Kat Jones, writer for a fashion magazine in New York, is attending a King Arthur's Faire in order to write an article on the new trend of medieval-style fashion. While there, she runs afoul of a fortune teller, who places a curse upon Kat. It takes effect almost immediately, where Kat is knocked down by a blow to the head. When she come to, she is no longer in the 2000s. No, she has been magically transported back to the land of King Arthur, and face to face with Queen Guenevere, Sir Lancelot and Merlin, the wizard.
While Kat is not a scholar of English literature, she is somewhat familiar with the legend of King Arthur and the doings at Camelot. So she is a bit surprised to discover that Guenevere and Lancelot are not lovers, as they are portrayed in legend. In fact, Guenevere claims to view Lancelot more like a brother and that she is completely in love with her husband, King Arthur. Which means Lancelot is there for the pickings, which Kat quickly does, finding Lancelot to be completely irresistible. And he seems to feel to same for her.
It takes quite a while for Kat to figure out what is really going on. The breakthrough comes when she encounters the fortune teller who put the curse on her back in modern times. Kat was brought to the past by the fortune teller and Merlin to keep Lancelot and Queen Guenevere from getting together resulting in the Queen being put to death and King Arthur losing control of his kingdom. Kat was chosen because, according to the fortune teller, Kat is the only woman in all of time that Lancelot can fall in love with, keeping him from becoming involved with the Queen. Once the historic date of the Queen's execution for infidelity is safely passed, Kat will be free to return to the future. But what about Lancelot? Kat is wildly in love with him but is the 21st Century the place for an early medieval guy like Lance? And is Kat willing to give up the very real advantages of modern life to live in the past with Lance?
This was an OK read. I didn't like the main character, who seems like a real dummy. She constantly uses modern phrases that anyone with half a brain would know that people in the past would not understand. It's not like she only does that a the beginning of the story. She continues to do it through out and them seems a bit surprised that people don't understand what she means. Also she is astonishingly vulgar and slutty. Maybe that is supposed to be funny? I didn't find it to be so.
I was more than halfway through the book before it began to arouse my interest. It was when I understood that there was a more serious plot than the "modern girl falls for medieval knight" plot. That the struggle to keep the Queen from being executed was also designed to keep Christianity from replacing the local pagan beliefs.
Also, having a better understanding than I did of the legend of King Arthur and Camelot would probably be helpful in enjoying this story.
Here is a review by Publishers Weekly.
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