Juvenile delinquents, at least the somewhat harmless, fictional kind in this novel, can be kind of fun. To be more precise, I enjoyed seeing the world from Aston’s perspective. As he tells the story of his adventure of traveling back in time with a fellow “inmate” at the Stanton school for boys, I was amused, curious what would happen, and entertained by all the pomp and circumstance they encounter in Ancient Egypt. Dakota has done a great job developing this world, and since it was all about the fantasy rather than historical accuracy – just consider that they were sent there by Merlin of Camelot fame - I had no trouble following along.

Aston is seventeen and has a talent for getting in trouble. Big time. It’s his third time before the judge and he is pretty sure he’ll end up in juvenile detention this time, but Fate decides to give him a break and the judge sends him to a school for “difficult boys”. Aston being Aston, it takes him about an hour before he manages to dig himself into even deeper trouble, but this time he and a fellow reckless “inmate” by the name of Grant end up at Merlin’s mercy. Yes, the Merlin who has been around since King Arthur’s day and now teaches history at the school. Hilarious, right?

What follows once Merlin decides they need to make up for destroying his priceless artifacts (long story, and you got to read it to believe it!) is an adventure that had me grinning from one ear to the other – and then it got intense. The suspense around how events would unfold was considerable – after all, I know what happened to King Tutankhamun in our timeline, and yet Aston and Grant do their best to derail history and save Tut, as they affectionately call him, from a destiny that was decided thousands of years ago. With Ancient Egypt – or a version of it – coming alive right before my eyes, it was easy to be entranced and dive into the story headfirst.

If you like stories about time travel for the fun of it, rather than a version with serious timeline convolutions, if you think two teenagers who are just beginning to figure out they may be attracted to each other are the right guys to “rescue” an ancient artifact by traveling back in time to retrieve it, and if you’re looking for an entertaining, funny, and suspenseful action/adventure that might just have a sequel, then you might like this novel. I definitely enjoyed it.


NOTE: This book was provided by Harmony Ink Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews. ( )