title: Contessa
author: Mansfield, Helene
description: DEBUTANTE
  
  Valentina's debut into glittering Parisian society was everything she dreamed it would be.  She flirted with the handsome Prince of Wales, drank champagne until she was dizzy with desire and danced until dawn glowed rosy pink over the breathtaking Eiffel Tower.  All of Paris was hers and the future looked perfect - but fate had other plans...
  
  With the sudden news of her family's great fortune having been gambled away, Valentina was sent from her beloved France to Imperial Russia to marry a man whe had never met, but whose reputation far exceeded his enormous wealth.  Lonely, frightened, yet determined to shape her own destiny, the strong-willed young beauty became a sophisticated woman of elegance - a woman who risked her life for secret nights of passion, who persevered throught the madness of the Russion Revolution, who overcame the devastation of Work War II - and forever dazzled the world as the magnificent Contessa.