At the start of Mancusi's sparkling debut, a Gypsy curse propels feisty 29-year-old Kat Jones, associate fashion editor at La Style
magazine, from King Arthur's Faire back in time to the real King Arthur's court, where her cell phone doesn't work and the menu doesn't accommodate her low-carb diet. Kat's strange speech (peppered generously with "like" and "totally") makes Merlin and King Arthur suspicious enough to lock her up in a tower, despite the protests of kind Queen Guinevere. Luckily, the gorgeous Lancelot helps her escape. Could this noble knight finally be the remedy to all the 21st-century creeps she dates? Kat is determined to find a way back to the present and to save Camelot from its impending doom, while introducing such novelties as the "Round Table" and modern dance. The interactions between the acerbically sassy protagonist and the stoic knights and royalty amuse, though the difficult and sarcastic Kat can also be annoying. Still, Kat's efforts to figure out the real story of Camelot's destruction intrigue, while her romance with Lancelot puts a nice twist on the modern girl's search for prince charming. Agent, Paige Wheeler. (May)
