ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Katharine McGee is the New York Times Bestselling Author of The Thousandth Floor trilogy and American Royals. Katharine went to Princeton University, where she studied French literature and English. She then completed her MBA from Stanford University. She typically writes young adult fantasy novels and lives with her husband in Houston, Texas.
SYNOPSIS
Katharine McGee’s American Royals is a fiction novel about how things could have been if the USA also had a royal family similar to that of the UK. With that premise in mind, McGee has written about the royals, their dreams, and their ambitions. However, what she has also kept in mind is that this first family would belong to America. The book superbly details how the national identity of America would undergo a huge shift under the monarchy.
America’s ruling family are the descendants of General George Washington, America’s first king. After America won the Revolutionary War, General George Washington was offered a crown to rule the country by the people. The House of Washington, as the family is often referred to, has been ruling the country for the last two-and-a-half centuries after George Washington set a lineage to rule the throne.
Currently, the next in line to the throne is Princess Beatrice Washington, elder sister by three years to her twin siblings Princess Samantha and Prince Jefferson. After her grandfather abolished the age-old law stating that the throne would pass on to the oldest living child and not necessarily the male child, Princess Beatrice is set to be the next queen.
Beatrice is always expected to be the perfect lady to ascend the throne. Consequently, she is unable to lead her life as a regular teenager. Being subjected to constant scrutiny by the media and the nation that the family rules, the children are never allowed to be their true selves.
All siblings in the story fall in love with someone when they are not supposed to be ‘complicating’ their lives. The story revolves around how Beatrice has to give up her own life and ambitions for the greater good and how, despite her young age, she is expected to assume on her shoulders all the responsibilities of ruling a nation.
WHAT WE LIKED ABOUT AMERICAN ROYALS
American Royals lets readers in on the life of America’s fictitious royal family, showing with aplomb why all that glitters is not gold. The plot perfectly captures the glamor and pressures of the American Monarchy. A light romance and a heartwarming depiction of how the characters struggle to accept the reality of their hearts mean that the book makes for a breezy reading experience.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER ABOUT AMERICAN ROYALS
Despite an interesting and refreshing take on how things would have been if America had its own royal family, the book follows a rather predictable story line, which strips it of its element of surprise.
QUOTES
The only people free from censure are people who’ve never taken a stand.
Writers got to pick the endings of their novels, but Beatrice wasn’t living a story. She was living history, and history went on forever.
Who said anything about forgetting? The point of forgiveness is to recognize that someone has hurt you, and to still love them in spite of it.
CONCLUSION
While American Royals won’t appeal to everyone, readers who would cherish the idea of reading a fluffy romantic story sprinkled with some royal blood, castles, princes and princesses would definitely enjoy reading this. The book deserves 3 stars out of 5 and could have been much more interesting had the author added some twists to the plot. That being said, it qualifies as a decent read nonetheless.
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