Too Precious to Lose

Beautiful eighteen-year-old Norina is dismayed when her widowed father Lord Sedgewyn quickly remarries to society beauty Violet – and even more so when she discovers her new stepmother's wicked plot to poison her and inherit a fortune held in trust for Norina.
In fear for her life, she flees in disguise, securing a position as secretary to a temporarily blinded French Nobleman who whisks her away to Paris and then to his opulent South of France villa.
Just as her rakish new employer's eyes begin to heal and are opened to Norina's innocent loveliness, the evil Violet's henchmen kidnap her.
Facing certain death in a monastic cell, Norina realises that her employer, Le Marquis de Charlamont, will never know that she has given him her heart –

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.