Love is a Gamble

It was bad enough when her beloved mother died and the beautiful young Idona Overton and her father faced the news that the meagre allowance Lady Overton received from her Family Trust died with her.
In his grief Sir Richard Overton spent more and more time away from Overton Manor enjoying London's dissolute pleasures before finally he was killed in a duel in somewhat suspicious circumstances.
But the greatest shock of all for Idona was yet to come!
A legal representative arrives at her home with appalling news for her.
Her father had gambled away everything that he owned on the turn of a card – the Manor House, the stables, all the horses and, most shockingly, even Idona herself!
The new owner is the imperiously handsome Marquis of Wroxham, who treats his new Ward with a mixture of scorn and amusement as he launches her into a frighteningly sophisticated world of subterfuge, deceit and a sinister highwaymen's plot.
Soon a stolen kiss changes everything and Idona is in love with the Marquis – a love that is surely doomed since he is set to marry the beautiful Lady Rosebel one of the great beauties of London.

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.