American Royals Review: A Big Surprise!

Author: Katharine McGee
Published On: September 3, 2019
Publisher: Random House
Genre: Fiction, Alternate Universe(ish?), Romance, Royalty
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Synopsis:

What if America had a royal family?

When America won the Revolutionary War, its people offered General George Washington a crown. Two and a half centuries later, the House of Washington still sits on the throne.

As Princess Beatrice gets closer to becoming America’s first queen regnant, the duty she has embraced her entire life suddenly feels stifling. Nobody cares about the spare except when she’s breaking the rules, so Princess Samantha doesn’t care much about anything, either . . . except the one boy who is distinctly off-limits to her.

And then there’s Samantha’s twin, Prince Jefferson. If he’d been born a generation earlier, he would have stood first in line for the throne, but the new laws of succession make him third. Most of America adores their devastatingly handsome prince . . . but two very different girls are vying to capture his heart. 

Review:

You know when you’re reading, and then you have to reluctantly set down your book to go do something else – usually something super mundane, like unloading the dishwasher or taking the dog for a walk – and all you can think about is getting back to your bed so you can snuggle up and continue reading your book?

Yeah, that was me with this book.

AHHHHH. Wow. So unexpected.

Kind of a funny story – I bought this book while I was studying abroad in Copenhagen at an English bookshop back when it came out. I read the first few chapters, was bored (or just not in the headspace to read), and put it down. When it came time to pack up and fly home, I had to drop a couple pounds from my suitcases, and chose to leave some books behind. This was one of them.

But boy oh boy am I glad I decided to give it another shot.

Things I liked:

• The dual perspectives. This actually surprised me because I figured I wouldn’t be able to connect with any of the characters, but I found myself really engaged in each one’s story and wanting to learn more. I’d read Samantha’s chapter, get really into it and be upset when I had to read about Beatrice in the next, but then by the time I was done with that one I didn’t want to stop reading about her, either.
• The love interests!! I thought that each was super unique in their challenges and their backstories, which made for a bit of differentially between each couple.
• The dynamic between the girls. We got a sister-reconnection plotline, a best friends plotline, an ex-girlfriend meets current girlfriend plotline; all around we got a ton of different relationships between the girls and it wasn’t super cut-and-dry.
• The royalty! There’s just something about a princess/royalty story that soothes the 5-year-old princess fanatic in me. This was also just such a neat reimagining of our countries politics and had some actual insightful moments (like Beatrice commenting on how ridiculously absurd an elected government would be, what a concept!).

Things I disliked:

• Daphne Deighton. Just kidding (but am I?), she kinda grew on me but is also kinda the worst. I could’ve done without her perspective. She’s just kind of a lowkey sociopath (seriously) and I don’t know if I can get on board with her conniving ways, even though she supposedly has ~layers~ under all that evilness.
• The relationships – to some extent. I actually really enjoyed Sam & Beatrice’s love interests and their stories, though I think because we broke this story up into four perspectives, we lost so much time for development. For example, I loved Sam & her S/O and was rooting for them from start to finish, but when the book ended I realized that they only had, like, three significant scenes together? When I think about it deeply, I’m like “wait why do I even ship them so much?”, so I just try not to think about it deeply, haha.
• Character cluelessness (*cough* Jeff *cough*). I won’t say much on the topic because spoilers, but I’ll tell you that I was taking some voice memo’s on my thoughts for this review, and I’ll quote myself: “It’s hard to watch a character be an idiot and not scream.”
• Predictability. I saw that ending coming from ten miles away, though that didn’t make me read any slower.

I absolutely enjoyed this, and I’m dying to get my hands on the next one. Not only are these covers gorgeous, but it’s a serious page turner and I hope that my beloved Samantha gets the happy ending that she well and truly deserves. (Maaaybe Beatrice too, we’ll see 😉)

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