review

title: American Royals | Goodreads 
author: Katharine McGee 
where to buy (pre-order):  Powell’s City of Books | The Novel Neighbor 
publishing: September 3rd, 2019 by Random House Books for Young Readers
format: advanced copy
source: BookExpo 2019
genre: YA; romance
date read: June 2019

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.

thoughts

American Royals proved to be exactly the type of book I expected at exactly the right time I wanted to read it.  When I heard the buzz about American Royals at BookExpo 2019 the premise had me immediately hooked–the rewriting of history combined with classic monarchy drama was certainly intriguing.

I actually read the start of McGee’s sophomore series in one sitting.  American Royals is told with multiple POVs; because of the 3rd person narration style McGee was able to give her readers in depth looks at all of her characters.  I was motivated to fly through American Royals in the same sort of fashion that I binge the works of Taylor Jenkins Reid, or even a rom-com–I was fiercely motivated to see what happens!  The multiple (and interwoven) romances and relationships in American Royals balanced rather well.  I was impressed by McGee’s efforts to feature both the romantic and the familial–I was pleased by her attention to create more well rounded characters than you might have expected.  The plot of the novel was…exactly like I predicted haha.  However, although the pattern was familiar, it wasn’t any less enjoyable to read.

In terms of a YA romance American Royals was everything I expected.  However, there were aspects that of the novel that I wish were expanded upon or included explicitly. For one, the history nerd in me wishes that there had been a more detailed prologue full of all the logistical details of the way that the United States was founded and functioned (fictionally) as a monarchy.  McGee included plenty of contextual tid bits of rewritten history when the plot made it necessary, but I do wish that there had been more expansion in this regard.  Moreover, I was surprised that McGee didn’t address anything real in regards to the functioning government, other than the fact that Beatrice will be the first sovereign queen, or in other words, the first female to rule/run the United States.  While a woman running the country is certainly a very real, contemporary conversation as well, in American Royals any mention of tensions regarding Beatrice’s ascension to the rhone are brushed over rather quickly.  I craved to know the political happenings of this fictional 2019 monarchical America–because McGee’s backdrop felt rather flimsy compared to the stakes of the personal lives of her characters.  Additionally, more political aspects of the novel (particularly that Nina is hispanic and her parents are lesbians) are glossed over.  As a reader, I was of course curious as to the context for how characters felt about these things.  The fact that the royal family seemed indifferent but the American people cared a great deal didn’t make a lot of sense to me–how does this fictional society feel about race relations and the LGBTQIA+ community in a real sense?  Quite frankly, other than Nina (and a character in a coma for the majority of the novel) people of color are largely ignored by McGee’s narrative.  How do these very real people fit into the American Royals America?  McGee doesn’t take time to really acknowledge those sorts of details in this novel.  I would have been thrilled to read American Royals with the sort of world building it had the potential for.  Overall, for the contemporary romance it was, I enjoyed American Royals and look forward to reading the sequel because (#spoileralert) there is quite the cliffhanger!