American Royals by Katharine McGee

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I love Katharine McGee, and I loved her series The Thousandth Floor. But I am absolutely obsessed with anything having to do with royals, and a Katie McGee book about America reimagined as a monarchy? Sign me the fuck up! This was my most anticipated book of 2019, and I am so grateful to have gotten my hands on a finished copy.

American Royals imagines that, instead of being the first President, George Washington was the first king of America. Fast-forward to present-day, and we follow the current American royals. There's Beatrice, who is poised to become the first Queen of America. Sam, Beatrice's younger sister and the spare. There's Nina, a commoner and Sam's best friend. And then there's Daphne, a scheming aristocrat desperate to capture the heart of Jeff, Sam's twin brother.

There's not much beyond that I can say about the plot with out spoiling anything, but if, like me, you love anything involving royals, this is the book for you! And it's not just romance and drama; it's quite deep and heartbreaking and it talks a lot about what it means to sacrifice personal happiness for the greater good (or is it?).

Katie clearly did a lot of research on American history, and it definitely pays off! My favorite part of this book was definitely the world-building and the history and research that went into creating this book. I loved reading about, in passing, past American royals and their interesting personal histories. It's not surprising, because, in my opinion, Katie is the queen of interesting worlds/settings with incredibly interesting histories. I will literally read anything she writes!

American Royals is definitely character-driven, and Beatrice ended up being my favorite character, and I was the most invested in her storyline. A character like Beatrice, I feel, can often be written as a boring rule follower who conforms to societal expectations, but Katie made her such an interesting and dynamic character. I also loved the elements of feminism incorporated into her storyline; she is going to be America's first queen, and there is a lot of discussion about how, because of this, there will not only be people rooting for her to fail, but she will always stand for something bigger than herself.

If there is anything to criticize about this book, it would be that I felt like the main characters in American Royals are quite similar to the main characters in The Thousandth Floor; I could match each character in one book with a character in the other. It wasn't a big deal, but it was something I noticed. Additionally, for a book about American history and George Washington's descendants, slavery wasn't mentioned at all. I did reach out to the editor, though, and she assured me that changes had been made to address this issue on the finished copy.

All in all, I loved this book, and I need book two NOW.


XOXO,

Isabella


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