American Royals by Katharine McGee

Synopsis:

What if America had a Royal Family?

The Washingtons (that's right - descendants of George) have been on the American throne for two and a half centuries. They're the most famous family in the world. But behind the glittering ballrooms and perfect public personas are romances and scandalous secrets that could cost them the throne.

THE HEIR : PRINCESS BEATRICE

knows duty to the crown comes before all else, right?

THE SPARE : PRINCESS SAMANTHA

is pretty sure her only duty is to party hard.

THE SCHEMER : DAPHNE DEIGHTON

would do anything to get her hands on a crown. Anything.

THE COMMONER : NINA GONZALEZ

is just a girl in love with a prince...

and she's about to steal the spotlight.

THE POWER. THE DRAMA. THE INTRIGUE. THE CROWN. THIS IS THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN ROYALS.

I had my eyes on this book for a while, but then the author , Katharine McGee, had a giveaway. I entered and I WON!!! I was soo excited. An autographed copy! When I finally got it, I was in awww.....though, I didn't read it. I had to order another one because there was no way I was going to risk ruining this beautiful copy. It now sits proudly on my bookshelf.

THANK YOU, KATHARINE MCGEE, FOR MY SIGNED AUTOGRAPHED COPY!

The British Royal family has always intrigued me so when I stumbled across this title on BOOKSTAGRAM , it spiked my interest.

The book follows 4 different women that are all in or around the royal family of America, if we had a royal family. The different dynamic of monarchy in American, led by descendants of George Washington was very refreshing me.

I'm not going to lie. While I was very excited to read this book, once I started it, I found myself putting it down a lot. In the beginning, I found it hard to get into the characters. Beatrice seemed like she had a lot of layers to peel back and I didn't feel like she was giving us anything. From the bat, I felt bad for Samantha, but I enjoyed her character. Nina....I was drawn to her from the very beginning because she was a Hispanic character in a dominantly white setting. Daphne from the very beginning was a manipulative bitch.

I think what I really felt was missing early on was a plot, like where is this going? We start off with a lot of the characters crisscrossing each other, which i can totally see because I think that any royal monarch would generally be a small circle.

I will say this. McGee did an excellent job creating these characters and I am very invested in them. Poor Beatrice being forced to attend a party to find a suitable husband is something I cant even imagine. When reading all of this take place, I'm reminded of a particular episode of my all time favorite show, Gilmore Girls. If you are a Gilmore Girls fan, you know what I am talking about. Rory grandparents, Emily and Richard host a party for Rory of all boys to try to lure Rory away from her current boyfriend. Only difference is Rory was heir to the throne of America.

I have to say, I did enjoy the drama. The story may have been slow, but the drama and the way everyone was connected kept me drawn in. I found myself wishing I had a Prince Jefferson poster to hang in my teenage bedroom.

MY RATING :

⭐⭐⭐⭐ / 5

All of the drama that was keeping everyone connected really kept me turning the pages. I enjoyed the book so much that I would love to see it turned into a movie. Maybe one that Reese Witherspoon could produce because she has been KILLING IT with the book to mini series adaptations.

One thing that want to really say that I enjoyed VERY MUCH was Nina's character being Hispanic and her parents being from the LGBTQ community that actually work with the Royal family. Seeing a Hispanic character always makes my little Mexican heart happy because I love to see the representation.

One other character I want to highlight is Beatrice. I feel like she was so strong and had so much grace and could definitely be a woman that I would follow IRL.

Now, when searching for my discussion questions, I couldn't really find any place who had questions to discuss and the book didn't have anything at the end.

I did find one blog who had a few questions, which you can find HERE , lets just answer the questions she has.

1. Which character did you identify with the most?
💥 I can pull characteristics from 3 of the characters. Beatrice, was first born, heir to the throne. So much was expected of her. I am the first born of my family and not to mention the first grandchild of my family. I didn't exactly make my family proud, so that is where I can pull from Samantha's experiences. Even if you got negative attention, that was Samantha and I did the same as a teenager. And Nina, well that's my Hispanic homegirl. I loved that there was a Hispanic in this novel. I loved seeing myself in such a great book.
What cultural details of McGee's “new America” were your favorites?

💥 It seemed like “New America” was way better ran than what we have today, so that’s nice .

Knowing what you know now, what choice or choices would you make if you were Beatrice?

💥 I think I would’ve made the same choices she did. She knew what she had to do to make sure she could make her parents proud and serve her country and if I were in the same position, I would’ve done the same.

Have you read this book! What did you think of it ?? Leave me a comment below! I would love to hear your thoughts.

Next book:

The Swap by Robyn Harding