After the wonderful I Love Him to Pieces, I had high hopes for the rest of the My Boyfriend is a Monster series. Not so with this fourth volume.
Under His Spell is an almost stereotypical Fae/Human romance. Bethany has all the typical traits you would want the all-American girl to have. She plays soccer, studies, and hangs with her friends. She is normal except that she isn’t really interested in guys. That is until she meets the new student and is instantly transfixed. The guy, Allein (does his name remind anyone else of Alien?), is the heir to a fae kingdom. Yup, magic, pointy ears; you can get the picture. He has been sent to live in the human world for his protection because his cousin is challenging his right to the throne. He is really bad at this and he is quickly caught by his cousin and his cronies. This is bad news for Bethany, because the bad guys decide that the best way to get to Allein is through her. Sound familiar?
The cover art was fantastic and promised great things, but the inside was a bit disappointing. While the illustrations were nice fine point pen and ink, they seemed almost like they were unfinished sketches. There was not much consistency. While I actually liked the artwork depicting Allein, Bethany was another story. In some of the scenes, she looked more like one of James Cameron’s Avatars than a teenage girl. The one plus was that the layout changed from black and white to color when Bethany and Allein journeyed into faerie and back to black and white when they returned to the human world.
Typical of the My Boyfriend is a Monster series, in the back of the book is a little extra snippet to go with the story. This time it is an excerpt of a guide to fairies, with annotations made by Bethany. While this title will appeal to lovers of the concept, it was a loss for me. Points were regained with the ending which is atypical for a story about a teenage girl falling in love with a guy from literally another world, not to give anything away, but it shows that Bethany is strong and knows her own mind.
My Boyfriend is a Monster #4: Under His Spell
by Marie P Croall
Art by Hyeondo Park
ISBN: 978-076137076
Graphic Universe, 2011
Publisher Age Rating: 12 & Up
