Barbara Cartland needs no introduction. She wrote tons of cheesy romances, and every once in a while, I'll break one out and read it. I also don't look into what the book is about. It's more fun that way. Also, sometimes I like the covers. They can be pretty strange. Take this one for example. What the heck is this woman doing? I've finished the book, and I still can't answer that question!
This book is about a Marquis who believes he's being bewitched by a woman named Locadi. His butler finds a rock in one of his pockets, and since the Marquis has travelled the world, he's suspicious that Locadi is using black magic. To escape her power, he decides to go to his family home in the country.
When he gets there, he finds that his estate in a state he can't understand. The servants are gone, the vicar has left, and the school has shut down. He finds a young woman helping his grandmother with herbs, and he senses that he hasn't quite escaped all kinds of magic.
Flora is just trying to help people the only way she knows how. She's suspicious of the Marquis at first, but he quickly proves himself in her estimation. When Locadi turns up out of the blue, it becomes clear that she's not going to give up her prey easily.
This book was wild. Flora senses that Ivor (interesting name by the way) is being weighed down by an evil and sets out to help him. I don't know why Barbara Cartland used Satan worship in her books, but this book reminded me of The Flame is Love. If you've never seen it (and you probably haven't), it's a terrible movie that stars Timothy Dalton as not James Bond. He's a devil worshipper who kidnaps a virgin (even though those a rare in Paris - it's a line in the movie) to sacrifice to his weird puppet god. Basically the same thing happens here, except Flora will get sacrificed out of jealousy. I wonder if that's a good enough reason for sacrifice?
Anyway, the whole good magic/bad magic thing was weird. I really didn't care about it either way. I did like that Flora and Ivor weren't doing the whole "look into each other's eyes and swoon" the entire book. They were just working together toward a common goal and only acknowledged feelings later on. I guess they made up for it at the end when they were mumbling about their love for too many pages. Overall, this one was pretty good in the Cartland universe. I haven't read the book for The Flame is Love, but it kind of feels like I've had the experience now. Good Book! (for a certain crowd)
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