American Royals by Katherine McGee

*Spoiler free*

Two princesses vying for the ultimate crown. Two girls vying for the prince’s heart. This is the story of the American royals. 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. Like most royal families, the Washingtons have an heir and a spare. A future monarch and a backup battery. Each child knows exactly what is expected of them. But these aren’t just any royals. They’re American. And their country was born of rebellion. 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.

I’m drawn to royal stories right off the bat. If has something royal to it, I want to read it. This book was no exception. I honestly thought it was an adult book for awhile, since the synopsis reads like one. The synopsis also made the book sound very confusing haha. I couldn’t quite get a grasp on what they plot was or what was supposed to be happening? It kind made me put this book on the backburner, but one of my friends read and loved it, so I was more interested in giving it a chance.

This was actually my first Katherine McGee book! I know her other books are pretty popular, and after reading this one, I can see why. She’s a fantastic writer. This book full of gossip and what hides behind the glittery dresses of the royal family. She someone managed to write all that in a way that didn’t feel cheap. It almost felt fluffy, even though this book is filled to the brim the angst. I really enjoyed how she wrote the world and how the built the characters. It turned out to be a lot less confusing than I thought haha.

I honestly think this should have been an adult book, or a new adult book. Beatrice, one of the main characters, is 21. The main characters who have POVs are on the older side of 18. This book would have been fantastic as a new adult book. It would have been a great way to sort of bring about that category. I’m sure there were reasons for keeping it YA, but I just think it would have worked really, really well if it was bumped up. I feel like some things could have been fleshed out and feelings could have been more deeply explored.

What really drew me to this book in the first place is the fact that, in this world, America is a monarchy. That is such a cool and unique idea. I don’t know why, but I wasn’t expecting it to be modern day, just with royalty as our government. But they way it was done was so fascinating. Politics aren’t a huge focus, but it was still so interesting to see how our world could be different, how different our government could be if things went just a bit differently. Plus, the jokes about how ridiculous a democratic government would be were cheesy, yet hilarious.

I’m usually not the type of person who likes angst, but WOW does this book do angst really well. I actually found myself liking and falling into the drama of the royal family. There were so many amazing tropes packed into this book, that it sort of just made my heart squee. So much pining, so much forbidden love, so much kissing. It was really great.

Though, I did feel like some of the complications and struggles sort of just looped around and around. The same problems came up and it seemed like the same conversations were being had, just using different words. It didn’t seem like there was a lot of growth happening, despite a few small areas. It got kind of repetitive and it started to wear on me.

The characters are actually a lot less confusing than the synopsis makes them seem. I actually really liked them all, expect I’m not sure how I feel about one. I liked her enough, though I’m not quite sure why she was a narrator. I think it added something to the book, and gave it another viewpoint that was valuable, I just didn’t like her. She was conniving and manipulated, and sort of just mean overall. I didn’t really like where her story went. I did like everybody else though! They were cool. There might not have been a lot of emotional growth, they all had their own pains and struggles. I liked seeing how they differed and how they interacted and how they viewed someone was so different from what they were actually feeling.

This is actually the first in a series. A duology it looks like, but I’m not 100% sure. The ending was spectacular. It wrapped things up in such an amazing way. The last scene kind of left me a little breathless. It worked so well for the situation and it wrap up the book. It should be very, very interesting where the next book goes. I think there’s a lot of unravel and I’m interested to see what sort of route it takes.

American Royals comes out September 3, 2019! You can add it on Goodreads and pre-order a copy in the meantime!

Thank you for reading!