Some girls can wait a lifetime for one man to fall in love with them, but Selena Norton is so pretty that every man she meets is promptly smitten including those who are attached to others. Angered at gentlemen showering her with flowery compliments and unwanted kisses, Selena longs for someone to see past her beautiful face and appreciate the intelligent, loyal, fun girl inside. Rescued by the chivalrous, but penniless, Earl of Wakefield from the lecherous clutches of yet another unwanted suitor, Lord Tavener, Selena is delighted to finally meet a man who seems to seek only friendship. And it seems that her life is finally about to change for the better when the Earl introduces her to Miss Jerrold, a famous garden designer, who is renovating the gardens at the Earl's country home. Thrilled with the opportunity to indulge her passion for horticulture and finally take control of her own destiny, Selena jumps at the chance to live on the estate and become her assistant. Safe, happy and secretly in love for the first time, Selena cannot believe the joy that the Earl has bought into her life. But fate has a nasty surprise in store for her in the shape of the odious Lord Taverner. Smarting with rejection, he does his best to ruin her newly found happiness, determined to have his way. As danger threatens, putting everything and everyone she cares about at risk, will honesty, resourcefulness and tenacity win out? Or will her nemesis, Lord Tavener finally wreak his revenge?

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.