A Lazy Reader's Review of "American Royals" by Katherine McGee

 Synopsis

    What if America had a royal family?

    When America won the Revolutionary War, its people offered General George Washington a crown. Two and a half centuries later, the House of Washington still sits on the throne.

    As Princess Beatrice gets closer to becoming America's first queen regnant, the duty she has embraced her entire life suddenly feels stifling.

    Nobody cares about the spare except when she's breaking the rules, so Princess Samantha's doesn't care much about anything, either . . . except the one boy who is distinctly off-limits to her.

    And then there's Samantha's twin, Price Jefferson. If he'd been born a generation earlier, he would have stood first in line for the throne, but the new laws of succession make him third. Most of America adores their devastatingly handsome prince . . . but two very different girls are vying to capture his heart.

Review

    What if George Washington accepted the crown he was offered after the conclusion of the American Revolution? A simple yet captivating premise. As someone who studied history and is working toward a career in said field, this question is one that I have asked myself before. The idea of America having its own royal family is something that I think everyone has thought of before. As a history history buff, and knowing that George Washington was asked to be king, the thought of him accepting was always in the back of my mind. How much would the United States have changed? What would have stayed the same?

    I liked the way this book went about structuring the nobility of the United States. I mean, it's pretty much the same way that the European peerage is arranged but it was still nice. Reading things like the "Duke of Texas" was wild to me and I appreciated that all of the fifty states were broken up into different noble territories such as duchies, earldoms, baronies, etc. 

    I think the best part of this book was probably the characters, although I did have a problem with some of them. Here's what I did like: I loved Nina and Daphne as characters. I'm still lowkey a sucker for a commoner x royalty romance. That being said, I really like Nina's character. Homegirl just wanted to go to school and mind her own business, it's not her fault that she got caught up with a prince. Let my girl live. And Daphne, how I love Daphne. This girl is so unhinged and I loved it. My god, I loved it. I love seeing ambitious women who will do whatever it takes to get what they want. And that's exactly what Daphne was doing. Now, do I like her as a person, no. But, I loved her character. I'm tired of 'evil' character always needing something to redeem themselves, like just let antagonists be bad people. And I don't even think Daphne was that bad of a person, I mean she just did a little bit of manipulation and lying but who cares? She is incredibly smart and I love that. And honestly, Nina's storyline was only interesting because of Daphne. Ms. McGee, please write a whole book on Daphne only, maybe I'll enjoy it more.

    Now, I'll talk about what I didn't like. I was just so uninterested in Beatrice and Samantha's storylines. There was nothing about these two that made be feel even the slightest bit of interest, which sucks because this book is multi-pov, so that meant that I was bored for about half of this book. I'm also not the biggest fan of the bodyguard lover trope of marriage of convenience. So Beatrice's POVs were not for me. I also thought that Samantha sort of fit into the archetype of the rebellious privileged teen, and I just did not fuck with it and felt that it didn't leave her room for any more depth. For me, this book really fell flat and I was bored during several parts of it. This book also didn't address the fact that George Washington had no biological children, so do with that information what you will. Really interesting concept though.

Jan. 4, 2023 – Jan. 5, 2023

★★☆☆☆