“The Secret of Platform 13” by Eva Ibbotson
Genre: Children’s Fiction, Fantasy
Source: Gift
Summary from Goodreads:
A forgotten door on an abandoned railway platform is the entrance to a magical kingdom–an island where humans live happily with feys, mermaids, ogres, and other wonderful creatures. Carefully hidden from the world, the Island is only accessible when the door opens for nine days every nine years. A lot can go wrong in nine days. When the beastly Mrs. Trottle kidnaps the prince of the Island, it’s up to a strange band of rescuers to save him. But can an ogre, a hag, a wizard, and a fey really troop around London unnoticed?
It’s always a shame when a summary of a book sounds really magical but the book ends up being less than magical. That’s not to say that this book was bad because it wasn’t. It was just a bit flat. Maybe it was because it was a little juvenile so I didn’t fully connect with it?
The story was definitely a bit predictable. As soon as Ben was introduced I knew what was going to happen. I didn’t know the specifics of how we would get to the end but I knew the big twist. What do you know? Sure enough as the story wrapping up, I discovered that I was right. Even though it was predictable, I still wanted to read because I wanted to see how it was pulled off.
The bottom line? It was a decent but predictable story.
The Cheap Reader 
I hate it when a book doesn’t surprise you!
It’s a bit disappointing!