Barbara Cartland

An intelligent, sexy novel about best friends, about settling down and about throwing it all away...When you fall in love do you follow your heart or use your head? Thea Luckmore believes in love – the magic spark of true, old-fashioned, romantic love. She's determined only ever to fall head over heels, or rather, heart over head. Alice Heggarty, her best friend, is always falling in lust – with dashing rogues who invariably break her heart. As yet another disastrous relationship ends, Alice makes a decision. It's time to marry and she knows just the man. For Thea, Saul Mundy promises to be the perfect fit and Thea finds herself falling in love and loving it. But though newly wed Alice encourages Thea to settle down and conform, she finds that she's not as keen as she thought on playing by the rules. Alice starts to break them left, right and centre... At the same time, Thea's world, in which love reigns supreme, is shaken to core. When it comes to love, should you listen to your head, your heart, or your best friend?

Undercovered as governess in order to stay with her nephew and nieces after the death of their parents in a boating accident, Tamara started to work to their new guardian, the Duke of Granchester. The Duke's arms went around her and before Tamara realized what was happening his lips were on hers. For a moment she was still in surprise, then she felt a sudden rapture so wonderful that she knew this was what she had been seeking. "Oh my darling," the Duke said hoarsely. "I love you." "I... love you!" she whispered. Then, even as she spoke she remembered the unforgettable things she had written about him before she had come to love him. An icy hand gripped her heart as she tore herself from his embrace and raced suddenly to her room.

Alicia was listening to him as if she were hypnotized. Her eyes were held by his and it was impossible to look away. "I love you, I love you," the Prince said. "I knew if from the first moment I saw you, but I realized last night you were as out of reach as if you were the goddess Venus." "Why?" Alicia asked. The words merely touched her lips, hardly making a sound. "Because I am not a free man," the Prince replied. Now his voice was harsh and there was a pain in it which she could feel. "I have looked for you and dreamt of you," be went on. "Now you are here and it is difficult to believe you are real. But I have to send you away." "I do... not... understand," Alicia murmured. "Why should you?" he asked. "It is because I am not a free man. Because of they way I was born, my country must come first and my true feelings are insignificant beside one word, which is Duty."

The impoverished and pleasure-loving Earl of Eldridge inherits a fortune and decides to share his good luck with his friends. Throwing a grand party, he instructs that they each must bring a beautiful young woman. There will be a vote to decide who is the greatest beauty - and she will then belong to the Earl. Tremulously, Amorita Howe agreed to help her brother in his audacious scheme. Their dear old nanny required an expensive operation, and the penniless pair hoped to win the lavish prizes offered by the pleasure-loving Earl of Eldridge. The Earl's country house party was a most select and discreet affair: the innocent Amorita found herself among the most glamourous--and notorious!--Cyprians of London. Bravely playing her part, Amorita captured the handsome Earl's jaded heart with her shy beauty. She then fled...but the Earl pursued his cherished quarry, spurred by the Love that is a gift from the gods. A joyous, lifelong adventure....

Cyprian, Marquis of Melverley returned from fighting in Wellington's army only to discover that his mistress has returned to her husband and his favourite dancer was in bed with another man. Irate and running away from the betrayal, quiet the bejeweled temptations of London's beau monde for his country estate, where was involved in an accident with a pony and trap. Before long, the dashing Marquis saved a damsel in distress... the delicate young orphan Christina Churston was pursued by a brutish, unwanted suitor. Now, safe under the Marquis's protection, she discovered the magnificent Peer's noble soul... but their new romance threatened by his fortune-hungry cousin, Terence. And wickedness was coiling, and when it struck, she trusted in the mysterious power between them. United by danger, wed in grace, the Marquis and his fairy princess became one heart, one hope, one love....

When fire razed her ancestral home, Erlina Sherwood sought shelter at Meldon Hall. The Manor house of the arrogant Marquis of Meldon had been all but destroyed by neglect. Erlina was astonished to find the Marquis himself in residence, amid the Hall's faded magnificence... But he could not mourn its lost splendour, for an accident had stolen his sight. As time passed, the lovely orphan came to know the proud, private heart of the compelling Aristocrat... Her tenderness came to heal his wounded soul -- and bind them in a brilliant dream-come-true of never-ending Joy...

The Fates were conspiring to lead the Marquis of Calvadale to Fez, one of the splendid and mysterious Holy Cities of Morocco. A secret mission awaited the handsome master of disguise there--and he was unwillingly accompanying an impetuous young lady. Yet, despite himself, the Marquis was drawn to Narda's spirited intelligence, her poise, her fair English beauty ... But no sooner did they arrive ashore than Narda was kidnapped! The daring nobleman had only one chance to rescue his newfound jewel--and claim love's shining, never-ending reward....

In order to protect his country from the might of Russia, the King of Vultarnia appeals to Queen Victoria to find him an English wife. Pythia was aghast at her own daring. The diminutive young beauty had impulsively taken her cousin's place in a marriage decreed by Victoria herself! Now settled in a distant land, the lovely imposter is determined to be a worthy Royal to her new subjects -- and a true consort to their dashing, cosmopolitan King Aleksius. Wed in name only, Pythia had fallen in love with her husband... an vowed to win his errant heart. But just as they discovered the radiant promise of their union, deadly treachery flared. And Pythia must act boldly once more -- to foil a foreign monarch's plot -- and claim love's deep and enduring miracle!

Lovely Alina Langley was desperately wondering how she could earn some money when her childhood friend, Denise Windham, arrived unexpectedly from London. In a gamble, Denise begged Alina to pretend to be her own mother, a widowed aristocrat, and accompany her to Rome, where she is intent on pursuing the Earl of Wescott, with whom she has fallen in love. Alina acepted, to visit Rome was a wish that she had never dreamed would come true. Yet here she was, a sheltered young country miss, impersonating an aristocratic, widowed Beauty in a dangerous, perhaps even wicked, gamble to reconcile her friend with an adored Beau. In Rome the girls' host was the handsome and scathing Marquis of Teverton, the "Casanova of London." And he kissed her. Alina's heart was tossed in a tempest of emotion. Her first kiss -- and from a man who surely despised her! Alina was seared by the fire of his lips, stunned by his arrogant confidence but most of all shocked... to find that she loved the forbidding Marquis of Teverton!

Mena Mansforde's sister, Lais, who having married and been widowed by the elderly Lord Barnham, was determined to marry the Duke of Kemthorpe. All that remained was for him to meet her mother. But when they were invited for a weekend at the Castle, Mrs. Mansforde refused to leave young Mena behind -- much to her sister's chagrin! To settle the dispute, a plot was hatched. Masquerading as her mother's Companion, Mena quickly became a part of Castle life... and love blossomed -- suddenly and miraculously -- when she helped a stable-boy who had been thrown from his horse. But Mena cannot reveal her true self and for now, the glorious passion brewing between them must wait.... When the Duke met Mena, he believes her to be a Greek goddess, and Lais finds that her own ideas about love are very different from his.

Orphaned and homeless, young Jacoba Ford answers an advertisement for a companion for the Earl of Kilmurdock, a blind and deaf gentleman. She is interviewed and sent to Murdock Castle, that rose massive and splendid from the stern beauty of the Scottish Highlands. But for Jacoba Ford, victim of a cruel hoax, part of a revenge planned by Hamish McMurdock on his uncle, the Earl of Kilmurdock, it was a forbidding place that sheltered the bewildered young orphan as an uninvited--and unwelcome--guest. For the fierce Earl of Kilmurdock had made a passionate vow to ban all women from the great stone walls. And all around the countryside, the people of Clan McMurdock whispered that the Earl's ferocity had put a curse on them--a curse that would only be put to flight the day sweet Love blessed Murdock Castle....

Eva, beautiful, young and very innocent, is alone in Paris. her father, the distinguished Sir Richard Hillington, has died in the house of Leonide Le Blanc, one of Paris's most famous Courtesans. His shirt-stud is missing and Eva visits Madame Le Blanc to ask if it has been found. While she is there Lord Charles Craig calls with a very different problem.

It was a wicked scheme! The handsome Duke of Dallwyn was being blackmailed into marriage with a girl he had never even seen--a simpering debutante, no doubt! At least her money would be useful to repair the Duke's beloved ancestral estate, Wyn Park.... But Safina, daughter of the Earl of Sedgewick and the Duke's reluctant Bride, was a Providential surprise. Ingenious and angelically beautiful, Safina proved to be the astonished Duke's lucky charm. And Fortune was smiling on them both--showering the proud Duke and his shy Duchess with a tender, consuming passion more powerful than any wickedness .... For love, truly, conquers all!

The Duke of Moorminster thanked Providence for revealing his mistress' betrayal only moments before he proposed marriage. Now, though, he had to replace the scheming Society beauty in the Christmas pageant he was composing for Their Royal Highnesses in his Private Theatre... In a tiny Church at the end of his Estate, the Duke found his 'Angel' -- Lavela Ashley, the Vicar's young daughter. Her celestial voice and shy, innocent perfection struck new chords in the Duke's soul. But a treacherous conspiracy menaced the proud Duke's life, and only a miracle could save him! For the curtain was destined to rise on a Heaven-blessed union, a Lover's Paradise forever....