Magnificent Adventure (Version 2)

The Louisiana Purchase has doubled the nation. President Jefferson needs a man to map this vast new territory, and he chooses Meriwether Lewis. But before Lewis can begin the greatest expedition in American history, he must first survive the treachery of his own heart. Theodosia Burr has married another. The woman Lewis loves is now forever beyond his reach, yet she comes to him with a desperate plea: abandon the adventure before it begins. Her father, Vice President Aaron Burr, has foreign allies who will stop at nothing to prevent Lewis from reaching the Pacific. What follows is a journey through unmapped wilderness, political intrigue, and the ache of love that arrives too late. Hough weaves actual history with breathless fiction, giving us the Lewis and Clark expedition as both heroic endeavor and tragic romance. The wilderness becomes a mirror for Lewis's private grief, and the "magnificent adventure" of the title carries the bittersweet weight of a man who must find purpose in duty when happiness has slipped away.