This novel is a hybrid of the boarding school trope and the pirate/buried/hidden treasure trope. Some readers might be put off by the use of Christianity throughout the text. There are also some plots where a good editor could have improved the writing and pacing of the novel.

Twelve-year-old Emma is delighted when she wins a scholarship to the prestigious DInswood Academy, which is housed in an old castle. On hearing the school is on the brink of closure, she and her friends decide to seek out the Dinswood treasure to save their school.

If the entire book had been paced like the last quarter of the book, I would have enjoyed this a lot more. As it was, this took me two months to get through as it was because I was bored. There were just too many unnecessary scenes that added nothing to the plot or character development. I also had no interest in the potential of romance between 12 and 13-year-olds. Too young! And the focus was all over the place, when keeping with one character would have strengthened the narrative.

Once I hit the last quarter, though, things picked up the pace and became the adventure I was expecting. Riddles, secret passages, pirate ships-it reminded me of The Goonies.

Though this is aimed towards middle-grade readers, I'm not sure they would have the patience to get through it.

I received a free copy from the author for reviewing purposes. All opinions expressed are my own ( )

Emma Higsby is a first-year student at Dinswood Academy, a prestigious boarding school built within a renovated castle. Most students at Dinswood come from wealthy families, but Emma has been accepted into Dinswood by her wits, passing the school's hard entrance exam and received a scholarship. Emma quickly adjusts to the new school and makes friends with fellow 7th graders Martha, Sebastian, and Doug. But things are not well for Dinswood Academy, as the school might be forced to close for financial reasons. Having made it into the prestigious school Emma doesn't want that to happen, so when the kids learn a rumor about Lord Darius Dinswood's lost treasure they decide to try and find it to save the school. What Emma and the others don't realize is that there are others seeking Lord Dinswood's treasure, and they are not afraid of using whatever means necessary to get it.

The Secret of Dinswood is a simple adventure tale that younger readers may enjoy, but I found it to be predictable and missing a spark that would make it stand out. The story draws heavily on elements from Harry Potter (the story takes place across one school year and the action is interspersed with school work) to The Goonies (the school will close unless money is found, and now, conveniently, there is a rumor of a pirate's treasure). While the story draws from these other works, it did not stand apart from them and make its own mark. The style of the writing also made it difficult to get to know the characters. While Emma is introduced and is nominally the main character, the narrative is in third-person omniscient, so in each scene we jump from one character's thoughts to another, from one paragraph to the next. This was very jarring to me, and I found it very distracting. A third person limited (with only Emma as the main POV character) or even a third person omniscient where we only change POV at scene or chapter breaks, I think, would have allowed for the reader to get to know the characters better.

The characters were not memorable to me. Again, Emma is introduced as the main character, and we learn the most about her, but I did not see her struggle or grow as a character. To me, she was the same person at the end of the school year as she was at the beginning. I had hoped there would have been more growth to her, a personal challenge to overcome, and this did not happen. The other characters, Martha, Sebastian, and Doug, also have limited growth and development, and do not stand out to me.

I liked the story, but I would not recommend it except for younger kids who will probably enjoy the hunt for the treasure. That treasure hunt has an element of daring and adventure but for me it doesn't make up for the limited character development and jarring narrative style. ( )

The Secret of Dinswood by Ellen Alexander is a cute middle grade read on par with Nancy Drew meets Harry Potter with a little Goonies tossed in to the mix. I picked up this book for two simple reasons: I enjoyed the cover and I liked the idea of a boarding school treasure hunt.

The writing is on-par with a middle grade novel. It is bright and thorough, though it could on occasion due with some tightening up. There are cases where it feels as if the reader cannot be trusted to infer what is happening or connect pieces of the plot on their own. This made me cringe a little. An author needs to have faith in their readers. There needs to be a balance between what is told and what the reader is allowed to imagine on their own. This narrative erred toward telling too much.

My excitement in the setting and the basis of the plot was fairly well founded. The story read easily, maintained my interest, and kept up a simple level of suspense appropriate for the goals of the read. Descriptions were well done, the movement of the plot was smooth, and there were no large holes in the plot or wildly unbelievable events given the background of the story. Everything seemed to work well and drive the plot in the correct direction.

The characters were well constructed and worked well within the setting. There were some stereotypical tropes used, but it works fine under the umbrella of this genre. The interactions between the characters will well done as a whole. There were a few instances where the narration shifted to focus on other characters. This tended to throw me off and cause a small hiccup in the reading, but I can understand the intent of the author. It just didn't seem to work well in this case.

The story held my attention well to the end. It was a fairly predictable ending, but...again...that works perfectly given the genre. Despite the predictability, the excitement was carried through to the end and I was not left unfulfilled with a flat ending. In fact, this story is a part of an expected series and I wouldn't mind continuing to read it. ( )

I liked this book. I'll admit that without a physical copy it was a little harder to get into. I could guess at the plot from within the first two chapters, but not in a bad way. I knew what I was getting into but didn't know how it'd all unfold. I like that in a book. It helps me enjoy the characters much more. At first I thought the adventure was going to be all about pirates and ships in their time instead of years later, so that was an interesting draw for me. ( )