An interesting premise with lots of potential...Sadly, MEH. For much of this book I was rushing through lengthy conversation after lengthy conversation after lengthy conversation after...etc, etc, etc... And often I found myself rolling my eyes at the MC, Jen (like, come on girl, kick some butt already!!) and at some of the situations. I almost rated this book a 2 star but thankfully there were a few good fight scenes and some entertaining characters throughout that helped bump it back up! I started out divided on this, since there was lots of physical descriptions of the people in the book, but not much plot was set up. Further along, you get interested in the characters and their histories. We've got a big cast of friends: Jen (new witch), Danio (water elemental), Char (fire elemental), Mariana (mermaid), TS (werewolf), Thomas (vampire) all posing as (or living as) humans on a cruise ship that counts as a Summer semester of college as it goes up and down the west coast of the Americas. Unfortunately the story was too divided amongst the trip excursions and the multi-character byplay rather than any true depth or the mystery of the vampire(s) on board, who are feeding off passengers. The vampires were just there, and they were bad. There were also too many devices allowing implausible things; such as the worldwide Magic Security place (run shoddy if they don't get back up in there). But it did hold my interest and I liked the characters.
What do You think about Semester Aboard (2012)?
woooooooo!!!! *clapping* woooo!! good book
—ladybug
