I loved Katharine McGee’s American Royals and was super excited to realize there was a sequel. It took me a while to get around to it, but I finally managed to listen to the audiobook last month.
It was just as much fun as the prequel, and while I loved getting to hang out with these characters again, I’m not sure how I feel about how quickly all the main characters did a 180 from where we left off with them in the first book.
In American Royals, Princess Beatrice is ready to abdicate in order to pursue a life with her guard, Connor, letting her sister, Samantha, rule instead and marry Teddy.
Nina had been in love with Jefferson pretty much her whole life, but Daphne, Jefferson’s ex-girlfriend, is determined to become a princess and will stop at nothing to get what she wants, including accidentally sending her best friend, Himari, into a coma. But, at the end of American Royals, there’s an indication that Himari might be coming out of her coma, which has the potential to ruin all of Daphne’s plans.
So, that’s where we left off and I was all ready to see each one of these characters fight for their true love, only to watch them all very quickly move on from the people they were supposedly madly in love with to someone else altogether.
As soon as Beatrice informs Connor that she’s going through with marrying Teddy, he resigns his post because he can’t bear to stand by and watch her marry someone else, and almost as soon as he leaves, Beatrice and Teddy start to grow closer and even go on some dates together, which are pretty sweet. He was decent to her in the first book, and they do have a lot in common, whereas she had hardly anything in common with Connor and really the only thing they ever did was make out, so I guess this shift makes sense. It just seems crazy to me that Beatrice was ready to go so far as to abdicate the throne for Connor, and after just a couple months, she’s like, “Never mind, I love Teddy now.”
Sam, who was so heartbroken when Teddy got engaged to Beatrice finds a new flame instantly, and as soon as she does, realizes she only wanted Teddy because she couldn’t have him. First of all, it’s hella sexist to claim women only want what they can’t have. Second of all, it makes no sense because she was super attracted to Teddy before she even knew he was being considered as a potential mate for Beatrice. But she starts dating this duke and is all, “Nevermind, he’s the real love of my life. No, really, I mean it this time.”
And remember everything Nina was willing to put up with in order to be with Jefferson? Including jeopardizing her relationship with her best friend? Who, by the way, thought they were perfect for each other?
Turns out they’re not perfect for each other at all, it was just a childhood crush … that lasted several years.
Now, just a few short weeks later, she’s all about Ethan, Jefferson’s best friend, although he’s not so much Jefferson’s best friend after Jeff finds out he’s been dating his ex-girlfriend and didn’t even bother to tell him about it.
Ethan only started going out with Nina because Daphne told him to get Nina out of the way while she pursued Jeff, but of course he ended up falling for her for real. He blames Daphne for ruining his friendship with Jeff, and while Daphne was responsible for Jeff finding out about Ethan and Nina, she’s not responsible for the fact that neither Ethan nor Nina told Jeff about it themselves. That’s on them.
Daphne’s story was the only one I found believable. Himari comes out of her coma, and at first she doesn’t remember anything, so she and Daphne are able to pick up their friendship as if nothing happened. But of course things start coming back to Himari and she eventually remembers what happened and what Daphne did to her. It looks like the end of their friendship, and since Daphne needs to get Himari out of the way (again) she arranges for her parents to be appointed the ambassadors to Japan, at which point she and Himari make up. Turns out Himari was just jealous that Daphne was spending all her time with Jeff and she missed her best friend.
The only problem I had with Daphne’s strategy was that she blackmailed Beatrice into making the appointment and that just seemed extremely shortsighted. Not only is she the queen, but if you’re angling to become her sister-in-law, do you really want to start off your relationship on a bad foot?
Daphne does end up getting Jefferson, if only because he’s too stupid to realize when he’s being manipulated. Daphne’s less than thrilled by the outcome because, as I previously mentioned, she has since realized she only wants Ethan. But she’s made her bed, and now she has to lie in it.
Ethan would have done anything for Daphne up until he fell for Nina. Daphne being Daphne, she tells Nina why Ethan starting spending time with her, at which point Nina isn’t sure she wants to keep seeing Ethan. Ethan points out to her that breaking them up is exactly what Daphne wants, but Nina is mature enough to not care what Daphne wants. The point is she’s not sure she can trust Ethan anymore, and that’s the only relationship that’s left up in the air at the end of the series.
In reading American Royals, it was pretty clear McGee was heavily influenced by “The Crown”, especially given the tensions between Beatrice and Sam over who’s next in line to inherit the throne and who actually wants to inherit the throne. The influence was solidified in this book when there’s a comment about Beatrice taking everything out of the box she gets from Congress and flipping it upside down so she can start with the information Robert doesn’t want her to know about.
The only place the influence from the TV show doesn’t work is the idea that the monarchy is in jeopardy. In the world of American Royals, there was no worldwide overthrow of monarchies because, while America did overthrow British rule, it just traded one monarchy for another, instead of setting an example to the rest of the world for what a country without a monarchy might look like. As a result, there are references made to royal families of countries that haven’t had a monarchy since WWI, in which case there’s absolutely no reason to think that the American monarchy is fragile.
By contrast, the whole reason the Windsors are so concerned about maintaining the monarchy in “The Crown” is because of all the social upheaval that took place right before Elizabeth II took the throne and in the early days of her reign, all of which was goes back to the American colonies, not only rejecting English rule, but rejecting the very idea of a monarchy. Without any of that, there’s no reason to worry that the monarchy needs protecting, so McGee loses points for that one.