Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. When a reporter takes their beat and

turns it into fiction, something interesting happens. You get to see what really excites them

in their reporting when they have the freedom to do away with, you know, some of the more

boring or drier aspects of a true story. Rebecca Armitage has spent some time reporting on the British Royal Family for the Australian

Broadcasting Corporation.

And her novel, The Air Apparent, is about a woman who finds yourself, well, the heir

apparent of British royalty.

And in this interview with NPR's Miles Parks, you can hear Armidage poking at really

existential questions about

the royal family. What are they really for? What purpose do they hold? And do we need them?

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Okay, I want to level with you here. I am not really a Royals person. I've watched maybe a

half season of the Crown. I barely know who Megan Markle is, but I do love a good love story. And while the

book we're about to talk about is technically a novel about English royalty, it's also about a

question that comes up no matter who you are. What would you give up for love? Your job? The place you

live? How about the chance to be the Queen of England? It's this tension that's at the heart of the new novel, The Air Apparent.

The heroine is Lexi Villiers.

...