American Royals by Katharine McGee
Release Date - September 3, 2019
Publisher Website - Penguin Random House
Publisher Social Media - TwitterRelease Date - September 3, 2019
Publisher Website - Penguin Random House
Pages - 448 pages
My Rating - 5/5
**received from the publisher for an honest review**
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.
The world of the Washington family is one of privilege, power, and riches. It is this lush, and rich setting that adds something extra to the story. It makes the idea of America having a King feel all the more plausible. The celebrity like feel to the Washington's life is showcased has having both good and bad moments. They live in a gilded fishbowl and that kind of hyper surveillance and the expectations put on the characters is a huge part of the story being told. It's fascinating to unravel how that sort of pressure would impact the family relationships and that is absolutely tackled within these pages.
The drama, as mentioned, is straight out of some of your favourite teen television dramas. It is heightened but in a way that only serves to make the storyline and characters more compelling. This is a larger than life setting and that stage requires equally high stakes and Katharine McGee delivers. The pacing of the reveals is so pitch perfect it makes this whirlwind story connect a little harder than I thought it would. She allows time for the major plot points to matter before the story races off again and that makes the reader feel a little more invested in how these events impact the characters we are spending time with.
The three Washington siblings are all so different from each other as are their relationships to one another. That dynamic was one of my favourite parts of the story and I hope we get to explore the sibling side of things a little more in future novels.
Beatrice is going to be the first Queen of America and heavy is the crown as they say. She is, naturally, having to deal with sexism and a bunch of people saying she can't do the job because she isn't a man. She feels the responsibility of becoming Queen deeply, and hears the voice of her detractors. It drives every single part of her to the point that her own needs and wants are a non factor. It is both impressive and crushing. You don't want this position that she was literally born into to control her life but the book makes the case that there is no way that it couldn't. Anything else was never in the cards for Beatrice.
Samantha is the more free spirited Washington sister. She likes to have fun, get into trouble, and is happy to drift along. She doesn't know what drives her yet. She has lived her whole life feeling like she was unimportant, just the spare. Everything from her security code name (Sparrow) to the way she is viewed and treated serves to remind her that she is secondary. Your heart breaks for her even as you see the freedoms she has that Beatrice does not.
Jefferson doesn't have a point of view in this novel and as a result I feel like I didn't really get to know him. He is a lot like his twin sister, Samantha, but also used to being viewed differently because he is a guy. He's her partner in crime and I wish we had gotten to see them together a little bit more. Jeff, if possible, has it even easier than Beatrice and Samantha because of the different expectations that are put on him because of his gender.
The other view points are the characters of Daphne and Nina. Two very different girls with ties to the Washington family. Daphne is driven and will be a divisive character for readers. Nina is probably the most relatable character in the book. She comes from a average home life and is swept up into the life of the royals because of her mother's job and the friendships that resulted from it. She is the outsider who isn't sure the life of scrutiny is for her.
Fans of Gossip Girl, anything royal, and frothy fun in book form will have a fantastic time devouring this. It has the perfect blend of romance, drama, and fast moving plot that ensures that readers will not be able to turn the pages fast enough.
