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curls 's review for:
American Royals
by Katharine McGee
6/10/20 on sale for $1.99
The premise of the story is America doesn’t have a president. When the American revolution was going on, Washington was appointed King of America (a position he famously didn’t want but others did). So there’s the Washington family ruling America instead of the democracy we have today. The law has been changed so the first born inherits the crown, not the first born son.
There’s a big cast of characters that are intertwined so I’ll take a deep breath and introduce them.
Beatrice is the first born daughter, heir to the throne, the first potential queen to America. She’s in love with her bodyguard Conner, but he’s a commoner so she’s forced into a relationship with Teddy.
Samantha, Beatrice’s younger sister, met Teddy first and hit it off with him. She’s upset when her sister starts to date him.
Nina is Samantha’s best friend. She grew up with the royal twins Samantha and Jeff since her mom worked for the royal family. She’s in love with Jeff, hiding it from Samantha, and completely unprepared for the attention from the media when their relationship becomes public.
Daphne is Jeff’s ex girlfriend, the perfect daughter/girlfriend/future princess. She’s ambition and cunning and wants the title and will do anything to get Jeff back for it. The only one who sees her for who she is is Ethan, Jeff’s best friend.
Best part of the story - Conner. I loved him. He’s also the only guy in the story that really stands out. Teddy seems alright, a good guy that likes Samantha but is pressured into a high powered relationship by family obligations. I never saw what was so special about Jeff. Daphne only likes Jeff for his title, but I never could see why Nina was into him. And Ethan’s interesting if only for the fact he likes a girl who dated his best friend and knows Daphne was using Jeff to climb the social ladder and gave Jeff no warning. Kind of a douche move there Ethan. Haven’t you heard of bros before hoes?
Anyway - the female characters were distinctly written and each enjoyable. I enjoyed watching Daphne the best, she’s a schemer for sure.
What didn’t work for me was the setting. It felt like it wanted to be a historical romance with kings and queens and the pressure to not marry common. But it’s set in a modern society - and that’s just not something that’s as important today as it was 100 or 200 years ago. It just felt out of place.
Also the book just ends. There will be a sequel, but I didn’t realize that until I was looking at the chapters left and thinking how on earth is all this gonna get wrapped up in the chapters left. I think this book would have been better as a standalone instead of a series, but that’s hard to judge without the sequel.
I think fans of the Selection series will like this. It’s not the dystopian America presented in the Selection, but it has similar elements, mainly an American royal family. It’s fun and soapy - maybe a little immature for adults reading YA, but I think it will be popular with its intended demographic.
3.5 stars
The premise of the story is America doesn’t have a president. When the American revolution was going on, Washington was appointed King of America (a position he famously didn’t want but others did). So there’s the Washington family ruling America instead of the democracy we have today. The law has been changed so the first born inherits the crown, not the first born son.
There’s a big cast of characters that are intertwined so I’ll take a deep breath and introduce them.
Beatrice is the first born daughter, heir to the throne, the first potential queen to America. She’s in love with her bodyguard Conner, but he’s a commoner so she’s forced into a relationship with Teddy.
Samantha, Beatrice’s younger sister, met Teddy first and hit it off with him. She’s upset when her sister starts to date him.
Nina is Samantha’s best friend. She grew up with the royal twins Samantha and Jeff since her mom worked for the royal family. She’s in love with Jeff, hiding it from Samantha, and completely unprepared for the attention from the media when their relationship becomes public.
Daphne is Jeff’s ex girlfriend, the perfect daughter/girlfriend/future princess. She’s ambition and cunning and wants the title and will do anything to get Jeff back for it. The only one who sees her for who she is is Ethan, Jeff’s best friend.
Best part of the story - Conner. I loved him. He’s also the only guy in the story that really stands out. Teddy seems alright, a good guy that likes Samantha but is pressured into a high powered relationship by family obligations. I never saw what was so special about Jeff. Daphne only likes Jeff for his title, but I never could see why Nina was into him. And Ethan’s interesting if only for the fact he likes a girl who dated his best friend and knows Daphne was using Jeff to climb the social ladder and gave Jeff no warning. Kind of a douche move there Ethan. Haven’t you heard of bros before hoes?
Anyway - the female characters were distinctly written and each enjoyable. I enjoyed watching Daphne the best, she’s a schemer for sure.
What didn’t work for me was the setting. It felt like it wanted to be a historical romance with kings and queens and the pressure to not marry common. But it’s set in a modern society - and that’s just not something that’s as important today as it was 100 or 200 years ago. It just felt out of place.
Also the book just ends. There will be a sequel, but I didn’t realize that until I was looking at the chapters left and thinking how on earth is all this gonna get wrapped up in the chapters left. I think this book would have been better as a standalone instead of a series, but that’s hard to judge without the sequel.
I think fans of the Selection series will like this. It’s not the dystopian America presented in the Selection, but it has similar elements, mainly an American royal family. It’s fun and soapy - maybe a little immature for adults reading YA, but I think it will be popular with its intended demographic.
3.5 stars