Whisper to the Stars is a vintage-contemporary romance that revolves around a trope hard to find nowadays: unrequited love. It starts out strong, with the promise of a deeply moving emo story. And it delivers, up to a point. Then it falters. Somewhere in the middle, it loses sight of what a romance is supposed to do: to engage and enthrall the reader. 2 1/2 stars
JULY 16, 1986
BATTLE, England — Hettie Grinstead, 83, who dealt in fact as a journalist and in fiction as the author of a series of romantic novels, died Saturday after an illness of several months, her accountant said Wednesday.
Grinstead, using the nom de plume Margaret Saville, was regarded in journalistic circles as an authority on the royal family and covered the Buckingham Palace beat for United Press International for a number of years.
She was one of the very few who insisted from the beginning that Princess Margaret would not marry Group Captain Peter Townsend in a celebrated royal romance of the 1950s even when semi-official sources were reporting an imminent engagement.
As a romantic novelist under the name Marsha Manning she wrote a number of novels for Mills and Boon, who specialize in that field. Silk said several of her novels were published in the United States.