Fans of ‘The Princess Diaries’ Will Love ‘The Heir Apparent’ (Exclusive) ArticlePure

Rebecca Armitage is asking readers an important question with her forthcoming book: “What happens when things are not as perfect as they seem?”

The editor for ABC International in Australia releases her debut novel, The Heir Apparent, in December. She’s exclusively revealing its cover with PEOPLE, as she also shares some insight into what inspired the story of a British princess who “must decide between her duty to her family — or to her own heart,” per a synopsis.

The Heir Apparent follows the fictional Lexi Villiers, whose grandmother is the queen of England, as she must come to terms with the fact that she’s next in line for the throne following a shocking turn of events.

After having “publicly disavowed” the role, and now coming face-to-face with “a skeptical public not ready to forgive her defection,” Villers ends up having an important decision to make about her future.

Armitage, who has extensively reported on the Royal Family for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, tells PEOPLE that she first got the idea for the book while reporting on pre-wedding festivities for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, back in 2018.

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“What happens if you’re born royal, but you wish to leave? I can’t really explain why I thought this. Harry was clearly thrilled and in love,” Armitage asks. “But just like his mother, Princess Diana, every emotion plays out on his face, and I glimpsed something in him that left me wondering what life was really like inside palace walls.”

With royal families now existing as “cultural touchstones” and models for the “perfect family,” as Armitage explains, her debut novel takes readers behind the scenes of a fictional family with an apparently complicated dynamic.

“The House of Villiers has wealth and privilege. They enjoy influence and fame. But they are also riven by sibling rivalry, infidelity, jealousy and secrets,” the author says. “Princess Lexi dares to leave royal life behind and strike out on her own at the very edge of the world. She studies to become a doctor. She learns how to take care of herself. She makes friends who become her stand-in family, and accidentally falls in love with her best friend, Jack. And just as their relationship is about to change, tragedy strikes and she is forced back home. ”

“The Heir Apparent is about family, duty, love and redemption,” she adds. “It’s about the price we pay for forging our own path and defining our own identity.”

Armitage has previously covered the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the coronation of King Charles III and more for ABC and resides in Hobart, Tasmania.

The Heir Apparent arrives on December 2 via Cardinal, an imprint of Hachette Book Group and is available to preorder now, wherever books are sold.