A Very Special Love

When a strange Priest calls to inform him that his young and very beautiful Ward, Zia Langley, whom he has never troubled to meet, wants to be a nun and asks for his permission, the dashing and handsome Marquis of Okehampton is irritated at this distraction from his wild love life. The Marquis is particularly involved with Yasmin Caton, the enchantingly lovely wife of a distinguished Peer, who is much older than her and is believed to be close to death. She is determined to marry the Marquis when her husband does die and uses every wile she can think of to force him up the aisle. And when the strange Priest demands the transfer to the Convent of all Zia's worldly goods and, knowing that Zia has inherited a vast fortune, the Marquis smells a rat. Insisting on visiting this Convent to meet his Ward, he travels to Cornwall in his magnificent yacht. He is introduced to a very ugly young woman, whom he realises is an imposter, before whisking away the real Zia Langley to his Park Lane mansion in London. But just as the Marquis discovers the real Zia's stunning beauty and realises that he is falling in love, the evil Priest kidnaps her and is demanding an impossible sum for her release. Can the Marquis save his Ward and their very special love in time?

Dame Barbara Cartland was one of the most successful and well-known of all British romance novelists and was undoubtedly the most prolific, writing 723 books in her long lifetime of which 675 are romantic novels and include 160 brand new titles that are currently being published as the Barbara Cartland Pink Collection. She wrote across a wide variety of genres, but is of course most closely associated with romance, and with her stories of chaste heroines, dashing heroes and everyone finally living happily ever after. Barbara was a colorful character in many senses of the word and was as well known for her controversial and witty interviews and absorbingly exciting life story as she was for her bright pink clothes and extravagant appearance. To read Barbara Cartland's life story is to be impressed that someone could fit so much into only one life. As well as writing a staggering number of books, she was also involved with great advances in many diverse fields from aviation to alternative medicine and helped many groups who she perceived as being unfairly treated, from midwives in poor working conditions to Romany gypsy children who wanted to be allowed to attend school. She was fascinatingly contradictory in her interviews and novels, Barbara often extolled the virtues of traditional relationships between men and women and falling in love, but hers is the story of a driven, independent-minded woman who was unafraid to turn her hand to anything which interested her and right wrongs Barbara Cartland is synonymous with traditional romantic fiction, but her life story is perhaps just as engrossing as her fiction. To date she has sold 1 Billion copies sold in 38 languages