American Royals

"I don't know that I've ever read a book where ALL of the main characters were absolute trash pandas. There is a certain level of truth-withholding that anyone can endure for the sake of dramatic suspense leading up to big finale. But the entire plot was a Jenga stack of half-truths and veiled feelings that I'm surprised anyone could keep track of reality. And what makes it worse is they all clearly witnessed how those choices backfired to land them in a bigger mess, but they learn nothing and continue to make the same choices expecting different results. (Which could easily describe my predicament of continuously finding and selecting these sorts of books. I think my picker is broken.)
The premise of America having a royal family show more instead of a presidency seemed intriguing enough. But like most things Americans steal from Europe, we royally f'ed it up and said ""This is fine.""

Full disclosure: I looked up the ending to American Royals online to know if it would be worth my time to continue [don't @ me]. Reading the synopsis made me gasp, guffaw, and promptly return my audiobook loan to my library for the next person." show less

Oh what a beauty!

When I first picked this book up I expected it to be just another Rom-Com that has its adorable moments and shallow "conflicts" and that ends with a happily ever after, the only thing I expected was that it's set in an Alternative Universe where America had royalty.
But oh boy was I surprised!
Pleasantly so thankfully.

This story was not about falling in love with royalty and living happily ever after, it was much more. I loved how this book tackled the subject of struggling to find yourself in your early adulthood years no matter how much money you have to your name or what titles you have.
I really liked the characters and their inner turmoils.
In a way, they were so different yet so relatable.

The last scene in the book show more will probably be something I think about a lot even a year from now, when Beatrice got the news of her father's death and immediately everyone bowed to her it was so emotional and powerful and heart breaking! I loved how the author portrayed it.

All in all this was such a good book and I'm really glad I picked it up, I can't wait for the rest of the series! show less

This book sucked me in right away. What if there were an American Royal family? I loved the relationships, the romance, and the drama. Oh the pining. Told in four perspectives—Beatrice—the future queen, Sam, her younger sister (the spare), and Nina and Daphne, who both want to date Jefferson, Beatrice and Sam’s brother (the prince.)

What made this book amazing was the conflict built into each relationship, familial, friendship and romantic. Beatrice, destined to be queen, who has to marry, and has a thing for her bodyguard Connor who she can’t have. Her sister, Sam, has a thing for Teddy, an aristocrat who is courting Beatrice. (This was so deliciously soapy—and to make things better, Teddy has his reasons for why he needs to show more marry Beatrice that have nothing to do with love.) Add in Jefferson, Nina and Daphne, the latter of whom is obsessed with becoming a royal, and I ate this up.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader. show less

Readers looking for surprises in this lightweight romance will be disappointed. There’s a princess who must choose a husband from the “appropriate” candidates, but loves a man she can never have. There are also a couple of siblings with equally hopeless romances going, and a bitchy villainess willing to upset the apple cart to get her way.

Or, make that “to upset the cherry cart”, because the single interesting thing about ‘American Royals’ is that McGee has created a modern world in which George Washington did not refuse the crown that was offered to him in the Revolutionary era, but rather accepted it to found an American dynasty. That notion is not just dumped into the plot and abandoned, but is used as a springboard to show more imagine a world where participatory democracy never took hold, and where monarchy is the prevalent governmental model.

After that glimmer of originality, it’s straight down the romance road, with a plot that seems series-ready for The CW, complete with an open-ended conclusion that guarantees a sequel.

It’s all very lush and sparkly and designed to reassure the plebeian reader that being royal isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but oh, isn’t it fun to watch. show less

I think this book was made for me in a lab - it even has critical romantic moments involving Wawa!! I mean, what more could I ask for? LOL

The story is alternate history when George Washington became King and now we have a bunch of young royals in complicated romantic entanglements heading off into their college years and struggling with the monarchy and the paparazzi.

(This really needs to be a Netflix show starring a bunch of beautiful people where I will struggle to figure out if I am in love with the King or the handsome young nobles.)

2024 Reflection Time: Now that I'm older, wiser (maybe), and have read way worse things than this, I don't think this is as bad as plenty of other books out there. Yes, it's trashy, but it's entertaining trash and that's what matters to me. I know I said I wouldn't be reading the following books but my interest has been reignited I miss Nina my beloved (and I will still probably be skimming Daphne's chapters). Gonna leave my original review up because it's iconic as fuck bye.

2022 Review:

Take all of the shitty people from the British royal family (aka anyone but Diana and Meghan) and make them American. Now add a dash of Gossip Girl (which I hate), a pinch of The Bachelorette (which I also hate), a hint of The Selection, and a few show more splashes of Dance Moms-level drama. Don’t forget to toss in a few pick-me girls (except for you, Nina Gonzalez). That is the recipe for American Royals.

Now if this sounds good to you, that’s great! I’m happy for you and hope you enjoy this. But to me, this sounds like a load of flaming garbage and I wish I had known this before buying a box of cereal for it. So I hope Nina Gonzalez is doing well in the next books, because I’m not reading them.

(And just as a warning, Daphne Deighton is one of the most disgusting, vile, and self-absorbed characters I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading about, so if you do decide to read this make sure to skip her chapters.)

No but genuinely, someone tell me what happens to Nina in the next books. I don’t care about spoilers and I need to know.

But also I kinda had fun with it and I may read book two if I'm ever in the mood to read some flaming hot dramatic garbage a la The Selection lmao

TL;DR: Concept was cool, execution was shit.

Original Rating: 2 Stars

Pre-Reading Updates: i heard this is trashy like trashier than the selection ooo i’m like 99% sure i’m gonna hate this lmao show less

I was expecting this to be very similar to Red, White, and Royal Blue. It's different from that and I still like it a lot. It's fast paced, the premise is fun, and the multiple perspectives lead to so many opportunities.