My Boyfriend Merlin

By Priya Ardis

 

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 the 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?


Why do I do this to myself? I see a fun cover, a possibly entertaining idea, and I think 'it's probably garbage, but maybe it's not' and then proceed to read it. Now, this wasn't "garbage" but it was disappointing for me. I found myself comparing it to "Avalon High" by Meg Cabbot and that made it difficult to enjoy this spin-off arthurian tale. having loved Cabbot's version infinately more. It's all about finding the new wielder of Excalibur, and Ryan is in the middle of things when she finds out her adopted brother is a candidate to take the sword, and that might've been the only reason Matt aka Merlin dated her in the first place. She's pretty upset. What I really hate about these teen books lately is the whole otherworldly attraction that is described as fate or destiny instead of what it simply is: infatuation and a crush.  As far as writing goes, it's well crafted and the plot is diverse enough to hold the reader's attention and keep them reading into the wee-hours. I admit I was ticked at Ryan's fickleness toward Merlin, and I was uncomfortable at the making out and messing around-nothing graphic, but it was enough to make me try to loosen my invisible colar in discomfort.  It was a page-turner. Who knows, I'm half likely to pick up the next one if I can find it in a library somewhere...

I give it a 3 1/2 out of 5- Because it was really entertaining, and my beef was mostly personal taste. It really was pretty good. A little above average.