I was immediately intrigued by this book by Katharine McGee as soon as it hit my radar when it came out last year. Alas, knowing I would have no time to read it, I decided to listen to the audiobook. I’m very glad I did because I loved listening to it and I never would have gotten around to it if I had tried to read a hard copy or ebook. Brittany Pressley narrates the audiobook and she does a great job.
If you enjoy watching The Crown, you’ll love this book.
I’m assuming you’re familiar with the concept: When George Washington was offered the position of King of America, he said yes instead of saying no. This book is about his modern-day predecessors (since George Washington never had children of his own, the line comes from his nephew). I can’t remember the name of the current king, but his children are Princess Beatrice, followed by the twins, Princess Samantha and Prince Jefferson. There’s a lot of talk about how a lot of men in the family have been named Jefferson over the years and that part confused me if we’re talking about a world in which Jefferson was never president. Maybe they decided to name their children after members of the original George Washington’s cabinet, since Alexander is one of Jefferson’s middle names.
The current king has just changed the law to make the oldest child, rather than the oldest son, the next in line for the throne, which means Beatrice is in constant training to be the first Queen of America while the twins, Sam and Jeff, get to goof off. And goof off they do.
They’ve just finished a six-month royal tour following their high school graduation. Everyone assumes they’ll go to King’s College after their gap year, but they’re not so sure. Sam in particular is having a bit of an existential crisis. She’s jealous that Beatrice gets all the attention and knows, without a doubt, what she’s going to do for the rest of her life. Sam feels powerless, which is honestly kind of ridiculous given the enormous platform she has. She could literally do anything. Instead she has become a fashion icon known for her partying ways.
Jefferson doesn’t seem to care much at all for the throne. He’s too busy trying to work out his feelings for his sister’s best friend.
Nina Gonzalez has been Sam’s best friend since they were kids, when one of Nina’s moms went to the palace to interview for the position of the king’s Chamberlain when the current king ascended to the throne. She got the job and Sam and Nina have been pretty much inseparable ever since. Until they graduated high school and Nina went on to college and Sam went on her royal tour.
Nina is one of the first people Sam contacts when she gets home, whereupon she shows up on campus in one of the royal cars and convinces Nina to go to the King’s Ball with her, a holiday tradition. She has absolutely no respect for the fact that Nina might have homework, a job, or, I don’t know, other friends?
At the ball, Sam ditches Nina to go make out with the first hot guy she meets – an aristocrat named Teddy. There are definitely sparks between them, but unbeknownst to Sam, their parents had informed Beatrice that it’s time to find herself a king consort, even though she’s only just graduated college. They give her a pre-approved list of candidates (because he must come from the aristocracy), and wish her luck.
Teddy also does not realize until he gets to the ball that he’s there to be presented to Princess Beatrice to make his case for future royal spouse. But he’s the only one of all the candidates who actually asks Beatrice how she’s doing instead of bragging about himself, so she asks him out.
Meanwhile, Daphne Deighton, Jefferson’s ex-girlfriend, is scheming to get Jefferson back. She has been working and plotting for years to make sure she becomes Princess Daphne. She never steps outside without wearing the right clothes, makeup, and hairdo. She regularly visits the local hospital. She never let’s herself drink in public because she’s not yet 18 (apparently the legal drinking age in this reality is 18) and doesn’t want to risk any photos surfacing of her doing anything even remotely illegal.
She did make one crucial mistake, though: she slept with Jefferson’s best friend, Ethan, which not only makes her a bad girlfriend, it also makes him a really bad best friend.
When Daphne’s best friend found out about Daphne’s mistake, she threatened to tell Jefferson, so Daphne slipped something in her drink at a party. She just wanted her friend to appear so drunk that anything she said wouldn’t be believed, but things went too far and her friend ended up tumbling down a flight of stairs and has been in a coma ever since. Daphne still visits her regularly, and that’s not for the cameras. That’s just because Daphne feels true guilt at what she did, but it also shows the reader what happens to anyone who gets between Daphne and her crown.
That doesn’t bode well for Nina, who has been in love with Jefferson for a while and is the reason Jefferson broke up with Daphne. Jefferson wants to be with Nina, but Nina isn’t sure she wants the pressure of being the prince’s girlfriend, and for good reason. When their relationship is made public (due to Daphne’s scheming), everyone on social media attacks her for not looking the part: she’s not pretty enough, doesn’t dress the right way, doesn’t deserve him, is interested only in his status. It’s ironic that they immediately assume Nina is only interested in his crown because she’s not an aristocrat, yet no one ever thinks that about Daphne, even though the truth is the other way around.
When Nina confronts Daphne in the bathroom during another ball, Daphne makes sure the bathroom is empty and locks the door before admitting that she’s been trying to break up Nina and Jefferson – and that she’s going to succeed because no one (not the public, not the royal family) will ever accept Nina. Nina decides enough is enough and breaks it off with Jefferson. Her moms try to tell her that they understand, but that dealing with people like Daphne is just part of hanging out with royalty, and that if she truly loves Jefferson, she shouldn’t let a petty schemer get in their way.
Then the king has a heart attack and Nina rushes to the hospital to be there for Jefferson and Sam, but she sees Daphne there with Jefferson, and leaves without letting anyone see her (she does text Sam to let her know she’s thinking of her).
Meanwhile, Beatrice has fallen for her bodyguard, but of course the future monarch can’t marry a commoner. Teddy is nice and all, but there are no sparks there and it doesn’t look like there ever will be, no matter how much her parents try to explain that they barely knew each other when they got married and they’ve lived happily ever after ever since. Beatrice doesn’t think she can live without her bodyguard.
Obviously, the answer is for Beatrice to abdicate the throne and go marry her bodyguard, leaving Sam to inherit the throne and marry Teddy, but her father has a heart attack right as she’s trying to explain all this to him, so when he dies in the hospital, Beatrice is wracked with guilt, thinking she killed him with her rebelliousness.
So, it looks like she’s going to take the throne after all, and marry Teddy to boot. I doubt Daphne will succeed in winning Jefferson back, but if there’s one thing this book has taught me, it’s not to underestimate her.