The story of Camelot has many variants. Judith O’Brien gives us her version in One Perfect Knight. A magical and imaginative version to be sure. I was impressed with much of the creativity that went in to this book, but the romance doesn’t hold up as well.

Julie is a senior executive at an ad firm. She is known as the woman who can come up with the goods in a pinch. One particular account is giving her trouble – creative trouble she has never had in the past. She jumps at any chance to distract herself so that her creative juices can start flowing again, and her distraction comes in the form of a 10-year-old boy’s birthday party. The boy is the nephew of her friend Peg, and is going through a “knight” stage – he is interested in all things medieval. Peg and Julie take the boy and his numerous friends to a medieval theme restaurant. At this restaurant, Julie sees a suit of armor and hears a voice coming out of it. The voice of a man saying “help me” – the same voice she has been hearing on her answering machine, saying “help me” over other people’s messages. As she touches the suit of armor, she is transported to Camelot, and finds that the voice that she has been hearing is the voice of Lancelot.

Lancelot thinks at first that Julie is his new squire. He calls her George, is surprised at her lack of training, so begins an intense training session on the spot, that includes Julie catching all sorts of flying weapons. When she misses a catch and the weapon conks her on the head, knocking her out, Lancelot comes to her aid and thus discovers she is a woman. As Julie settles in to life at such a magical place where there are no rainy days, where there is no garbage, where food is plentiful and free, she learns that she is there to stop Lancelot and Guinevere from falling in love, and therefore save Camelot.

Camelot will not be easily saved by Julie and her perfect knight. There will be time-travel, deceit, and the defeat of Malvern before Camelot can exist forever, thus keeping a spark of magic in the real world for everyone to believe in.

Ms. O’Brien’s version of Camelot is magic. She describes it vividly and beautifully. I liked her portrayal of Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin, and even the evil Malvern, who couldn’t have been slimier. The plot is interesting, the contrasts between Camelot and the real world are startling. I liked the creativity – her idea of how Camelot was created, and what purpose it serves to the real world is unique. Lancelot at first is pretty wimpy, and I thought, Whose version of a perfect knight is this? Then he said, “What can I do?” at just the perfect moment, and I was impressed with him from that time on.

Julie, on the other hand, comes off as whiny and selfish. She is supposed to be an advocate of Camelot, but is often not even focused on it. And, she makes decisions about Excalibur without consulting Lancelot, who should have had more authority over the sword. The magic of Camelot is falling apart before her eyes, and all she does is worry about her job, whine for help, and spend extra hours at work on a cleanser campaign instead of working with Lancelot to save Camelot.

I also had a problem with Lancelot and Julie’s relationship. The only thing going for them is the magic – their relationship is based on nothing else. They didn’t spend time getting to know each other, they had nothing in common, and Julie actually used Lancelot to improve her career. It might be the skeptic in me, but I need to see more than a magical environment for me to believe there will be a happily ever after.

There was a sly humor in the beginning of the book – almost as if Julie was poking fun at herself. I was disappointed that tone was not maintained for very long. I like Judith O’Brien’s version of Camelot – the larger and better-than-the-real-world feel to it. I just feel that the heroes of Camelot should also be larger-than-life, and in One Perfect Knight, they aren’t.