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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