly things have gotten much more dangerous: there is a wounded British officer hiding in her grandmother's barn, a family of German refugees who are trying to get to Spain, and the Nazis have arrived on the doorstop searching for the fugitives.

"After three years in exile, Kestra Dallisor has been summoned back to Antora by her father, right-hand man of the seemingly immortal king, Lord Endrick, but she is intercepted and kidnapped by the Coracks who want to use her to get the Olden Blade, which they believe can be used to kill the despot. Simon, one of the rebels with his own grudge against the Dallisors, is assigned to accompany her, but Kestra has her own plans and she does not intend to let anyone get in her way"--Publisher provided.

Ascendant King Jaron believes that his kingdom, Carthya, is at peace, so he and his bethrothed, Imogen, are sailing home from a trade mission when their ship is attacked by Prozarians, and Jaron and several of his friends are taken prisoner; the Prozarian captain seems to believe he had something to do with his parents' deaths and they also know a great deal about Jaron's long-missing older brother, Darius, the rightful heir to Carthya--who may be alive after all.

The battle for control of Antora continues, and Simon and Kestra have been forced apart; Kestra is a prisoner in the cursed All Spirits Forest where Loelle wants her to use her growing power to heal the land and bring it back to life, while Simon has been made king of the Halderians, but is surrounded by men whose loyalty is uncertain and who fear his connection to Kestra of the hated Dallisor family, and the evil Lord Endrick.

"Now firmly on the side of the Coracks, sixteen-year-old Kestra Dallisor plans to use the magic Olden Blade to kill the evil Lord Endrick, but when she fails, Endrick turns her into one of his Ironheart soldiers, without any memory of her rebellion, and bound to obey him, his spy within the Coracks; the rebel Simon is desperate to return her to the Kestra he loves, but he is reluctant to use the magic that might heal (or destroy) her--and neither Simon or Kestra is sure who they can trust among the rebels, because the whole rebellion is endangered by its increasingly murky politics"--Provided by publisher.