Love and Apollo

Can you fall in love with someone before you meet them? Valona, the eighteen year old daughter of the deposed Prince of Piracus believes she can. Beautiful, spiritual and aching for adventure Valona is convinced that the perfect man exists because she has seen him in her dreams; all she has to do is find him. Valona is excited when she is asked by her wealthy relation the Duke of Inchcombe to become Lady in Waiting to his sister Lady Rose. Together they will travel to the Balkans, where Lady Rose is to make a politically astute marriage at the request of Queen Victoria. Having lived in impoverished seclusion all her life Valona believes that her dreams of travel are finally coming true. However, after helping star crossed lovers Lady Rose and the Marquis of Dorsham find true happiness it seems that it is Valona's dreams of romance that will be shattered. With no royal bride to offer the elderly King, it seems the only way to save Larissa from the threat of the encroaching Russian army is for Valona to take her place. Bravely putting aside her own feelings, and deciding that she must forget about true love, Valona selflessly agrees to marry the King of Larissa .Terrified at the idea of her impending nuptials and an arranged marriage with a much older man, Valona begs to visit the Greek island of Delos before she meets her husband to be. Here she offers a heartfelt prayer to the God Apollo to bring her a man she can love forever, and dreams of the man whose face haunts her. Will her prayers be answered? Only the gods know as Valona moves towards her destiny.

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.