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Love and Lucia
Even amid the genteel grandeur of Venice, the Marquis of Wynchcombe’s ennui is undiminished. His fiery mistress Francesca, a beautiful and flamboyant Venetian actress, bores him almost as much as the company of the Beau Monde and royal acolyte with whom he associates.
So when an impoverished but delicately alluring young Englishwoman – Lucia – accosts him at a café and beseeches him to peruse the painting of her dying father, he is intrigued – more so when he realises that Lucia’s father is a genius... But then he dies.
Lucia is distraught and destitute but the Marquis saves her from penury by buying her father’s every painting, promising to take her home to England. Enraged by her beau’s apparent infatuation with the young ingénue, Francesca stabs him with a stiletto... But it’s Lucia who has truly pierced his heart and stolen his soul – and just as the Marquis thinks she will be his forever, she delivers the heartbreaking words: ‘Although I love you with all my heart I cannot be your wife...’
The Barbara Cartland Eternal Collection is the unique opportunity to collect as ebooks all five hundred of the timeless beautiful romantic novels written by the world’s most celebrated and enduring romantic author.
Named the Eternal Collection because Barbara’s inspiring stories of pure love are just the same as love itself, the books will be published on the Internet at the rate of four titles per month until all five hundred are available.
The Eternal Collection , classic pure romance available worldwide for all time .
So when an impoverished but delicately alluring young Englishwoman – Lucia – accosts him at a café and beseeches him to peruse the painting of her dying father, he is intrigued – more so when he realises that Lucia’s father is a genius... But then he dies.
Lucia is distraught and destitute but the Marquis saves her from penury by buying her father’s every painting, promising to take her home to England. Enraged by her beau’s apparent infatuation with the young ingénue, Francesca stabs him with a stiletto... But it’s Lucia who has truly pierced his heart and stolen his soul – and just as the Marquis thinks she will be his forever, she delivers the heartbreaking words: ‘Although I love you with all my heart I cannot be your wife...’
The Barbara Cartland Eternal Collection is the unique opportunity to collect as ebooks all five hundred of the timeless beautiful romantic novels written by the world’s most celebrated and enduring romantic author.
Named the Eternal Collection because Barbara’s inspiring stories of pure love are just the same as love itself, the books will be published on the Internet at the rate of four titles per month until all five hundred are available.
The Eternal Collection , classic pure romance available worldwide for all time .
214 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 27, 2012
4 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Cartland
1,054 books845 followersBorn 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 16, 2019
Another stinker by Babs. This one is so bad.
We have a cowering young woman who can't finish a sentence without pausing to let her brain process...all...the...thoughts...and feelings! We have a bossy man who swoops in with insta-love and promises to save the day. She loses her father, conveniently to move that plot along, leaving pretty Lucia all alone in Italy. No worries, her white knight brings her home to England and a ridiculous happily ever after that is so dumb I can barely stand it.
No stars are awarded, as we are all dumber for having read this. A new low.
We have a cowering young woman who can't finish a sentence without pausing to let her brain process...all...the...thoughts...and feelings! We have a bossy man who swoops in with insta-love and promises to save the day. She loses her father, conveniently to move that plot along, leaving pretty Lucia all alone in Italy. No worries, her white knight brings her home to England and a ridiculous happily ever after that is so dumb I can barely stand it.
No stars are awarded, as we are all dumber for having read this. A new low.
January 6, 2023
Давно хотіла познайомитися з творчістю королеви любовного роману Барбари Картленд. Роман "Любов і Лусія" авторка написала під враженнями подорожі до чарівної Венеції. Вона обіцяє читачеві незабутню мандрівку цим казковим містом і мистецьким світом, що мене, власне кажучи, і спокусило.
⠀
Втім, книга сподівань не виправдала. Занадто банальна. Занадто солодка. Занадто прісна. Багатообіцяючий початок вилився у суцільні "ахи-охи" і заламування рук. Є лише двоє героїв, решта - сіра маса, що служить виключно фоном.
⠀
Єдиний плюс цієї книги - вона читається за декілька годин. Але так само швидко і забувається)
⠀
Втім, книга сподівань не виправдала. Занадто банальна. Занадто солодка. Занадто прісна. Багатообіцяючий початок вилився у суцільні "ахи-охи" і заламування рук. Є лише двоє героїв, решта - сіра маса, що служить виключно фоном.
⠀
Єдиний плюс цієї книги - вона читається за декілька годин. Але так само швидко і забувається)
April 23, 2023
The Marquis Giles suffers from boredom—which is why he traveled to Venice, to shake up his life and get him out of his cynical funk. But Venice itself proves to be just as boring as anywhere else in the world. Not even having a Venetian opera singer Francesca as his mistress helps. When he goes for a morning coffee run and is approached by a drab beggar girl named Lucia, Giles expects the worst. But it turns out that she’s not just any girl. She’s got an honesty and desperation to her that calls to him as she explains that her father hasn’t sold his paintings so she and her dad are starving. Can he please look at the paintings and potentially purchase them? Giles goes with her and is stuck by how incredible but sadly ahead of his time her father is. The paintings capture the light in Venice rather than touristy landscapes—he’s sick from malnutrition but things look up for them when Giles agrees to buy all the paintings and essentially play patron. However, just as Giles collects the paintings, Lucia’s dad dies in his sleep! Lucia is alone in the world. Against his better judgement, Giles offers to bring her back to England with him. Francesca finds out about Lucia and flies into a jealous rage. She tries to stab Giles in the heart but Lucia throws hot tea in her face, so the stiletto only cuts into Giles’s shoulder instead. Somehow, Francesca isn’t punished for this, but at least Giles and Lucia hustle to get to his yacht to leave Venice.
They fall in love, Giles wants to make her his mistress, she refuses, and then Giles realizes what am idiot he is and offers her marriage. Lucia refuses due to a family secret: apparently her mother had been a princess of Valenstein, but ran away from her betrothed when she fell in love with the younger brother instead (Lucia’s father). They had faked their deaths, and Lucia had therefore had to hide her real heritage for fear of her parents’s deception coming to light. I couldn’t follow exactly how Giles bent the story so that nothing bad happens to Lucia and she can still marry the Marquis. But that’s how it goes. No issues. They go to his villa in Nice, decorated with seashells, and we get that happy ending.
Would have rated this one higher but I wasn’t a fan of how these characters hated and even feared Venice and it’s people. Kind of weird when it’s a place almost people would love to travel to, even today. Also, at one point Giles considered forcing Lucia to marry him by compromising her, which is a big noooo and actually pretty strange for even a Cartland hero to think, even in passing. Ew.
They fall in love, Giles wants to make her his mistress, she refuses, and then Giles realizes what am idiot he is and offers her marriage. Lucia refuses due to a family secret: apparently her mother had been a princess of Valenstein, but ran away from her betrothed when she fell in love with the younger brother instead (Lucia’s father). They had faked their deaths, and Lucia had therefore had to hide her real heritage for fear of her parents’s deception coming to light. I couldn’t follow exactly how Giles bent the story so that nothing bad happens to Lucia and she can still marry the Marquis. But that’s how it goes. No issues. They go to his villa in Nice, decorated with seashells, and we get that happy ending.
Would have rated this one higher but I wasn’t a fan of how these characters hated and even feared Venice and it’s people. Kind of weird when it’s a place almost people would love to travel to, even today. Also, at one point Giles considered forcing Lucia to marry him by compromising her, which is a big noooo and actually pretty strange for even a Cartland hero to think, even in passing. Ew.
October 30, 2023
Blurb from the back of the book says it all...
The Marquis of Wynchcombe’s ennui is undiminished. His fiery mistress Francesca, a beautiful and flamboyant Venetian actress, bores him almost as much as the company of the Beau Monde and royal acolyte with whom he associates.
So when an impoverished but delicately alluring young Englishwoman – Lucia – accosts him at a café and beseeches him to peruse the painting of her dying father, he is intrigued – more so when he realises that Lucia’s father is a genius... But then he dies.
Lucia is distraught and destitute but the Marquis saves her from penury by buying her father’s every painting, promising to take her home to England. Enraged by her beau’s apparent infatuation with the young ingénue, Francesca stabs him with a stiletto... But it’s Lucia who has truly pierced his heart and stolen his soul – and just as the Marquis thinks she will be his forever, she delivers the heartbreaking words: ‘Although I love you with all my heart I cannot be your wife...’
So yes, that's practically the whole story with more details.
After the hysterical mistress tries to stab the Hero, he breaks with her and decides to leave immediately for England, taking the heroine with him on his yacht. Where they get to know each other and fall in love. The Hero at first offers the heroine a mistress position but when she runs away from him he has a change of heart. After sobbing all night in her room, the heroine also reconsiders and is now willing to be a mistress.
The Hero argues with her because he now is desperate to marry her, but she refuses since she has no 'identity'. Throughout the book, there has been a bit of mystery concerning the heroine's background. AS it turns out, her father is the 3rd son of a Duke. The Duke was already in his 50's with grown sons, when he visited his friend who was the ruler of a small principality. The ruler betrothed his 18yr old daughter to the 50yr old Duke. When the Princess arrived in England she falls in love with the 3rd son of the Duke. They run away together, but made it seem as if they died, so no one looked for them.
The heroine and her parents have been living in assumed identities all this time. But the Hero solves the problem by saying since she is really the Princess of a small principality, which no longer exists since Napoleon ran it over, then he will just introduce his wife as a Princess from that Principality. So problem solved.
They get married and live another lie for the lifetime of the heroine 🤦🏻♀️😁 Good job Dame Cartland!!!
The Marquis of Wynchcombe’s ennui is undiminished. His fiery mistress Francesca, a beautiful and flamboyant Venetian actress, bores him almost as much as the company of the Beau Monde and royal acolyte with whom he associates.
So when an impoverished but delicately alluring young Englishwoman – Lucia – accosts him at a café and beseeches him to peruse the painting of her dying father, he is intrigued – more so when he realises that Lucia’s father is a genius... But then he dies.
Lucia is distraught and destitute but the Marquis saves her from penury by buying her father’s every painting, promising to take her home to England. Enraged by her beau’s apparent infatuation with the young ingénue, Francesca stabs him with a stiletto... But it’s Lucia who has truly pierced his heart and stolen his soul – and just as the Marquis thinks she will be his forever, she delivers the heartbreaking words: ‘Although I love you with all my heart I cannot be your wife...’
So yes, that's practically the whole story with more details.
After the hysterical mistress tries to stab the Hero, he breaks with her and decides to leave immediately for England, taking the heroine with him on his yacht. Where they get to know each other and fall in love. The Hero at first offers the heroine a mistress position but when she runs away from him he has a change of heart. After sobbing all night in her room, the heroine also reconsiders and is now willing to be a mistress.
The Hero argues with her because he now is desperate to marry her, but she refuses since she has no 'identity'. Throughout the book, there has been a bit of mystery concerning the heroine's background. AS it turns out, her father is the 3rd son of a Duke. The Duke was already in his 50's with grown sons, when he visited his friend who was the ruler of a small principality. The ruler betrothed his 18yr old daughter to the 50yr old Duke. When the Princess arrived in England she falls in love with the 3rd son of the Duke. They run away together, but made it seem as if they died, so no one looked for them.
The heroine and her parents have been living in assumed identities all this time. But the Hero solves the problem by saying since she is really the Princess of a small principality, which no longer exists since Napoleon ran it over, then he will just introduce his wife as a Princess from that Principality. So problem solved.
They get married and live another lie for the lifetime of the heroine 🤦🏻♀️😁 Good job Dame Cartland!!!
August 28, 2017
I own this one a full review since I have no personal copy of this book....
April 8, 2023
Even amid the genteel grandeur of Venice, the Marquis of Wynchcombe’s ennui is undiminished. His fiery mistress Francesca, a beautiful and flamboyant Venetian actress, bores him almost as much as the company of the Beau Monde and royal acolyte with whom he associates.
So when an impoverished but delicately alluring young Englishwoman – Lucia – accosts him at a café and beseeches him to peruse the painting of her dying father, he is intrigued – more so when he realises that Lucia’s father is a genius... But then he dies.
Lucia is distraught and destitute but the Marquis saves her from penury by buying her father’s every painting, promising to take her home to England. Enraged by her beau’s apparent infatuation with the young ingénue, Francesca stabs him with a stiletto... But it’s Lucia who has truly pierced his heart and stolen his soul – and just as the Marquis thinks she will be his forever, she delivers the heartbreaking words: ‘Although I love you with all my heart I cannot be your wife...’
The Barbara Cartland Eternal Collection is the unique opportunity to collect as ebooks all five hundred of the timeless beautiful romantic novels written by the world’s most celebrated and enduring romantic author.
Named the Eternal Collection because Barbara’s inspiring stories of pure love are just the same as love itself, the books will be published on the Internet at the rate of four titles per month until all five hundred are available.
The Eternal Collection , classic pure romance available worldwide for all time .
So when an impoverished but delicately alluring young Englishwoman – Lucia – accosts him at a café and beseeches him to peruse the painting of her dying father, he is intrigued – more so when he realises that Lucia’s father is a genius... But then he dies.
Lucia is distraught and destitute but the Marquis saves her from penury by buying her father’s every painting, promising to take her home to England. Enraged by her beau’s apparent infatuation with the young ingénue, Francesca stabs him with a stiletto... But it’s Lucia who has truly pierced his heart and stolen his soul – and just as the Marquis thinks she will be his forever, she delivers the heartbreaking words: ‘Although I love you with all my heart I cannot be your wife...’
The Barbara Cartland Eternal Collection is the unique opportunity to collect as ebooks all five hundred of the timeless beautiful romantic novels written by the world’s most celebrated and enduring romantic author.
Named the Eternal Collection because Barbara’s inspiring stories of pure love are just the same as love itself, the books will be published on the Internet at the rate of four titles per month until all five hundred are available.
The Eternal Collection , classic pure romance available worldwide for all time .
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews