It’s 1953 and Miranda is a young American widow looking for a way to keep her newspaper reporting job by going undercover in the castle preparations for The Queen’s Coronation.
Small-town Lucy is trying to escape her doomed life and become a famous singer in the city of London.
Caroline is living a life which feels forced upon her but she sees no other way to move forward. She had found herself pregnant after her boyfriend went to war and never corresponded with her. She is married to a man who was willing to say the baby was his so that her daughter wouldn’t be ridiculed. But he’s a cruel loser.
All three young women are working in Buckingham Palace as Princess Elizabeth is readying to become the Queen. None of them are in great situations. Some of them unknowingly make things worse for themselves. They are all desperate to prove themselves and to improve their lives.
The were all were in denial about their realistic prospects at the beginning of the story. They fell prey to their own bad decisions, their naïveté, and, sometimes, the ill will of others. It was often painful for me to read about them. Their stories were sad. They lacked the right sort of support and were living in a time when women were treated like property of power-hungry men. It was infuriating. Thankfully, there was one older woman with whom Miranda, Lucy, and Caroline were all close and she was able to provide an overarching level of moral support once the three women finally got fed up enough to take a proactive stance in their lives’ destinies. The ending was happy, of course, as all Jennifer Ryan novels are. This one definitely had a message to deliver and the three main characters were each given a platform to monologue a bit about their newfound girl power at the end. Ryan’s agenda was a bit heavy-handed but, of course, I’m in agreement with it.
I’ve read four other novels by Ryan so I knew that the characters’ situations would all eventually improve. The women in her novels all face and overcome hurdles. Sadly, I didn’t really care about these three women as much as I normally care about Ryan’s characters. Typically, I find her characters delightful. However, it took me a while to warm up to these three. This isn’t my favorite novel by Ryan. But it was particularly fun to get a view inside the palace and of the young Queen Elizabeth at the time of her coronation. Ryan always introduces me to some facet of British history about which I previously knew nothing.
I’d like to thank Ryan, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for giving me early access to this novel. The Queen’s Coronation will be released on June 2, 2026.
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