The royal correspondent

Blaise Hill yearns to be a successful journalist who covers more than just women's fashion--she wants to be the one to cover the front-page stories. But for a woman in the 1960s, this isn't easy to achieve, not in Sydney, Australia, nor in London, where she eventually gets assigned to cover the royal family. Besides having to deal with the male-dominated newsroom, she has family concerns, like the effects of polio on her beloved sister. This new assignment is a boon for her career and will help the family financially, but the dark cloud of having been a witness to the murder of a crime boss in Sydney hangs over her. The one person who knows and helps to cover it all up is the handsome, mysterious Adam Rule. While in London, she meets him again and starts a brief romance, which she ends after learning of his past. Engaging characters and a well-paced story line brimming with social history, romance, and mystery will captivate readers across genres. A good read-alike for The Inheritance (2021), by JoAnn Ross, or An Observant Wife (2021), by Naomi Ragen.

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.)