Love In The Ruins

The beautiful young Mimosa Shenson is left alone in the world, penniless and stranded in Tunisia after her father dies from a snakebite while visiting the partially excavated archaeological site of Thuburbo Maius. Whatever can she do? The answer appears to be in a chance reading of a local newspaper reporting that her cousin Minerva, who has been living a grand Villa near Tunis, but has suddenly disappeared and is feared kidnapped for her large fortune. Feigning amnesia Mimosa arrives at her cousin's Villa and, as she hopes, is instantly taken for the missing Minerva and, as the two girls are very alike, even the servants believe her to be Minerva. Unexpectedly the Duke of Alrock, a handsome Englishman, comes to call at the Villa and he too mistakes Mimosa for Minerva. Quickly Mimosa finds that her deceit is bringing her complications in the form of a sinister Frenchman who attempts to blackmail her about her cousin's illicit affaire de coeur with a married French Count, which she knows nothing about. Then the Duke persuades her to accompany him on a visit to the magnificent ruins of Thuburbo Maius and there they are kidnapped by a gang of ruffians just as the sun is about to set. It seems that Mimosa is about to lose her life, just as she is beginning to lose her heart to the dashing Duke of Alrock.

Barbara Cartland was the world's most prolific novelist who wrote an amazing 723 books in her lifetime, of which no less than 644 were romantic novels with worldwide sales of over 1 billion copies and her books were translated into 36 different languages. As well as romantic novels, she wrote historical biographies, 6 autobiographies, theatrical plays and books of advice on life, love, vitamins and cookery. She wrote her first book at the age of 21 and it was called Jigsaw. It became an immediate bestseller and sold 100,000 copies in hardback in England and all over Europe in translation. Between the ages of 77 and 97 she increased her output and wrote an incredible 400 romances as the demand for her romances was so strong all over the world. She wrote her last book at the age of 97 and it was entitled perhaps prophetically The Way to Heaven. Her books have always been immensely popular in the United States where in 1976 her current books were at numbers 1 & 2 in the B. Dalton bestsellers list, a feat never achieved before or since by any author. Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime and will be best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels so loved by her millions of readers throughout the world, who have always collected her books to read again and again, especially when they feel miserable or depressed. Her books will always be treasured for their moral message, her pure and innocent heroines, her handsome and dashing heroes, her blissful happy endings and above all for her belief that the power of love is more important than anything else in everyone's life.