Beth has always loved Shakespeare plays. The plays have always seemed to come to life. When Beth meets Merlin and her theatre teacher, Mrs. Capilet, she discovers she has magical powers. Sent to Shakespearean England to find the missing King Arthur play, Richard III tries to control her thoughts, Merlin flirts with her, and Mercutio guides her. Can Beth find the missing play? Will she learn to use her powers in time? The characters are engaging, amusing, and well developed. The plot moves slow, but is interesting. Fans of magical realism, time travel, and school stories will enjoy reading this book.

Please Note: A copy of this book was given to me in exchange for an honest review. No financial compensation was received.

Sadly I'm having to DNF this book due to the fact that I just genuinely can't get into it. There's something about it, whether that be the characters or the plot, that just isn't clicking with me.

This book is full of things that I adore. Shakespeare, time travel and YA but I just did not enjoy this book.

However, Beth, the main character was awful. Obsessed with Shakespeare but not in a very healthy way at all and for some reason, the adults surrounding her seem to support this.

Beth loves Shakespeare & to act in plays; especially Shakespearean plays. While in a production of "A Midsummer's Night Dream" things start happening. Everything Beth says, literally happens to the actors & she doesn't know how to stop it until a white haired, white bearded gentleman shows up & tells her what to say to make it stop & so that everyone forgets what happened. She finds out that she has her own magic, but it only pertains to Shakespeare & nothing else.
She later finds out that this man that helped her is none other than Merlin, the great Arthurian magician. Merlin needs her help, he believes that Shakespeare wrote a play about Arthur that was never published and he's desperate to find it.
Beth agrees & with the help of Mercutio, her flirtatious guide, she hopes to find out more about her favorite author and playwright.
I found the story interesting but the writing wasn't what I hoped for. It was too proper in the instances with Beth & her friends. I don't find students talk to each other in such a manner that they did in this book. It through me off while reading it.
Overall I liked it & would recommend it.

"Merlin's Shakespeare" eBook was published in 2018 and was written by Carol Anne Douglas (https://www.carolannedouglas.com/). This is Ms. Douglas' fifth publication and the first in her 'Merlin's Shakespeare' series. 

I received an ARC of this novel through https://www.netgalley.com in return for a fair and honest review. I categorize this novel as ‘G’. The story is set in both contemporary times and in Shakespeare's England. The primary character is 15-year-old Beth Owens. 

Owens is a theater student, particularly interested in the works of Shakespeare. Merlin appears to her and sends her back in time to Shakespeare's England. She meets various characters from Shakespeare's plays some of whom she likes and others which frighten her. Merlin has sent her back to search for a missing Shakespeare play about King Arthur.  Along her way she begins to find that she has some magical powers of her own. 

I thought that the 8.25 hours I spent reading this 358-page young adult fantasy were interesting. The plot is pretty simple and the characters are not the deepest, but it seems targeted at the very young adult sector. I like the chosen cover art. I give this novel a 3.6 (rounded up to a 4) out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/. 

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

I really enjoyed this book! I think the plot was very comprehensive, and the characterization deep. I especially liked the way the writing was evocative and helped you feel and think the same way the characters did! - All in all an excellent book, everyone should read it!

This book was a great read, I really liked how easily the author incorporated so much of Shakespeare flawlessly into the story. It never felt forced or strange but instead seemed to flow effortlessly with the plot. Well written with an interesting plot and a lot to look forward to with the next book.

A unique story line with a well known backstory in Shakespeare and King Arthur. The execution of the story did not quite read smooth. Carol Anne Douglas took a risk tying in so many different time periods and characters. It did not quite pay off. While the story is interesting and has some great parts, it seemed to stutter in places and took some work to read. My reading time is an escape for me to see into another world, not a time to concentrate on where the story stops and starts. I would read her books again but I'd hope to see some better meshing of story and characters. I really hate to criticize a writer since I know it is very hard work to put your thoughts onto paper for others to share. Ms Douglas has talent, it just needs to be refined.

What a great book! Hopefully it will be translated into German, because this book would be a love read for my son ... Thank you so much ... This book was awesome and written in such a wonderful magical atmosphere ... Beth in Shakespeares London - it was so good! Thank you!

This is a book that seems to have been written by a very young child, one who dislikes logic, thinks they're extra clever when they're not, and hasn't had enough experience writing to understand how to write well. If it was written by a child, that child's parents or guardians should not have allowed it to be published, because it will embarrass the child to no end when that child is even a little bit older. If it was written by an adult, then it still shouldn't have been published, because it's a complete mess. Everything in it is poorly done: the names, the characters' descriptions, the dialogue, the plot, the writing overall. It was painful to read.

Merlin's Shakespeare sounded like something right up my alley. Unfortunately, I couldn't get into it. Beth as the main character is obsessed with Shakespeare's work and of lately also has some magical powers after a rather wonderful production of A Midsummer's Night Dream. She is then cornered by Merlin who asks her to travel back in order to track down a lost play.

Like I said, these are all things I like. I like time travel, I like Shakespeare, I really do, but I found Beth so annoying. Her obsession is unhealthy and it is weird it is supported by the adults. She acts like a small child, making it feel like it was written for a very young audience, although at the same time there is quite some death and cruelty along the way.

The whole reason for looking for the supposedly lost play was rather thin and the story jumped around a lot, focusing then on these and then on those characters. The characters from the plays were in my opinion the most interesting aspects of the story, only their dialogue was often very cranky (not like Shakespeare at all) and also the rules with which they lived and acted were unclear to me.

I wanted to like it, but it was not for me. For someone who doesn't know Shakespeare, it might be a nice introduction into the subject.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The starting idea of time travel combined with famous characters from Shakespeare’s renowned plays was quite enticing and original. Unfortunately, it took me a long time to get into the story, and I never really managed to connect with it. From the start, the numerous protagonists make it hard to follow the storyline, and I didn’t find the main characters endearing enough to care about them. I found Beth a bit bland and Merlin too aloof. However, the highlight of this book is that it allows a young audience to familiarize themselves with the playwright’s work.

This storyline is such a cute concept and I love this idea. The story overall felt smooth but at time the writing felt rushed. This story has the potential to be really great I would just like to see it changed just a little bit.

📚 BOOK REVIEW
Merlin's Shakespeare by Carol Ann Douglas.
.
Thankyou @netgalley for this review copy.
✏️
Merlin's Shakespeare is a funny story with main character as Beth. She is a teenager and interested in Drama acting. She loves Shakespeare and she acts in Shakespeare's plays mostly. One day accidentally one of her words felt wrong and it made some uncommon things happened to her friends. And thus she realised she has some magical powers but powers can only be used in Shakespeare related places. ✏️
Merlin is a character shown as immortal and was a friend and helper of Shakespeare in writing plays came to Beth and wanted her to time travel to Shakespeare's London and find out whether Shakespeare has written a play regarding King Arthur. She time travels to Shakespeare's era and meets several characters like Mercuito who protects her and helps her to travel to one play to another. Then she meets almost all characters like Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Richard 3 such a villian who imprison her and accidentally she bought her friends while dreaming and he does so cruel things to them..
Will she be able to find a play regarding King Arthur??
Why Merlin needed that play.?
Will she meets Shakespeare..??
✏️
The story was quite funny in some parts. The starting was not so catchy as we gets confused with so many characters and those characters you won't be seeing in further pages.. And somewhere it has been stretched too much. I think some parts were not needed actually.. But overall it's a very good and funny read and to the younger generation who are not familiar with Shakespeare and his characters gets a chance to know them slightly.. Highly recommended..!!
Rating ⭐⭐⭐.5
.

I think the idea of this novel is great! It brings Shakespeare to a young audience and brings the characters to a new light. I think the plot could use some smoothing, there were some details that felt unneeded and forced into the plot. It felt like too much emphasis on attractiveness and lack of personal decisions from Beth, she seemed passive and causing accidents.