Magic Waking (Legends Reborn Book 1)

 

My rating: ❤❤❤❤❤ of 5!

 

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Not too long ago I watched the British TV series “Merlin” and I loved how they’ve interpreted the famous Arthurian legend. However, after finishing the series I felt kind of empty and in my haunt for the next great story, I threw myself into Arthurian books.

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This brought me to Eva Chase’s series and wow pretty much sums up, what I think of this book. In order to truly appreciate it, you need to forget everything you think you know about Merlin and King Arthur. Eva’s Arthurian tale is quite unique as Guinevere and Lancelot never existed, so this story focuses on Merlin and Arthur, instead of Lancelot’s betrayal.

Back in the days of Camelot Arthur and Merlin was fighting the Darkest Fae. In order to save Arthur’s life, Merlin cast a spell to protect the life of his king but the spell didn’t exactly safe Arthur. Well, at least not in that lifetime, but it did somehow create some sort of reincarnation loop, which Merlin and Arthur has been stuck in for about 1500 years.

Emmaline (Emma) is the current reincarnation of Merlin and even though, her gender has changed, her mission hasn’t. She still needs to protect her king above all. This time around he’s a cocky jock named Darton. However, she also wants to finish off the darkest Fae, who’s stirring – and if possible, end their reincarnation cycle.

Whenever, Merlin starts a new life he knows who he is right away and know what his mission is. It’s not quite that simple for Arthur because every time he starts a new life, he doesn’t know who he really is. Physical contact with Merlin will cause his spirit to awaken, which sounds easy enough to make happen. However, there’s just that problem that once Arthur regain that knowledge, it becomes easier for their enemies to track them down, as his spirit serves as a beacon for the Darkest one.

Okay, not really a spoiler, more like a hunch. So far there’s only been hints as to who the Darkest Fae is, but since Emma think of that particular Fae as “she” I’m suspecting it to be none other than the Lady Morgana, which makes me so excited to jump right into the next book!

The characters that Eva has brought to life are so great, that I keep wanting more.
With both Merlin and Arthur being well-known characters, it would be easy to just keep it simple. But I love that Eva hasn’t done that and I really like that even though, both Emma and Darton has kept some of their original traits, they also seem like they have their own personalities. While the secondary characters could have been easy to overlook, Eva has described them in such a way, that you can’t help but get connected to them too.

I think what I personally enjoyed the most, was the unbreakable bond between Merlin and Arthur. How Emmaline yearned for her king, even when she knew she should keep her distance. So even though, Merlin is reincarnated as a female in this life, to me, Eva managed to make that less important, like their bond was there no matter what bodies they inherit. Now that’s love

 

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