Do you remember your first youthful infatuation? The sun rose and set with your thoughts of him. Mine was a boy named Vince--a boy I met while spending the summer with my grandparents. He was a California boy and a few years older than my ten years. I was so sure that I was going to marry the object of my crush. Yet as youth has it, the next summer--after the dramatic letdown--I had moved on to "the next big thing". In classic Catherine Coulter style, Pendragon explores youthful infatuation through the story's heroine, and takes it a step further to examine the resilience of the heart.

Meggie Sherbrooke is about to make her debut amongst the ton. She's excited about meeting new people and going about in society. Her uncle, Douglas Sherbrooke, has told her she doesn't need to marry so to enjoy herself during her first season. At her first ball, the object of her affections when she was a girl, Jeremy Stanton-Greville, is there and each exciting feeling rushes back to Meggie. She is convinced that she will marry Jeremy. Yet fate has other ideas. Meggie learns that Jeremy is betrothed to another, which breaks her heart. She knows that she will never love as deeply in all of her life.

Thomas Malcombe, the Earl of Lancaster, meets Meggie Sherbrooke and is instantly smitten with her beauty, her personality, and the fact she doesn't seem to want him. They befriend each other and as their relationship grows, Thomas realizes that he is in love with Meggie, but she is nursing an old wound. He vows to wait to profess his affections for her until she is ready, but time waits for no man and he asks Meggie to marry him. She agrees. He takes her to his ancestral home in Ireland where danger and a mystery await them.

Catherine Coulter weaves an endearing tale that examines youthful infatuation and true love. And in a style that is typical Catherine Coulter, she builds in some mystery and intrigue that test her hero and heroine and bring them together in a beautiful ending. Both characters were charming and one couldn't help but love Thomas (secretly wishing that one's husband was just a little bit like him). All in all, there was very little about this story that I didn't like and would consider it one of Coulter's best in the series.

Reviewed by Maci Walker
© January 2005