This book was ok but I was hoping for something a little more riveting. I started and stopped it multiple times with no connection to the story. Great concept and cover!

Blaise Hill might be a girl from the poor Sydney suburbs, but she has big dreams, and she wants to be a newspaper journalist. In the late 1950’s, the women journalists working at The Clarion, write articles for the women’s pages and Blaise wants to be an investigative reporter.

Dressed in her op shop clothes, Blaise is employed as copy boy at The Clarion, she’s the butt of many jokes in the male dominated workforce and is sent off to find mystery objects! Blaise works hard, she earns a cadet ship and then she's transferred to the dreaded fifth floor. At first Blaise isn’t very impressed by being moved to the women’s pages, she really underestimates the importance of wearing the right clothes, having a sound knowledge of fashion, and the opportunities it brings.

Blaise is sent to London, to write and send articles back to Australia about Princess Margaret’s wedding to a commoner Antony Armstrong Jones, held on the 6th of May 1960, and it was the first royal wedding to be televised and London hotels were booked out. With her Australian press pass, Blaise attends Buckingham Place and Westminster Abbey, and she can’t believe how lucky she is. But, espionage is rife in England's capital, politicians could be involved, and soviet spies. Blaise is drawn into the sinister side of London, not knowing who she can really trust, it’s a dangerous place and she’s extremely concerned.

Inspired by real events, Alexandra Joel used her newspaper journalist father’s stories and experiences and considered what it would have been like for a woman working in the same field during the 1950’s and early 1960’s? The Royal Correspondent is the amazing result, the story highlights the discrimination women faced in the workforce at the time, they were paid less and had to stop working when they married. The 1960's was a time of major change, fashion, dancing, music and morals. Shout by Johnny O'Keefe is a classic Australian song from the era, I loved how it was included in the narrative and all the residents of Fotheringham Street dancing to it's beat and Blaise is a character that you will never forget.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers Australia in exchange for an honest review, every page was perfect, and five big stars from me.

This is an enjoyable novel set in the late 50s and early 60s. Blaise Hill is a working class girl from inner city Sydney and she wants to be a reporter. She goes to work at the Clarion and I really enjoyed these scenes of the young woman in the very male working environment. Sent to London on assignment to report on Princess Margarets wedding, she ends up getting to be the royal correspondent on a Fleet Street paper. There’s a lot more to the story as Blaise finds herself in the middle of a spy scandal and other current events, there’s quite a bit of name dropping that set the scene very well. There’s also of course, the love interest, Adam Rule, a man with his own secrets. I found this book a load of fun but I’m sure people more into fashion and the royal family (viewers of The Crown perhaps) will like it even more.

This is another book which is hard to put down! Blaise comes from the wrong side of the tracks in 1950s Sydney, and finds herself involved in a nasty gangland killing which could ruin her hard-fought career as a journalist. Luckily, she is saved by a mysterious, handsome man - a very powerful man, she finds out. Blaise is condescended to and put down as a woman journalist, but working on the Women's Pages leads her to get a job in London covering Princess Margaret's wedding.

Here, she meets another handsome man, an aristocratic MP, who takes a great interest in her, and she also meets Adam again. As Blaise struggles with getting ahead, mistreatment at work, and learning the social graces required of her in England, she finds herself choosing between two men, and having to make the most courageous decision of her life...

This book is similar to a modern-day Pride and Prejudice set in changing and revolutionary times. The likeable heroine, suitably evil villain, and historical details about working in journalism, royalty, scandal and fashion make it an extremely enjoyable book. I am going to read Alexandra Joel's other novel.
I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

When I first saw this book I thought it sounded interesting and thought it would be a book I might like. But I must say I was wrong.

Although the story and the subject was quite interesting I found it so long-winded and over-descriptive which really took away from the story itself. It just went on and on and took some time for the story to really get moving.

I hate to say it but it bored me to the point that I skipped through a lot of it.

From Fleet St to Buckingham Palace. The Royal Correspondent is a refreshing take on a familiar trope, (scandalous goings on in the swinging 60s London of Princess Margaret and Tony Armstrong Jones) and a certain winner for fans of Netflix's The Crown TV series. Blaise Hill is a feisty young journalist from one of Sydney's toughest neighbourhoods, who against all odds finds herself working in gritty daily press newsrooms covering the Royal Family. Hazed by disgruntled male colleagues, her affections torn between two very different men, and drawn ever deeper in scandal and espionage, Blaise battles to remain true to her grassroots integrity in a fickle world of glamor and betrayal. Inspired by real events, Alexandra Joel's story has its roots in her own fascinating family history. A fast-paced, entertaining page turner that resonates even today with the on-going 'Harry and Meghan' debate." Alexandra talks about the book on The Joys of Binge Reading podcast.