No Darkness for Love

When beautiful Atalanta Lynton has a chance meeting with a dashing French artist on her way home to her father's modest Vicarage from Combe Castle where her aunt and cousins reside, she is smitten by his handsome Gallic charm and his talent as an Impressionist artist. But no sooner than Paul Beaulieu, for that is his name, declares that he has fallen in love with her at first sight, she finds to her chagrin that her father has promised her hand in marriage to her cousin William, who is to become the British Ambassador to the newly independent country of Vallon and he has to be married to a suitable wife to take up such a prestigious post. Although appalled at the prospect of a loveless marriage to her cold pompous cousin, Atalanta sees no alternative but to yield to her parents' will and the union will definitely ensure that she can provide for her impoverished parents and her brother and twin sisters. In Paris with her hated husband-to-be, the flame of her love is stoked once more by Paul's unfailing ardour and, finding that her cousin already has a mistress who is with child, Atalanta now resolves that she must refuse to marry him. But an enraged William will stop at nothing to prevent her marrying Paul and it seems that their love is doomed before it can really blossom.

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.