The Royal Correspondent: A Novel

by Alexandra Joel Narrated by Caroline Lee

Overview

The author of The Paris Model captures the glamour, style, excitement, and romance of a bygone era in this sumptuous novel-set in the Sydney and London of the 1960s-about an up-and-coming young Australian reporter with a deadly secret.*

Breaking into the newspaper business in 1960s Sydney-a competitive world dominated by hard-edged men-isn't easy for a woman. But Blaise Hill is far from ordinary. The only female in The Clarion's newsroom, her long-held dream of being a reporter has come true. Blaise isn't chasing stories just to make a name for herself; she's helping support her family and her beloved sister Ivy, whose life has been transformed by polio.

But the ambitious young journalist's confidence is shaken when she secretly witnesses the murder of a top crime boss-a death that rocks the Sydney underworld. One of the few people who knows what really happened-and what Blaise knows-is the handsome, enigmatic Adam Rule, who helps cover up the murder. When she gets a plum assignment-moving to England to cover the British royal family-Blaise hopes to put it all behind her.*

Carving her own path among the scandal and intrigue of the Swinging Sixties in London, life is just about perfect-until the night she attends Queen Elizabeth's gala in honor of the upcoming nuptials of Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones. Among the exclusive crowd is the last man she ever wanted to see-Adam Rule.*

Is Blaise's dark secret coming back to hurt her-or is this the beginning of something far more dangerous?*

In this mesmerizing novel, Alexandra Joel brings to life the thrilling, colorful world of 1960s Sydney and London, when fashion, music, society, and even the royal family rode the waves of change-and a spirited, ambitious heroine dared to make her way in a man's world.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

07/05/2021

Joel (The Paris Model) serves up an engrossing story about a woman’s determination to succeed as a journalist. In late 1950s Sydney, Australia, Blaise Hill is almost 18 when she gets a job at the Clarion newspaper as a copy girl. After witnessing her friend Joe Blackett stab and accidentally kill a man in self-defense, she meets a mysterious wealthy Englishman named Adam Rule who claims to be a friend of Joe’s family and takes the knife off her hands. As Blaise climbs the ladder at the Clarion, she meets Adam again, who helps her out by offering her news tips. Blaise’s career continues its upward trajectory, and she is assigned to cover the wedding of Princess Margaret in London, where, once again, she runs into Adam. Despite being warned away from him by Charlie Ashton, a rising-star politician, she can’t deny her attraction to Adam, which is complicated by Charlie’s romantic pursuit. Joel does an expert job at portraying Blaise’s fortitude in her quest to achieve journalistic success in an era when women were often forced to choose between marriage and career. This will keep readers turning the pages. (Sept.)

From the Publisher

"Joel serves up an engrossing story about a woman’s determination to succeed as a journalist. This will keep readers turning the pages." — Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

08/13/2021

Blaise Hill, a plucky and determined young woman living in a rough Sydney suburb in the late 1950s, wants to be a newspaper journalist. The industry is male-dominated, but she convinces an editor to let her be a "copy boy." She works hard, is offered an assignment covering Princess Margaret's 1960 wedding in London, and becomes a permanent royal correspondent there. Blaise misses her family and isn't thrilled to be writing about the royal family and fashion, so she keeps her eyes and ears open for a scoop that might move her writing from the women's pages to the front page. In the meantime, she has two romantic suitors—Adam, a bad boy she met in Sydney who knows the dangerous secret she keeps, and Charlie, a good boy who works in government in London. Joel's second novel (after The Paris Model) is an entertaining but slightly too long period piece that adeptly blends real and fictitious events. Joel clearly did her research, and her author's note at the end of the book is a fascinating read. VERDICT For readers who enjoy feisty heroines, fashion history, and the British royal family. —Samantha Gust, Niagara Univ. Lib., NY

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176192414
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	09/07/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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