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.
