Winged Magic

by Barbara Cartland

Aged just sixteen and still at school, Christine Lydford is appalled when she is ordered by her stepmother to leave school to live with the Marquis of Ventnor on his grand estate where he is to oversee her continued education. As if that was not bad enough, the Marquis is a notorious rake and even worse, her lady’s maid lets slip that secretly Christine’s hated stepmother has arranged for her to marry the Marquis. And once Christine is safely married her stepmother will be able to continue her clandestine affaire-de-coeur with him. But little does she know that the Marquis is already becoming bored with her and is looking elsewhere. But Christine is already in love with another. She elopes with her intended to Rome, after persuading her friend, the orphaned beauty, Mina Shaldon, to pass herself off as Christine, just until her friend is married and safe from the Marquis’s clutches. Timid little Mina is terrified, utterly in awe of the dashing sophisticated aristocrat, but she does not realise that he, like the entire household and the birds and animals in the gardens and the woods that are drawn to her as if by some special magic of hers, is smitten. Soon Mina too has lost her heart, although she knows that a Society Nobleman such as he would never dally with a mere orphan such as her if he found out that she was an impostor.

Genres: Romance, Historical Fiction, Fiction

148 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1999

About the author

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

Reviews

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you know Barbara Cartland, you know the drill. Women can't seem to talk without consumptive gasps and pauses in their sentences, and characters are inexplicably, geekily fascinated by whatever the theme of the book is - in this case, it's birds. Also, vibrations and telepathy cause people to make ill conceived life choices.

That said, this is a book about a rake and his barely legal virginal love that I... didn't hate. Y'all know how little patience I have for such things. For once, though, I believed that the characters have some things in common and make sense as a couple. While there was the usual Old Skool Romance slut shaming (the evil slutty stepmother wants to keep her rake by making him marry her stepdaughter, as evil slutty mistresses do), it doesn't rise to the normal levels. Indeed, the characters seem refreshingly unmotivated to bash people who aren't delighted by monogamy. Furthermore, the rake-hero even calls out his own hypocrisy and spends some time wondering why he is the way he is, and why he ends up wanting to be with the heroine. Shocker of shockers, it's not because she's pure/ innocent/ biddable! It's because she wants to have geeky conversations with him and doesn't view him as a sex object. He finds it refreshing to be treated like a human being and wants more of it in his life. They live happily ever after using their huge budget to travel and buy books, and I believe they'll actually be stable once the hormones wear off.

So I find myself in the bizarre position of congratulating Barbara Cartland on some unusually woke writing. No, it isn't 100% woke, but it just goes to show you that there are some surprises lurking about the dated end of the Romance genre.

[MissKitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of her better books, well, maybe just for me.

The heroine has a special talent, she is some kind of bird, and animal whisperer. They all come to her. Ok, yes its a bit unbelievable and out there, but its also a secret fantasy of mine, which is why this book appeals to me 😂

Also the Hero and heroine spend a lot of time together, so they do get to know each other better than some of the other main characters in other books. I also liked that the Hero was very gentle and caring towards the heroine.

So yes ❤️❤️❤️

[Nadia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it up until the moment they started to say one is even better than the other and both are just perfect. It was good to see plot when girl whose place was taken by the heroine wasn't bad at all. Just in love and a really god kind of girl.
Everyone in this book is great. Well, except neighbor - former mistress and stepmother and headmistress, but both of them never really show on the scene only being mentioned.

[Saria · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only reason I bought this book was: a) the lovely illustration on the cover, and b) I needed a rebound book.

I'm almost embarrassed to say I liked it. But then again, I went into this book looking for exactly what I got: a mushy-gushy ridiculous laugh-out-loud 2-hour read that has my eyes rolling uncontrollably from page one to the end. It's a wonder I can still see straight, really.

I grew up reading this genre, people, I'm sentimental and I can never hate on it. But I do admit the stuff I used to read is leagues better.

The Heroine is barely legal - I find myself remembering myself at 18 and laughing even louder at the notion of a 33-year-old rake of all things actually falling head over heels with me LOL - and she can't seem to string a sentence together with... out... senseless... pauses.
He is the sexist Marquis who believes all's fair in love and sex... as long as it's not the one he's going to marry...(?) lool

I don't mean to ruin it for you haha there are some ridiculously cute (is that it?) moments.

So in all, thanks to Barbara Cartland for this fling. I'm out of my reading slump, truly needed this pick-me-up, yet don't think I'll be coming back to her for future flings lol.
Joanna Lindsey or Julie Garwood would be more my jazz lol.

[Kelly]

The fluffiest bit of fluff to ever fluff, with almost no character development or even conflict. But truth be told, I enjoyed it. I'm trying to read more old-school romance (published before 2000 or so, but specifically romance from the 70's and 80's). I found this at John K. King Books in Detroit (you MUST go if you haven't) and bought it based on the cover alone -- a sylph-like Victorian maiden with wild birds all over her, what's not to like? This book was published in 1981, at a time when I believe the author was writing a book a week. (It shows.) Yet you can see why Cartland's books were so immensely popular: They romanticize an era that never was -- one of exquisite gentility and politesse. Beautiful gowns get detailed descriptions, the smallness of the heroine's waist is mentioned several times, finishing school classes were expounded upon like a college course catalog, yet there was very little time spent on developing Mina and the Marquis' romance, and very little warmth between them. They share a few chaste kisses and then we fade to black and something happens, but I can't believe it was sex. Not these two.

[Kimberly Karalius · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be one of my top favorite Cartland’s! I wasn’t expecting it since Tian was a much older, promiscuous rake who I couldn’t imagine feeling much sympathy for the way he’s written about in the beginning. But that’s the point. He’s actually not that bad at all once we actually meet him. In fact, I love that he immediately recognized Mina’s worth and her affinity with animals. Mina was delightful once she went on her adventure at Vent Royal. There was some real magic in how some of the scenes were written (when Mina summons the doves? Come on). All around delightful story of Tian and Mina.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Figured it out…I love cheesy, out-dated, Cartland because all of her stories are basically a re-telling of beauty and the beast.

The Marquis is the beast and mina is the beauty (she even has disney princess animal powers).

[Eliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes birds fly the coop and sometimes they stay. Mina has to decide what she will do? Interesting read.