More Than Magic: Semester Aboard by Elizabeth Kirke

Title: More Than Magic: Semester Aboard  
Author: Elizabeth Kirke  
Independently Published  
Copyright © 2011 by Elizabeth Kirke  
Published Date: August 2011  
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Synopsis:


Jen is looking forward to spending an entire summer studying abroad on a cruise ship and she knows the experience will change her life. Then she sees something she wasn't supposed to see, something she can't explain. Jen finds herself thrust into a world she never knew existed and her life will change more than she imagined. That is, if she can survive the dangers lurking on the ship.

Elizabeth Kirke’s Semester Aboard is a fun and exhilarating paranormal tale that includes elementals, mermaids, werewolves, witches, wizards, and vampires. I truly enjoyed this fantastical book and fell deeply in love with the characters. I found them creeping into my thoughts when I wasn’t reading and they carried me away when I was.

• Jen – is a bit naive when it comes to magic…or maybe she knows nothing about magic. When she happens across some students playing on deck, she finds there is nothing normal about them. And the things she learns about herself…unimaginable.
• Dani (Danio) – is a water elemental, a noreid. He is always game for a practical joke and loves to give everyone a hard time. However, underneath the fun loving guy is a wealth of strength and secrets.
• Mariana – just happens to be a mermaid. She has been the only girl intermingling with the magics on this journey through South America.
• TS (Tethys) – could be none other than the overbearingly big werewolf. Human during the day, a wolf at night. TS is loyal and caring when it comes to his friends. Once you have crept your way into his friendship…he’s not likely to ever forget you.
• Thomas – well, let’s just say we have a lot to learn about this young man. He and TS are as close as brothers…closer even. Their history is one for the books. Thomas is the brooding character and he has plenty of reasons.
• Charlie – is a fire elemental, an Imp. He is flaming in more than one way. I loved Charlie. He’s fun-loving but fiercely protective of those he cares about.
• Jon – adopted Thomas after a terrible accident left him without family. Jon is a wizard and an agent with the MES (Magical Enforcement and Security) Agency.
• Mark – is Charlie’s roommate on the ship. Unfortunately he falls into the hands of the wrong person.

Semester Aboard begins with a group of college students spending a semester touring South America via ship. Jen…just an innocent human, happens to see something she shouldn’t have seen and now she will have to pay the consequences…good or bad. As Elizabeth Kirke takes us on an intriguing journey, we learn the many secrets that her characters are hiding. There will be magic, adventure, action, love and deception.

Things I loved: The interaction between Elizabeth’s characters feels real, not forced. The characters that are in love have been together for longer than I have been alive. The relationship Jen wants happens very slowly…if at all. Each time I sat down to read…I was pulled into the lives of these characters. Even though Semester Aboard was told in first person from Jen’s point of view…I definitely did not feel lost when it came to what the other characters were feeling. When someone got hurt…I felt it. When someone was happy…I felt it. When someone was in trouble…I wanted to run out and help.

Semester Aboard was different from most of the other books I have read. It was more of an urban fantasy than a romance. The interaction between so many paranormal races was interesting to say the least.

Things that were just so-so: At times I felt like the book dragged. It could possibly be my impatience in wanting to know how things would work out. I have that problem a lot which is why I can’t put a book down once I have started it. I also felt like Jen sat by and let a lot of things happen when she should have been helping more.
Favorite Parts:

I looked up and froze. Thomas and Dani were still sitting on the bed and half on them – half off the bed, was a wolf. At least it looked like one. I had seen wolves in the zoo before, but this was nothing like them. – pg 44

How could I possibly just run away and leave him here to die? And then he pulled me closer and kissed me. For a moment my brain screeched to a halt. This couldn’t be happening. This was the wrong time, the worst possible time, for a kiss. The guy I had been trying to keep from developing a huge crush on was kissing me and we were both about to die. - pg 317

* I was given a free e-book by the author in return for an honest review of her work.