Blog Tour: The Misfit Tribe and the Secret of Mystery Island by B. J. Rowling and D. G. Lloyd

Today is my stop on the blog tour for the YA novel The Misfit Tribe and the Secret of Mystery Island by B.J. Rowling and D.G. Lloyd. Thanks to Sarah Hardy at Books On The Bright Side, to Olympia Publishers and to the authors for providing me with a copy of the book for review.

YA books are not my normal genre and I must admit that when the email arrived offering me the chance to read and review The Misfit Tribe and the Secret of Mystery Island, I did have to think twice. However, on scanning the blurb my attention was piqued. As a child, I was a huge fan of Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five and this book sounded familiar. 

I’ve learnt that when reading YA books, you have to put your sense of disbelief to one side. Some artistic licence will be applied to push the story forwards and it is best to accept those elements for what they are and simply enjoy the adventure.

The book follows a group of teenagers who are attending a geocaching weekend to Makinac Island in Michigan with their respective families in the hope of winning a prize. Whilst the weekend begins with a bit of rivalry between the opposing families, the revelation of some family secrets and the discovery of an ancient treasure map forces the teens to join forces in the hope of finding some real-life treasure! Throw in a couple of bad guys, a wannabe rapper, a maze of hidden tunnels and a hint of mystical forces… what more can you ask for?

The Misfit Tribe and the Secret of Mystery Island certainly brings a sense of adventure to the table. It is a classic combination of mystery and adventure with a dash of humour and a smidgen of romance. I note that other reviews liken the book to the classic 80’s film, The Goonies, and there certainly are some similarities as the kids venture into underground tunnels in seek of treasure! 

One of the best things about reading is the opportunity to learn something new. As such, one of my favourite things about this book was the historical element at the heart of the story. It gave context to the treasure hunt, whilst providing a bite-sized history lesson for the reader. 

With regards to the cast, the characters are written in an almost caricature-like way – J.J. is a typical boy, Genius is the computer geek and Aaron is the teenage lothario; there was no question that Bruno and Roberts were the bad guys, and hunter (aka Original-One) was at times quite humorous despite (or maybe because of?) his annoying wannabe-rapper pretensions. 

I have to be honest and say there was one aspect of the book which did not sit easily with me and that was the occasional reference to Sandra’s boobs. I found it all a bit unnecessary. In particular, there was an early scene between J.J. and Sandra where Sandra trades a glimpse down her shirt to the teenage J.J. in order to manipulate him into providing information. I felt that this issue was a bit too adult for the book and I also felt that it was not resolved in a satisfactory way. I would have preferred that this scene included a moral outcome to show the young readers why this sort of trade off is not a good idea.

Back to the positives, The Misfit Tribe and the Secret of Mystery Island is ultimately a action-packed adventure along the lines of The Famous Five, The Goonies and possibly even a little hint of Indiana Jones or Lara Croft. It’s fun, it’s thrilling and it’s certainly entertaining!

Written by a duo of scriptwriters, you won’t be surprised to hear that the movie version will apparently be coming to the Big Screen soon….

B. J. Rowling, a native of England, is an author, screenwriter, producer, actress and cousin of Harry Potter author, J. K. Rowling.

D.G. Lloyd is an American-Australian author, screenwriter, producer, actor and script coverage analyst.

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Check out the rest of the blog tour at the blogs listed below:

Amazon UK  |  Amazon US  |  Goodreads