My Boyfriend Merlin by Priya Ardis

Synopsis:

If you can't trust your boyfriend, who can you trust?

In this modern retelling of the Sword and the Stone, 17-year-old nice girl Arriane, aka Ryan, DuLac just found out her badass biker boyfriend,Matt, is a little older than he was letting on. By a few eons.

In fact, he is really Merlin--the Merlin, King Arthur's Merlin, the greatest wizard who ever lived. But Ryan's not impressed. Tired of being a pushed around 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. And Ryan's a bit freaked about the scary shadow-dragon trying to burn her alive. And now, Matt--er, Merlin--needs her and her brother to leave home because they are Candidates to pull the sword.

But despite gruesome gargoyles, a 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?

Review:

I don't normally enjoy a lot of YA, I feel like the author often dumbs down the quality of the writing for YA. I have always been a strong believer that you can use big words and strong concepts in YA, because that's how young adults learn, and why dictionaries were invented. So when I find a YA story I enjoy that is saying something. 

I really enjoyed really My Boyfriend Merlin, especially since I was a little worried about it. The title made me believe it was going to be all about teen angst and "oh I like this boy". But it really wasn't, it had a true plot, and characters that were organic and true to themselves. 

The first reason I like this book is it deal with Arthurian legend, and I personally think that is such a fun topic. It's both historical and fantasy. There is the element of history that I love, but the fact that it was so long ago lets the author and well people in general have their own take on what really happened; which is why I think a lot of books have been written about Arthur since his time. But there is that element of fantasy, in a time of wizards and magics, where all things were possible, a place like Camelot is what inspires people. So the book already had all that going for it. 

The writing was really good, and I never felt talked down to as a reader. Yes the romance was toned down, and there weren't people running around screaming cuss words at every chance, but hey you don't need cuss words to get your point across, nor do you need sex to create an intimate relationship between two characters. I will say there were a few typos at the end (I think 3), but it didn't bug me. 

I liked Ryan. The book starts off action packed so you really get to know her in a dramatic way from the beginning. Ryan experiences a trauma very early on in the book, and as a reader, you really have no other choice but to feel for her. Not only that but you are right there along side her with her emotions. You understand her want to fight for revenge, or to make sure nothing like that happens again. You understand her will to stand up for herself, to make sure she is as trained as she can be. But she also isn't so completely amazing feat of nature. She is just a person who like anyone has to work at being good at something, so she gets her butt kicked along the way. It makes her all the more believable and likable. 

I also enjoyed the brother dynamic between Matt and Vane. And I enjoyed them both as characters. When I read the description of the book I really believed I would get behind Matt as a character and he would be the one I liked but he wasn't. It was Vane, even on the surface, how he appeared to be so callous, I knew there was something more to him, something I was missing. So I wanted to find out what that something was going to be. It was fun to get to know him, and watching the little fleeting moments when he would let his guard down. 

Overall, this was a really good YA book. I think people who only read adult books and staunchly refuse to read YA would be doing themselves a disservice by disregarding this book. It is a fun read, and it bring the past to the present and looks to the future. And let's face it who does like a book that does that?