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Monday, January 20, 2020

Book Review: American Royals (Book #1 in the American Royals series) by Katharine McGee (Spoiler Review)


Right off the bat, I have to say that American Royals is definitely a book that I went into reading with a great deal of excitement and anticipation due to my thinking that the premise of the series basically being that it’s an alternate history of America where instead of George Washington being elected the first President of the United States of America, and our government being a democracy when America was founded; he was offered a crown, and our government was established as a monarchy all sounding very interesting and fun to me. Fast forward to the present, and the Washington family is still the ruling family of the American government.

I’m thrilled to say that I ultimately really loved American Royals for the most part. As far as I’m concerned, one of American Royals’ greatest strengths is that the writing for the book as a whole definitely came across as if Katharine McGee had done a lot of research for the writing of this book, and probably the series as a whole. I felt like McGee did a great job of painting a really good picture of how the American monarchy worked within the world that she has created for this series; especially when it comes to the Washington family’s line of succession, and Beatrice being her father’s heir to the throne.

That being said, if I’m being completely honest, and at the risk of sounding like I’m totally slamming American Royals, which definitely isn’t my intention, especially since I loved the first book in McGee’s The Thousandth Floor trilogy (also titled The Thousandth Floor); there’s no denying that I went into reading this book not expecting the characters and overall plot of the book to be truly riveting and complex. I went into reading American Royals hoping that it would be an interesting and fun bit of escapism from my everyday life and the real world; and McGee definitely succeeded in writing this book in such a way that I had a ton of fun reading it. When it comes to all of the P.O.V. characters in American Royals, I really liked, if not loved, most of the main characters. If I had to say which of the characters in this book is my favorite, I would say that honor goes to Beatrice. Beatrice definitely came across as being the most complex and best written character in American Royals. McGee does a phenomenal job of conveying to the reader the emotional struggle that Beatrice wrestles with throughout the course of the book, as she tries to juggle working to fulfill the expectations that her parents and the American public have for her being the heir to the throne; while she also pursues what she herself wants in life, namely to be with her bodyguard, Connor, who she’s secretly in a romantic relationship with.



While I’ve always had very mixed feelings about romance within the Y.A. genre, one of the things that I especially loved about American Royals is the secret forbidden romance between Beatrice and Connor. McGee did a really great job of providing the backstory for how Beatrice and Connor’s romantic relationship had begun and evolved prior to the start of the book. I absolutely loved the interaction and the tension that existed between them throughout the course of the book. Honestly, I thought that the chemistry between Beatrice and Connor was beyond palpable, and I’m already completely invested in their relationship after reading this book. I’m definitely rooting for Beatrice and Connor to end up together and get a happy ending with each other when the series eventually ends. Considering the fact that American Royals ended with Beatrice being crowned the queen of America after her dad died, which seems to have left them both thinking that they can never be together now, and that their relationship is truly over; it will definitely be interesting to see if/how Beatrice and Connor can possibly still end up together now.

McGee also does a really good job of portraying twin sister and brother, Samantha and Jefferson, A.K.A Jeff, as being pretty comfortable in their roles as the spares of the Washington family. Samantha, in particular, doesn’t really appear to have any qualms about rebelling against her family, and doing things such as finding ways to sneak away from her security detail. It was definitely interesting to see that both Beatrice and Samantha seem to secretly be jealous of each other to a certain extent; with Samantha being jealous of the fact that Beatrice is the first born daughter and the heir to the throne, and is being set up with a guy named Teddy, that she (Samantha) likes by their parents to be her potential husband. Beatrice, on the other hand, definitely seems to resent the fact that as far as she knows, Samantha is free to be with whoever she wants; while their parents are pressuring her (Beatrice) to marry Teddy, or any guy for that matter, who she doesn’t truly love, as part of a political marriage when she genuinely loves Connor, and wants to be with him.

That being said, while I ultimately loved American Royals, the one thing that I found to be the most disappointing about this book is the fact that Jefferson wasn’t a P.O.V. character in the book. McGee pretty much only develops and establishes him as a character through Nina and Daphne’s P.O.V. chapters, as well as through the eyes of some of the other characters in the book. It seemed really weird to me that McGee didn’t have Jefferson be a P.O.V. character in American Royals when he’s a member of the Washington family, who are essentially the main focus of the series. Perhaps other people who’ve read this book didn’t think too much about this, and maybe it’s because I’m a guy, but I also thought it was really weird that there were no male P.O.V. characters in this book; especially after having read McGee’s book, The Thousandth Floor, which had both male and female P.O.V. characters. Personally, I would really love to see McGee add Jefferson, and perhaps also Connor, as P.O.V. characters as the series continues. I think doing that would not only definitely add a really interesting element to the series, it would also help flesh out Jefferson and Connor a little bit more as characters.

When it comes to which character in the book is my least favorite, that would definitely be Daphne. As far as I’m concerned, Daphne is the least complex and most unlikable character in the book. For the most part, Daphne just came across as being Jefferson’s crazy ex-girlfriend with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. To be fair, there were a few times throughout the book where I felt like McGee was trying to flesh out Daphne as a character, and give her some depth by introducing her mother; who came across as possibly being the person who was actually trying to pressure Daphne into doing the things that she did throughout the book to try and interfere with the budding romance between Jefferson and Nina, in an attempt to weasel her way into the Washington family. However, the scenes where Daphne is visiting her friend, Himari, who’s currently in a coma, and the whole backstory behind how Himari ended up in a coma ultimately left me thinking that regardless of any pressure that her mother might be putting on her to do the things she did throughout the course of the book, she’s still a horrible person.

Honestly, if McGee actually wants Daphne to continue being a P.O.V. character in future books in the American Royals series, I definitely think that she needs to do some major damage control, and work very hard to give Daphne some genuine depth, and nuance as a character; and do something to try and make her at least kind of likable. At the moment, I can’t help but think of Daphne as being a straight up villain with no depth, and the weak link of the series. My dislike for Daphne as a character, and McGee’s writing for her is honestly the one thing that almost kept me from giving American Royals 5 stars on Goodreads, and a score of 10 out of 10 on my own personal scoring system. Ultimately, I decided not to do that, since it’s very rare that I like every character and every storyline in an ensemble story.

As for my thoughts on the ending of American Royals, I was genuinely shocked that Beatrice, Samantha, and Jefferson’s father, George IV, died, and that Beatrice was crowned the queen of America in the closing moments of the book, since this is only the first book in the series. I definitely hadn’t been expecting any of that to happen in this book, so I have to give McGee major kudos for ending the first book in the American Royals series in a way that I found completely unexpected. I’m very excited to see where the series goes from here.

All things considered, American Royals was a really great way to start the American Royals series, and it definitely proved to be an incredibly entertaining and fun book. McGee definitely did a great job of establishing the premise of the series, and all of the characters and storylines in this book. That being said, I still think that there’s some room for improvement when it comes to the character development for Jefferson, and especially Daphne. As far as I’m concerned, the American Royals series could definitely benefit from Jefferson being a P.O.V. character in future books in the series. I also think it would be really cool to see Connor be a P.O.V. character in future books in the series as well; especially given how much I already love the romance between Beatrice and Connor. Plus, unless McGee actually wants people to hate Daphne, she definitely needs to do some major damage control when it comes to the writing for Daphne; because I feel like she was venturing awfully close to the point of Daphne being portrayed as an irredeemable villain. That being said, despite any flaws or weaknesses that American Royals might have, it still delivered in all of the ways that I was hoping it would. Ultimately, American Royals also proved to be an excellent form of escapism, and a really great distraction from the insanity that is Donald Trump’s presidency, and my everyday problems. After reading this book, I really wish that I could live in Katharine McGee’s alternate history version of the United States of America for the remainder of Trump’s presidency.

That being said, my final score for American Royals is 10 out of 10.

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