Sweet Adventure is set during the 1700's. Ventura is sent by her dying mother to Madrid and she disguises herself as a page and gets hired by Lord Lynke, who travels towards an arranged marriage with a rich Spanish lady! Ventura fools Lord Lynke until secrets are revealed and they fall in love. Cartland wrote a few Georgian set plots and they are great stories!
Francis Marshall illustrates two different covers for this book. The Pyramid (US) cover has our couple in regency dress and our heroine dressed as a girl. While it is very well done, it could have been used for any of Cartland's regency novels.
The Arrow (UK) cover is more accurate in description. Our heroine is dressed as a boy page and our hero and others in the fashion of the mid 1700's. They stand in a courtyard and the hero prepares to defend himself. Note the menacing figure on the left and the beautiful lady on the right. I like this cover better since it fits the plot of the story.
As much as I love Barbara Cartland, I must confess that I am a Francis Marshall fan. I only read Cartland books that have his illustrations on the cover. To me, his illustrations capture Cartland's world and words. No one can draw wide eyed innocent maidens and rakish men FM. I have managed to collect all the Bantam books which I preferred most because it shows FM's entire cover :-) oh and thank you for making this site. It's a joy to read.
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