The Royal Correspondent

A Novel

By: Alexandra Joel

Narrated by: Caroline Lee

Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

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 '60s 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.

©2021 Alexandra Joel (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Story engaging. Narrator not so much.

While the basics of story were not particularly original, the accurate historical events woven into the setting were very interesting made the story believable or colorful to me. I did think the character of Blaise did not add up. She had zero experience and just two years college or post high school training and decided she wanted to write stories for a newspaper. A little clueless. And her determination to move up, making remarks like Why can’t women write the hard news, I don’t want to write stories for the womens section. sounded like bits of rhetoric from decades after the timeframe of this setting. It didn’t help that the oral narrator’s voice went up a few degrees at the end of Blaise’s dialogue. It made her sound like a naive and whiney child. The narrator also opted to use a voice of a snooty dowager from, say, 1902, (dahhhhling) for Charlie, a 30 year old man trying to get in Blaise’s pants. I was engaged in this story. But the oral narration grated on my nerves.

Determined to make her way in a male dominated industry

Great period piece!

Great period novel, well researched and very entertaining! I listen to everything narrated by Caroline Lee, her voice is my favorite!

Wonderful listen!

I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this. Blaze’s progression from her roots to a career in a challenging era was a lovely adventure. The performance was very good in my opinion. Thank you for allowing to get lost in the story!

Nothing new @ Royal drama!!!

This was fantastic! Loved the atory- sprinkled with true wvents.
Queen Eliz II, King Charles, Royal historians have dealt with WORSE nonsense over the past 60 years. than the two in Montecito.
The Palace folk, MI5 know how to deal with trouble.
I really enjoyed the story. Loved the characters, the girls, families & newspaper family.
I'll be downloading all of Alexandra Joel's books over the next month. Bravo