Image credit: Stef King

TUESDAY 7TH MARCH 2023 Perth bestselling author, Natasha Lester has WON the Historical Romantic Novel Award with her novel, The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre, for the UK-based Romantic Novelists’ Association’s (RNA) annual Romantic Novel Awards for 2023. The awards celebrate excellence in romantic fiction in all its forms.

Natasha worked as a marketing executive for L’Oreal before penning the New York Times and internationally bestselling novel The French Photographer. She is also the author of the USA Today bestseller The Paris Seamstress. Her latest book is The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre. When she’s not writing, she loves collecting vintage fashion, travelling, reading, practicing yoga and spending time with her three children. Natasha lives in Perth, Western Australia.

She commented, ‘When I was first published in Australia in 2010, I never imagined that people on the other side of the world would read my books. And I certainly never imagined I’d win an award for them on the other side of the world too – and for the second time! Writing a book is such an act of faith and belief and it’s taught me that sometimes the things that seem impossible do actually happen – that fiction is almost as real as life itself. I’m utterly thrilled and can’t wait to see the award sitting on my desk. A big thank you to the team at Sphere, who’ve been my incredible publisher for years, to everyone at the Romantic Novelists’ Association, to all the other shortlisted authors, to everyone who keeps making my dreams come true, and most especially to my readers, a big, heartfelt thank you all the way from the other side of the world.’

Jean Fullerton, the RNA Chair, commented, ‘Once again the judges have had the almost impossible task of choosing winners for each of our romantic awards categories. Huge congratulations to our worthy winners.’

Sharon Ibbotson, the RNA Awards Coordinator, said, ‘Our Romantic Novel Awards in 2023 had nearly five hundred entries, which were whittled down to nine very worthy winners by our amazing reader-judges. Along with the winner of the Popular Romantic Fiction Award, their stories made people laugh, smile, weep and above all, fall in love. I am delighted to congratulate them for their success in our awards.’

The awards, which have been held since their inception in 1960, are highly respected in the UK publishing industry. Previous winners include Santa Montefiore, Joe Heap, Julie Cohen and Milly Johnson. The awards are unique in that they are judged entirely by readers, without input from any industry professionals.

The award categories for this year were as follows: The Fantasy Romantic Novel Award, the Jackie Collins Award for Romantic Thrillers, the Katie Fforde Debut Romantic Novel Award, the Christmas/Festive Holiday Romantic Novel Award, the Shorter Romantic Novel Award, the Romantic Saga Award, the Jane Wenham-Jones Award for Romantic Comedy, the Historical Romantic Novel Award, the Contemporary Romantic Novel Award, and the Popular Romantic Fiction Award (voted for by librarians, booksellers and book bloggers/reviewers).

The winners of the awards were announced during the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Romantic Novel Awards ceremony, which was held at the Leonardo Royal Hotel London City on Monday 6th March 2023.

THE THREE LIVES OF ALIX ST PIERRE BOOK BLURB (Publisher: Sphere)

Determined to escape her dangerous past, Alix moves to Paris to work as a publicist for the yet-to-be-launched House of Christian Dior. But when a figure from her old life reappears and threatens her future, Alix realises that she’ll need to do something drastic to right the wrongs of the past.

NATASHA LESTER’S MEDIA DETAILS

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