Um einer Eheschließung mit dem verhaßten Lord Bantham, dem leuchtenden Stern der englischen Gesellschaft, zu entgehen, bricht Vita zu einer gefährlichen Reise aus dem viktorianischen England in das Land der Beduinen auf - nur um in die Hände eines gerissenen Nomaden mit tiefschwarzen, geheimnisvollen Augen zu fallen. Umgeben von verfeindeten Stämmen und verwirrenden Gefühlen muß Vita viele Gefahren bekämpfen bevor das Schicksal ihr zu Hilfe eilt und ihr und ihrem Scheich Glück jenseits aller Vorstellung bringt.
Born in 1901, Barbara Cartland started her writing career in journalism and completed her first book, Jigsaw, when she was just 24. An immediate success, it was the start of her journey to becoming the world’s most famous and most read romantic novelist of all time. Inspiring a whole generation of readers around the globe with her exciting tales of adventure, love and intrigue, she became synonymous with the Romance genre. And she still is to this day, having written over 644 romantic fiction books. As well as romantic novels, she wrote historical biographies, 6 autobiographies, plays, music, poetry and several advice books on life, love, health and cookery – totalling an incredible 723 books in all, with over 1 billion in sales. Awarded the DBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991 in honour of her literary, political and social contributions, she was President of the Hertfordshire branch of the Royal College of Midwives as well as a Dame of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem and Deputy President of the St John Ambulance Brigade. Always a passionate advocate of woman’s health and beauty, she was dubbed ‘the true Queen of Romance’ by Vogue magazine in her lifetime. Her legend continues today through her wonderfully vivid romantic tales, stories that help you escape from the day to day into the dramatic adventures of strong, beautiful women who battle, often against the odds, eventually to find that love conquers all. Find out more about the incredible life and works of Dame Barbara Cartland at www.barbaracartland.com
What a freaking headache, this was one of the first books I've ever read if not THE first , the female character ought to have fallen in love with a half of dozen of men *shaking my head* Oh well ! my fav was the sheikh BTW
When spoiled, headstrong Vita learns that she’s being forced to marry a rich old man, she devises a plan to vacation in Naples before her nuptials—enabling her to sneak away from her parents and go to Syria to find her Cousin Jane who married a sheikh after numerous love affairs and surely had the answer of what to do about Vita’s problem. Instead, she catches the attention of Jane’s husband’s enemy, Sheikh Shaalan, who kidnaps her to use her as bait to start a war between the two groups. Of course, they end up falling in love with each other, and there’s a surprising amount of drama jammed into such a short book.
Vita never does see Jane, even though we get a Jane POV scene, but a subplot that connected the two characters together gets picked up when the rival sheikh who loves Jane steals Vita to marry instead (since Vita looks like Jane when she was younger). Yet, after another rescue by Shaalan, we find out this plot twist: Shaalan was serving as a stand in sheikh until the real one came of age. His real name is Manuel, cut off from his rich father in Spain, and in the meantime helping his late friend run the group. Lucky for Manuel, his father passed and he now can inherit what he’s entitled to—which includes having the ability to marry Vita. As usual, the male MC says the usual ick phrases Cartland throws into most of her books (at this point I try to ignore them). The rest of the book was a fun ride, better than I expected at the beginning.
I think my new ADHD obsession will be writing Barbara Cartland reviews for all the people who don't read her anymore. It's crazy how even Cartland's worst books are better than the garbage flooding contemporary romance. It's inexcusable. We don't need to let technology make us so incredibly stupid. Some of Cartland's books are much better than others, and this one is not on the good list. I wish it were; the basic premise is cool, but the plot structure is complete shit. But what Cartland has going for her over contemporary romance novels is complete sentences, good grammar, and frequent bouts of wit.
The couple doesn't meet until chapter four in a seven-chapter book; there is a hugely disproportionate time spent on tedious buildup. Not even a hint of sex before marriage here, which is a bummer in a kidnapping sheik story. And then, he's not even Arab, but a Spanish dude filling in for a friend! That little nugget was a great idea, but it's not thrown in until the very end. I was dying when the revulsion she felt at the thought of her betrothed's short, stubby fingers ever touching her was the catalyst for her escape plan. Barbara Cartland made a hand joke.
But chapters 1-4 are all about deciding to jaunt off to Damascus to ask her adventuring older cousin for advice, booking the trip, traveling, and checking into the hotel. OH! Back up a minute. In chapter one, she has a matter-of-fact talk with a young friend who loves her but can never have her because he's not rich and titled. They discuss her racy, multi-married cousin, who is now in her 60s and the spouse of a sheik. She tells him that everyone is just mad that her cousin is still beautiful and sexual at her age, and he is shocked that is even possible.
There's a mishmash of stuff jammed in and then dropped like yesterday's unmarried whore. It never circles back to Daddy for his reaction to all of this. There's a couple of pages where Cartland drops social commentary by shifting to the thus far only gossiped-about cousin - the aging beauty - who lays awake wondering if her sheik is still faithful to her. Then the heroine's sheik cancels the war he planned to start by kidnapping her in the first place—which he does by returning her to the English on the grounds that he's too poor for her now. (Just prior to this, the guy he was filling in for had come of age and returned from college, leaving Spanish Sheik out of a job. No mention of a severance package for his years of service.) They can never be together even though his financial status doesn't matter to her; it matters to him! She is obscenely rich, but no beautiful, sex god of a man would live off his wife.
Back at the English dude's house, (who is the author of the Arabian Nights, which the characters call pornography), someone from Spanish daddy's estate is there looking for him because daddy is dead! He can be rich and Spanish again, and they get married immediately. I appreciate that they get to stay rich. I've seen a lot of romance novels where the hero ends up giving away chunks of wealth at the end when there was no real reason to, and I do not like that.
Current fare can be terrible in similar ways, but it's a lazy, negligent failure, with none of the charm and care of old school train wrecks.
When the father of headstrong young beauty Vita Ashford announces that she is to marry the wealthy and influential Lord Bantham, she is crestfallen for he is middle-aged and dull. More importantly she does not – cannot ever – love him! Using the completion of her education as an excuse, Vita cajoles her father into allowing her to travel to Italy. Little does he know that her real intention is to journey on to Syria to seek the advice and assistance of her beautiful and controversial cousin Jane Digby, Lady Ellenborough, who, after several marriages to wealthy Europeans, followed her heart into the desert to marry a Sheikh and is now Queen of a Bedouin tribe. Failing to find her cousin at home, foolhardy Vita follows her into the desert and a tumultuous adventure, in which she is kidnapped by a vengeful Arab Sheikh. Escaping on a fine Arabian mare, she is helpless under the cruel desert sun until the despised Sheikh comes to save her and, with a savage kiss, she has her own epiphany on the road to Damascus.