A Battle Of Brains

Daughter of the Earl of Longwood, a gentleman gambler, and the Countess of Longwood, a society beauty, Lady Yolanda Wood has an exciting if unconventional childhood travelling around the casinos and racecourses of Europe. But life changes dramatically after the tragic death of her father, and she and her ravishing mother are left penniless and alone. In mourning for her husband, and dependent on the kindness of self-made millionaire Oliver Garrack, the Countess's gratitude swiftly turns to romance and Yolanda finds herself with a stepfather she neither likes nor respects. For several years Yolanda finds solace in her French Convent School but her world is rocked again when her mother suddenly dies, leaving her an orphan with only her stepfather to protect her from poverty and destitution. As fate forces them together, Yolanda begins to understand how much her stepfather worshipped her mother, and gains an insight into the workings of his clever brain. As her feelings change from acceptance to admiration she is shocked to find that he will stop at nothing to make money.Torn between helping him gain a contract that is certain to make him even more millions, and repaying an old debt to a friend of her fathers, Lord Milborne, Yolanda is plunged into the darker side of business. But when she secretly visits Lord Milborne she finds he is not in the least what she expected, and her loyalties are tested to the limits. Torn between who to trust and a desire to find true love, Yolanda faces difficult choices and challenges that she could never have dreamt of along the way to true happiness.

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.