A review by sonygaystation
American Royals by Katharine McGee

Did not finish book. Stopped at 40%.

I DNF'd this at 40%!!!!! I already had to massively suspend my disbelief that the US would have a monarchy when the entirety of its history is based explicitly on seceding from the monarchy but I've had to suspend my disbelief a lot for books before that I haven't found so grating. The idea of an American monarchy just really irritated me. Are we just not gonna acknowledge the history of slavery? It had a similar vibe as Hamilton does with its watered-down RPF musical fanfic. This book felt like me trying to enjoy a book about Capitalism. I'm sorry I simply cannot do it!!! It's SO boring, everyone (except for maybe Bea) is a miserable human being obsessed with themselves, there are FOUR (4) perspectives, and there is this MASSIVE tangle of love-related plot lines. Someone on here called it Gossip Girl with no flavour and yeah I can agree with that without having ever even seen GG. There is literally no need for the amount of perspectives in this book and Daphne is so hideously insufferable. The women in this book were so "pick me" and just horrible to each other. And the sibling "rivalry" (extremely one-sided) was so irksome like my god y'all (Sam I'm looking specifically at you and you only here) figure your shit out. This book would've been vastly improved had it been just about Bea and her struggle (especially because I liked what I read of Connor) but alas. Life is far too short to push myself through this book when I don't feel the payoff is going to be worth it.