Title: American Royals
Author: Katherine McGee
Format Read: Audiobook
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Summary:
Princess Beatrice has always known that someday in the far future she would be queen. When she was little, it was daunting, but she had time to wrap her head around it, time to let her nerves settle, and lessons that would prepare her.
But now, she’s older, all the lessons have been learned, and she still isn’t ready. But when her parents, the King and Queen of America, tell her it’s time to find her a king, Princess Beatrice resorts to picking the most bearable bachelor of the bunch. After all she’s marrying out of necessity, not love.
If she were marrying for love, she would have chosen someone different. She would have chosen the man she’s in love with. The man, that no matter how much she lives, she could never ever matter.
As much of a problem this is for Beatrice, it’s also a problem for her younger sister, Princess Samantha. You see, the bachelor that Beatrice is set to marry, also happens to be the guy that Princess Samantha is in love with!
Will these two Princess’s find a solution that makes everyone happy? Or will they be forced to live in a love triangle for the rest of royal lives?
What Didn’t Work:
When I started American Royals by Katherine McGee, I went into this book thinking this was going to be a five star book. After all, it’s a book featuring a royal family! And I like -scratch that – I love books about Royals and Royal families.
But what I found was a book about a royal family, set in the U.S, with no backstory so to speak.
Author Katherine McGee did a great job at imagining what an American royal family would look like – the pressures, the expectations, the life of the Royals behind closed doors, but for me, the backstory and the altered history wasn’t fleshed out. Without that, I spent a lot of time trying to fill in gaps. This aspect took me out of the story, and made it harder for me to really sink my teeth into this book.
Besides this I found that there were several big plot points that were very predictable. And some of these predictabilities were right off the bat. Basically, what I’m saying is that I figured out what was going to happen before it actually happened.
What Did Work:
American Royals was a fun read, even if it did fall short for me. I thought author MCGee’s writing was solid, and imaginative. Besides that, she excelled at showing readers, not just telling. Her descriptions were vivid, and truly helped readers fully engage with the story.
What made this book for me were the characters. Main character Beatrice, who is set to be the future queen, was realistic, strong, and best of all grew from the start of the book to the end. I really felt like I got to know her, and that’s not just because she’s a fleshed out character, but also because author McGee did a really good job at giving the characters complex backstories and even more complex emotions.
But Princess Beatrice wasn’t the only great character. I personally like all of the characters. They were all complex, layered, and flawed. Qualities that I feel make for relatable characters.
Even though, as I mentioned before, the plot was predictable, I personally enjoyed seeing how the story played out.
Recommendation:
Yes. Ultimately I enjoyed this book enough to finish it. And I’m even excited to see what happens in the second installment.
Similar Books To Read After:
- Royals by Rachel Hawkins
- Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins
- Belles by Jen Calonita
(Book cover image from GoodReads)