The Other Windsor Girl: A Novel of Princess Margaret, Royal Rebel

DEBUT After Vera Strathmore’s fiancé is killed during World War II, she becomes a romance author and dreams of living in New York, until she is drawn into the glamorous world of Britain’s Princess Margaret. Vera becomes a lady-in-waiting to the wild and beautiful royal and has a front-row seat to Margaret’s love affair with the married Peter Townsend. Under pressure from Winston Churchill and the British cabinet, newly crowned Queen Elizabeth withholds her consent, which is required for royal marriages. Margaret chooses to keep her rights to the throne and breaks with Townsend, and her partying and scandalous behavior spiral out of control. Meanwhile, Vera must decide whether to stay in service to the Crown, a 24/7 position, or move to America to marry a doctor and continue her career as an author. Ending shortly after Margaret marries photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1960, Blalock’s entertaining debut presents a cast of well-developed and compelling characters, and readers will feel compassion for both women, especially Margaret, who is trapped in her royal role.