Happy Sunday and welcome to my review of American Royals by Katharine McGee! I LOVED this book, so I’m super happy to share my review with all of you today! Read on to find my review and favorite quotes, plus more information about the book and author! And now without any further ado, let’s get to the review!
American Royals by Katharine McGee Series: American Royals #1
Published on September 3, 2019 by Random House Books for Young Readers
Genres: YA, Contemporary, Romance, Alternate History
Pages: 448
Format: Audiobook, eBook
Source: Amazon
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram
What if America had a royal family? If you can't get enough of Harry and Meghan or Kate and William, meet American princesses Beatrice and Samantha.
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.
The duty. The intrigue. The Crown. New York Times bestselling author Katharine McGee imagines an alternate version of the modern world, one where the glittering age of monarchies has not yet faded--and where love is still powerful enough to change the course of history.
A TL;DR OF MY REVIEW:
- ALTERNATE HISTORY HELL YEAH COUNT ME IN!
- Listen, I know Daphne is the “villain”, but I kinda love her?
- Do we really need boys?
- Leading sources (read: me) say no.
HELLO have you met me I LOVE alternate history books!!!! Also all of the characters were very well developed; I understood everyone even if I didn’t necessarily like them. While I was reading I wasn’t necessarily Daphne’s biggest fan, and I certainly wouldn’t want to hang out with her in real life, but I think she’s such an interesting character and I can’t wait to see what she does next! Everything about Sam, and Nina, and OH MY GOD especially Beatrice I LOVED!!! As much as I don’t want to run into Daphne in real life, I do wish I could meet Beatrice. I feel like she and I would get along well and she could definitely use a friend.
There are three things I didn’t necessarily love: I wish it weren’t so focused on the men. I understand and appreciate the amount of time we as readers spend with the King, but I wish all the girls weren’t so focused on Teddy and Jeff. I do think I could like them more if we had their POVs as well, so maybe that’ll change in the next book?
Which leads me nicely into my next point, which is that I DIDN’T KNOW THIS WAS A SERIES I THOUGHT IT WAS A STANDALONE. IT’S NOT. I got to like 95% of the book and I was wondering how on earth everything was going to wrap up and… it didn’t. I mean, it wrapped up enough for book one, but I didn’t know there was more so I was expecting a LOT more answers! Now that it’s been a little bit since I read it, I’m excited that there will be more.
The only other thing I wish was different is that the only real “bad guy” in this story is the other love interests. Who are all girls. 
This is a great example of a cover that’s not my favorite, but still manages to be PERFECT for the story it’s telling! First of all the red, white, and blue color palette is perfect for a story about American Royalty. The cover is classy, just like Beatrice. Basically, I really really like this cover and it does a great job letting you know about the book!
10/10 stars!!!
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Katharine McGee is the New York Times bestselling author of the Thousandth Floor series. She studied English and French literature at Princeton and has an MBA from Stanford. She’s been speculating about American royalty since her undergraduate days, when she wrote a thesis on “castle envy”: the idea that the American psyche is missing out on something, because Americans don’t have a royal family of their own.
Katharine lives with her husband in her hometown of Houston, Texas.
Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Instagram
Do you love alternate history books as much as I do? Or maybe you’re excited because you love anything royal? Let me know what you like about this book (even if you’ve just read the description!) in the comments and have a splendiferous day!
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[…] I loved American Royals! […]