Smada's Book Smack : Audiobook Blog Tour: Semester Aboard (More than Magic #1) by Elizabeth Kirke

Author: Elizabeth Kirke

Narrator: Starla Huchton

Length: 14 hours and 34 minutes

Publisher: Elizabeth Kirke

Released: July 4, 2018

Genre: Young Adult; Fantasy

Jen Maddox is a few days into her summer study-abroad program and has loved every moment on her cruise ship turned college campus. Everyone tells her the experience will change her life, but none of them realize just how right they really are.
One night, Jen goes out on deck and encounters five other students. She knows Charlie from one of her classes, and he’s a funny, friendly, regular guy. Picture-perfect Dani and his gorgeous wife, Mariana, live right down the hall from Jen, and she has seen TS, who’s built like a truck, around the ship, and recognizes the cute but quiet Thomas as well.
Then Jen sees something that isn’t humanly possible. Jen would have thought that it was all a dream if not for the fact that Charlie, Dani, Mariana, TS, and Thomas are making every effort to cover it up. Suddenly, the five of them are everything but normal, and Jen is determined to figure out what they’re hiding.
When she does, her life really does change. Jen expected to spend her summer studying the cultures of Latin America; she never dreamed she’d learn about a magical culture instead.
But Jen’s childhood fantasy come true is about to turn into a nightmare; there’s something on the ship. Something dangerous. Suddenly, everyone on board is threatened by a creature that Jen never even believed existed. Jen and her new friends might be the only people who can stop it!
Now Jen has to learn everything she can about her new world before it kills her. And her friends. And maybe everyone on the entire ship.

My Review:

4.5 Out Of 5 Stars

Genre: Another-World, Mystery, Supernatural, Suspense, Vampires, Werewolves, Witches--

Jen is so enthused to be on her summer abroad college cruise experience, fully ready to sink her self into classes and the cultural encounters. But when she sees something explainable one night pertaining to a group of students, she doubts herself. But then they start following her around, making sure she doesn't tell anyone what she saw, Jen realizes that there may be more going on than she signed up for.

I really enjoyed this story, it was a completely unique idea with great world building. And it was kind of like a story within a story, which I think helped to keep me fully engaged. Not only do we have the backbone of the book of a summer long cruise for college students (which sounds fantastic- where can I sign up??) to experience a new land, go on excursions, and have classes- but we have the whole supernatural discovery going on, AND then there was a mystery and action to help fill in all the gaps! I can hands down say that I have never read a book like this before.

This was like an adult, slightly more diversified version of Harry Potter. There was a school for all kinds of magical creatures starting from first grade to senior year that all magics attend (cough cough except Jen). And when I say all kinds of magical creatures, I mean it! There are different kinds of vampires, witches, mermaids, werewolves, and all kinds of elementals (like water, fire, ect.) They attempt to live in harmony together, but when that does not pan out- they send in the magical police (which most of our characters belong to) to stop the evil- which seems to usually be a vampire. I liked that Jen knew nothing about this world that she apparently has a connection to and the reader gets to learn all about it right along with her. It was a slow world building that took the length of the book to fully flesh out and I appreciated that.

The narrator did such a great job of bringing ALL the characters to life! I was never confused as to who was talking or how they felt because each of the 6 main characters were given their own voice and personality so perfectly by the narrator. I loved the accents and inflections used, all done so well it was almost like having an ensemble cast performing the audiobook for me. I was super impressed with the narrator, and would love to listen to more books read by her in the future.

Overall I found this to be a fun, well developed fantasy audiobook. I really liked the characters and the world created here and I would love to read the rest of the series- or listen to them!

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Elizabeth Kirke. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Elizabeth Kirke lives with her husband, two young sons, a hound-mix, and two turtles. She wanted to be an author before she even knew what an author was. She used to say that she wanted to be an artist, but that was only because she was too young to write and had to tell stories with pictures instead. She hasn't stopped writing since she learned how. It wasn't long before she dreamed of becoming an author and couldn't be happier now that that dream is a reality.

If she isn't writing, she’s probably doing something involving books, baking, gardening, or yarn.

Like most slightly-nosy, avid readers, Elizabeth can't resist trying to catch a peek at books she sees people reading when out in public to see if she can figure out what it is. While doing just that one day, she realized that it would probably be the coolest-thing-ever if she caught a complete stranger reading one of her books. That's her new dream.

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Since debuting her narration skills in 2009, Starla Huchton has lent her voice to many podcasts and audiobook productions. She has read both character parts and main narration for authors such as Tee Morris, Philippa Ballantine, and Lindsay Buroker, and her work spans across both fiction and non-fiction in multiple genres.