Christmas At The Palace in on tour of some awesome book blogs this week.
It’s already been to:
A Cat, A Book and a cup of tea who gave it 4 cats!
and Jera’s Jamboree
You can click on the links to read the reviews. (I’ve read them both – over and over… )
Tune in for the rest of the tour.
Did I mention that Christmas At The Palace is available in ebook, paperback AND Audio now? Did I? Oh, okay. As you were.
Christmas At The Palace is out in paperback! If you see it a shop (Hopefully, you’ll spot it in Asda…) please take a photo! I’d love to see the book out in the wild.
In case you were wondering what it’s about (it’s not like I’ve been going on about it for months, right?) -A British- SriLankan doctor falls in love with a Prince, which is brilliant, until she realises that she has to give up the job that she loves. Oh, and everyone isn’t keen on someone non-white joining the royal family. The book follows their romance (which first came out as A Royal Wedding), up to their first Christmas as Sandringham.
It’s the first book that has come out under my real name – and it’s SO STRANGE seeing my actual name on a book cover.
I shall head out in a minute to go buy the traditional book release day treat of a pot of ice cream and some Lego.
I’m so excited!
[If you bought A Royal Wedding in ebook and are having trouble updating it to get Christmas At The Palace – I know there are some issues. The publisher (Bonnier) are working on it!]
It’s release day for A Royal Wedding, written by my alter ego Jeevani Charika. It’s available on all ebook platforms now.
Here are five things I’ve tried to explore in the book:
Feminist princesses – is this possible? Given that we’ve had some many powerful Queens, we know that the royal family tends towards powerful women, so why not have powerful women who want to work make life better for other women? My heroine, Kumari is campaigning for a project that educates women in basic health and hygiene. The hero, Prince Benedict was raised by three strong women (his mother and two sisters). They are both feminists in their own ways.
The press fascination with race and with royalty. The tabloid press coverage of Meghan Markle was borderline racist (sometimes not even borderline – just outright racist). Each chapter in the book starts with a newspaper clipping. There’s a lot about race in there…
Family – Kumari’s greatest conflict and her strongest support comes from her family. Benedict’s family has always got his back. The people we love bind us and support us in equal measure.
The North/South divide and the class divide – this is a very British thing. Kumari is a middle class woman from Leeds. Benedict is an aristocrat from the South. At one point someone suggests that Kumari takes elocution lessons to soften her Yorkshire accent. You can imagine what she says to that!
The importance of inspiring role models – one of my favourite scenes is the one where Kumari realises that she’s become a figure that inspires little girls across the country. It was one of the first scenes I knew was going to be in the book. You’ll know it when you see it. A blue sari makes an appearance.
If you fancy all of that, wrapped in a happy ever after, go check out A Royal Wedding. It’s the first time I’ve written about race/ ethnicity in a romance (and, not-coincidentally, written under my real name). If you like the book, let me know!
Rhoda Baxter 