Kissing Magic

By: Day Leitao

Narrated by: Winona Owen

Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's Summary

Kiss him. Don't fall in love.

Break a spell with a kiss. Karina has heard and seen enough weird stuff for this request to sound legit. 

At 16, Karina has a shot at adventure--and an odd first kiss - when she's called to Whyland, a kingdom in another dimension, to save a guy she barely knows. Why her? No clue, but she's happy to help, and kissing Sian isn't torture, even if he isn't to be trusted. Karina's smart enough not to fall in love - or at least to tell herself not to.
 

Once in Whyland, she realizes that risking a broken heart is the smallest of her problems. When truths are unraveled, Karina will need to stand between an ancient darkness and the kingdom. But what hope does she have against mysterious powers when she can't even control her own heart?
 

If you like fantasy and adventure with a dash of romance, give Kissing Magic a try. This novel is recommended for listeners 13 and older. This is book two in Portals to Whyland series but you can jump straight into it without listening to book one.

©2019 Day Leitao (P)2019 Day Leitao

Good Story

This is the first book I have read in this series and I feel that I was able to understand everything not having read book 1 - That being said, it was a decent enough story that I am intrigued enough to go back and read book 1 now. I enjoyed the easy pacing and descriptive writing. The narrator did a good job bringing the story and characters to life. I look forward to more from this author

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Interesting Story!

This story is probably one of those hit-or-miss for most people, but I couldn't resist the blurb and am so glad I read this one! It reminds me of other books that I enjoyed with similar themes of trust, friendship, betrayal, danger, and love. The characters were interesting and I loved the concept and story-line. The middle did slow a bit, but overall I loved reading this and look forward to reading more in this world.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Good book

I found this audiobook to be pretty good It has a lot of action and drama. The narrator does a good job reading this book.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Romantic Adventure

Once again we are hurtling across the world of Whyland. This time will a request for a kiss to save a friend Sian who been turned to stone. This second book is more action packed, compelling, and the plot of is so multi layered that your left guessing at every twist and turn. The world building for this second book is more solid then in book one and we learn a lot more about the magic system. This book is appropriate for the teenage crowd though as the title suggests their a lot of kissing in the book. So boys are probably not gonna be as interested in the story line. Sian plays his character perfectly he cold, emotionless and you really hope that Karina is able to melt him into being a better character. Each character learns their own lessons as they develop in this story like all teens experience is the best teacher. Kissing magic really shows you what love can do and maybe just maybe a kiss can melt even the coldest hearts.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

I started with book 2

It was a fun listen I was just missing some info as the other books are not on here but I enjoyed it well enough that when they are I will give them a try as well.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

To kiss or not to kiss

I requested this audio because of my granddaughters visit. We all enjoyed this lighthearted story. Karina the MC has several choices to make, to go home or not, to trust or not, and to love or not. Hard choices in life. All is told in a kiss.
This audio was given to me free, and I voluntarily gave this review.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

No self esteem girl still wants the liar, non trustworthy, deceptive brute ...”

1.75 stars, rounded up because - I don’t think I’m the target audience and others found it entertaining....

I liked this alternate world. I liked how the bones were, well, it formed the skeleton. But it lacked heart and meat. Let me explain. But before I do, let me start by saying when I was growing up, books didn’t have main characters who were angsty or deceptive or liars. Men didn’t act like women were fragile or needed ultra protection.

These teenagers - or young adults, as some were over 18 - have it in their heads - oh, let me see how many ways I can deceive, lie, trick, manipulate, and back stab the woman I want to be with and still try to convince her I want her when she figures it out. Even when she sees the truth, she’s obsessing over their kisses. I had sons. But I’d be madder than a two year old going to bed while everyone has ice cream if I had a daughter who had no self esteem, confidence, or a bit of common sense to be so naive!

Our main character, Karina (16 yo), sleeps in the same bed with him for consecutive nights and nothing happens. Really? I’m not stupid and I know more teenagers are sexually active now than when I was growing up, but REALLY? I hope our younger readers aren’t reading this. The blurb indicates it’s for 13+. Is this acceptable? My children are 21 and up but I didn’t allow their girlfriends to stay the night. Oh, yeah. No parental figures. She’s in the other world.

Her friend, newly appointed Queen during her mom’s absence, and her betrothed, King. What frigging world names an unwedded, non blood relation, as a throne figure? Idk. I didn’t watch or read The Game of Thrones. Did it happen there?
And yeah. They start to have problems too. These characters turned into flat out wimpy whiny crybabies who throw away relationships.

Although ‘it’s a book’, I found it appalling to exploit these types of relationships. No wonder the youth plays games. A book should be entertaining, informative, or an escape. I just wanted to escape the book. But Winona Owen provided a wonderful presentation and I was able to get through it quickly enough. Although it hurt worst than pulling off a too-small band aid with the adhensive still attached to the healing skin.

The book was 80% about Does he love me? Is he using me? Blah blah blah. Whereas the description indicated it has a ‘dash of romance’, I disagree. It’s abundantly about these characters’ romance and little else. They are driven by their emotions or lack of or denial of.

I really, really, really wished I enjoyed it half as much as others. The beginning of the book was sooo promising!

I would recommend if you decide to pick this up, try the Book 1 first. Maybe if I had, I would ‘get’ something that I missed with the characters.

This is my voluntary review of an audiobook received for free.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Not for me

I liked the ulternate world not so much the characters. I found them hard to blieve.
This book is not for me. Maybe a younger audience would love it more.

Only a kiss can break the curse

Pros- I enjoyed this story. It was entertaining and creative. Good world building and characters.

Coms- the narration didn’t do it for me. There was no distinction between characters so I never knew who was talking. That took away from the story too much for my liking. She has a good voice and I would beat in a dual narration she’d be really good.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Teen Sci-Fi Adventure

Teen/YA fantasy is my favorite genre. I’m not sure why so many people found this story entertaining because I had a hard time connecting to the characters or the story for that matter. The background and world had great promise and were interesting but the characters had no common sense, loyalty, instincts, or their decision making ever made any sense to me. I have three teens living under my roof and I was struck by how immature these teens were. I could not identify with them at all and found the story hard to listen.

Narration was ok.

It made no sense to me how the story developed and I felt like the characters were not interesting or had any depth to them. I had such hopes but this book was just lacking in my opinion.

I think book 1 should have been available in audio format before this book 2. I’m not sure if it would have changed my overall opinion but it couldn’t have hurt. Maybe understanding where the characters were coming from would have helped.

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Fantastic

Fantasy,kiss story loved this book enjoyed start to finish can’t wait for book 2