Raised by her aunt and uncle, the sanctimonious Duke and Duchess of Berkhamsted, the golden-haired and beautiful Alida Shenley lives in the shadow of the'shame' that her late and much-loved father brought upon the family by marrying for love and because her mother was a ballerina.Being on the stage was tantamount to prostitution in Alida's Guardians' eyes and they inflict terrible punishments and humiliation upon her for what they see as her parent's appalling sins.Even worse than her uncle's savage whippings is the fact that he forbids her ever to marry as the carries the'bad blood' of her mother.But hope eventually stirs in her heart when she is asked to accompany her cousin Mary on a voyage to Russia to meet the handsome young Prince Vorontski, whom Mary is to marry even though she flirts outrageously with the sinister Count Ivan, who is on the Steamer escorting them to St. Petersburg.In Russia Alida's dreams of happiness are dashed as she falls hopelessly in love with Prince.Worse still she finds that Mary has conspired with Count Ivan for her to marry his father, a Russian General as despicable and brutal as her uncle.But just as she despairs of ever finding love with the Prince, Fate intervenes amid a life or death confrontation with a murderous pack of wolves in the Russian snow and her life is changed forever.

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.