American Royals by Katharine McGee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I have to admit, I’m really disappointed. I was swayed by the beautiful cover and I was hoping this would be something akin to The Selection; I was so wrong. This book was a sitcom disguised as an intellectual book about what would happen if America had a royal family. So many people were raving about how good it was, but I just don’t see it. I connected with none of the characters, the ending was bland and I don’t see the point of the novel at all. It wasn’t about what would happen if American had a royal family either, that topic was only mentioned four times in the entire book; it was more like ‘Here! America has royals now and here is a story about them. It’s full of cheating, backstabbing and cheesy reveals.’ Overall, the rating is a low three stars.
Spoilers Below
I didn’t like any of the characters. Every one of them had some pretty serious flaws, and none of them were relatable in the slightest. Beatrice was indecisive and conceded; even though she told herself she wanted everything for the crown she was definitely too self centered for that. Teddy was a player, something I hate. I just don’t believe he didn’t know he was at the ball for Beatrice’s picking a husband. I didn’t like Connor either, he was super winey and I couldn’t take how he resigned then came back then was going to resign again, I really didn’t like him. Jefferson was like most guys with an ex in books, always defending her and Nina was just super cowardly. I couldn’t take how she kept hiding from the paparazzi and ran away from Jeff just because Daphne said something mean; she had low self esteem and was super self-deprecating in a bad way. Samatha was a pretty bad friend and she definitely took Nina for granted, but ignoring that I think she’d make a better queen than Beatrice (more on that later). The only redeemable character in this book was Daphne. She had a goal and a reason for it, even if she wasn’t completely sure if she really wanted the goal at all. I liked following her story line the most and I think she could probably have a character arc.
On the topic of the different character perspectives each chapter, it was something I was ok with, but I would have like to see from some of the boys instead of just all girls. Also, I knew five minutes into the book that it was going to be a heavy romance and that I wasn’t going to like the story. I was mostly correct, some of the things were ok, but others like how Sam kissed her sister’s fiancée and Daphne cheated twice, just made me like ‘ok, this is the last straw’. After that I resigned myself to reading basically only the dialogue because everything else was unnecessary fluff.
I was also kind of disappointed by the reveals. I was able to predict most of them, like how Daphne had done something to Himari (I think that was her name) and how Daphne was the one who leaked the photos of Nina. It was all pretty predictable, and because of that I am going to try my hand at predicting the rest of the series. I bet that Beatrice will end up abdicating, because Teddy is engaged to the heir which will become Sam, they will live happily ever after and Sam will be queen. Beatrice will end up with Conner, Daphne and Ethan will eventually figure out they are supposed to be together and Nina and Jeff will get back together. Bam! Come back in Fall 2020 and see if I’m right.
I will be reading the rest of the series, mostly because I am a perfectionist and hate leaving things unfinished but also because I’m just a tiny bit interested in how the author is going to pull this off. I actually thought this was a stand alone (like so many books I’ve read recently) and I still think it would have been better in that format, but series are like authors’ kryptonite, so I guess we’re getting a few more books.
Now, I know I’m being pretty critical of this book, but that is because I really wanted to like it. I’ve had it on my shelf to read for so long and I couldn’t wait to pick it up. The reviews were amazing, everyone was waiting for it, the cover was awesome and I remember seeing how long the line for an ARC at BookCon was. I was just super disappointed in the story and it might be even worse than if I had just picked it up at the bookstore knowing nothing about it, because I had my expectations so high. I guess it isn’t so bad if you are into super heavy romance and a sitcom feel, but that’s just not for me.
The only thing I haven’t addressed yet about this book was the ending, and I hate to end on a bad note, but I really didn’t like it. I feel like it was unnecessarily dramatic and took itself too seriously, but kind of bland at the same time. I also didn’t like how nothing was answered at the end. There was no real story arc for this first book, all I could say was Beatrice got engaged, her dad died and other stuff happened. That really disappointed me. I just wish there could have been some event that had been building from the beginning of the book and paid off at the end.
Overall, I was really disappointed in this book, both in the storytelling and the characters. I can deal with a bad story if the characters are relatable, but that just wasn’t the case here. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone who doesn’t love sitcoms or heavy romance books. In conclusion, (and I know I’m just repeating myself, but) I was just really disappointed.
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