Title: My Boyfriend Merlin
Series: My Merlin Trilogy (Book 1)
Author: Priya Ardis
Category: Young Adult
Rating:

Goodreads

In this modern Arthurian, 17 year-old Boston high schooler Arriane, aka Ryan, DuLac just found out the guy she’s been crushing on, hot biker Matt, is a little older than he was letting on. In fact, he is really Merlin—the Merlin, King Arthur’s Merlin, the greatest wizard who ever lived. Frozen in a cave for over fifteen hundred years, he’s woken for a purpose. But Ryan’s not impressed. Tired of being a relationship loser, she’d rather kick his legendary behind.

Sure, the world has been crazy ever since the sword and the stone fell out of the sky like a meteor. But despite gruesome gargoyles, a deadly new world of magic, and the guy driving her crazy, Ryan knows that family is everything. Will Merlin sacrifice hers to save the world? Will she be able to stop him?

MY REVIEW

“Do I look like I want to be involved in your teen love saga? Ask someone who cares.”

BBC’s Merlin has been over almost eight months, and my Arthurian feels are still all over the place. So when I was sifting through books on Goodreads to add to my birthday list, I found this baby and was terribly excited. I mean, Merlin, alive, after all these years… gorgeous with a Ducati? I am a sucker for gorgeous fictional characters on a motorcycle. Don’t judge me.

Ryan DuLac is the star of this modern Arthurian, and the story begins with the Total Tremor, a worldwide tremor as a sword in the stone appears in Trafalagar Square. Halfway across the world, Ryan has just found out that the hot biker guy she’s been crushing on is a little older than he let on… Matt Emrys is in fact the legendary wizard, Merlin. It reminded me a bit of Meg Cabot’s Avalon High, where kids are brought together to Avalon Prep to compete in drawing Excalibur out of the stone.

I rate this three stars, because while it was good, there were some things that just made me go

Ryan is convinced she knows the Arthurian legend pretty well, but when Matt mentions he is a seer, she had no idea what that was. Not to mention, her last name is that of Lancelot’s but it’s never mentioned. Another instance is when she’s given an amulet and Merlin mentions that he fashioned it for a queen, but Ryan, again, could not put two and two together, because obviously Merlin didn’t make an amulet for Julie Andrews, the true queen of Genovia.

The characters weren’t fully fleshed out at all; I was disappointed that Merlin seemed to lack depth. The majority of the first book he’s just glowering at his brother, Vane, who is getting close to Ryan. The speedy progression of the plot left little room for feel, such as Ryan witnessed the death of her best friend, and the storyline plummeted over the death with such speed Ryan nor anyone else seemed to never convey any emotion, as if the gargoyles killing Alexa was the equivalent of your plate of french fries going cold.

The good versus evil dilemma was too complicated for my tastes, and things that should’ve had depth were just brushed upon to hurry things along. The pace left me uninterested in the characters, and I wouldn’t have cared if most of them became gargoyle dinner.

There were also some spelling errors here and there, which would’ve made the book overall better if an editor had gone through it.

This book gets three stars for adding a fresh twist to the Arthurian legend. While it wasn’t executed to its full potential, it did keep me occupied for a full afternoon.