This was a fun book with a very unique and interesting twist on American History. What if we had created a new monarchy instead of a democracy. The characters are all likeable, and even though they are mostly royals, their interactions with friends and family are relatable. While I disagree with this book being labeled Young Adult, I do think it will have appeal for both young and older readers. The dramatic scenes and twists will entice readers to want to keep checking back with this planned series.

I love Katharine McGee and her writing style and after reading the summary I thought this would be a home run for sure! Don't get me wrong, it was good but I wanted it to bring something new to the royals and it didn't. It had some interesting characters and I am curious to see where the series goes, but just don't expect it to be a new take on the royal lifestyle.

I have honestly never clicked request so fast on a book before. I love alternate takes on history, especially those that reimagine things in a more harmless way (yes, I'm shaming you over there Man in the High Castle). The whole idea of America having a monarchy is so weird to me and yet this book does it so well. There's a lot of nods to American history but they're tweaked a little to make a monarchy possible. I also loved all the nods to democracy that were both making fun of the monarchy but also our current democracy.

The characterization in this one is stunning. I was startled that the first four chapters were from four different people and honestly I was about ready to throw in the towel, but I'm so glad I didn't. All of these women are strong voices to this narrative and their lives are interwoven. It was fun seeing how two characters reacted to the same thing or how the actions of one affected another. It was really important that we only got female points of view when this book is about the fictitious first queen of America. Not all of these characters are good or likable but they're all important and have real struggles.

This book has a backdrop of romance and vying for boys hearts but it's about so much more. It's about learning to love and trust yourself, how to put your friends first and realize when you're being dense or a horrible friend. It's about female empowerment and what women face when they're in positions of power. It's about love and what you're willing to do for those you love. It's about family and duty. But above all else, it's about how to go on when everything is falling apart around you.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Random House Books for Young Readers through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.*

Thanks to Random House Children's for providing this title both as an eARC via NetGalley and as a physical ARC at the Texas Library Association conference.

This book imagines a modern America with a royal family who trace their lineage to George Washington (King George I). The book follows the perspectives of Beatrice, the princess royal who is in line to be the first queen regnant in the U.S, Samantha, her "spare" younger sister, Nina, Samantha's lifelong best friend who is a commoner, and Daphne, the Prince Jeff’s ex-girlfriend, a minor aristocrat. The plot is well-trodden. Daphne has to decide between being a woman and a royal, her sister Sam chafes at the idea that she is superfluous when she has such a perfect sister, Nina is worried about what it will mean to be so close to the royal family, and Daphne is desperate to claw her way into the inner circle. Of course, no one is in love with the right person.

I was very excited about this one - it is a good time for royal takes since Meghan/Harry and Wills/Kate have reignited the royal fervor. This is a serviceable take on a US and world alternate history in which monarchy remained the dominant form of government. The worldbuilding wasn’t deep - don’t come here for a super detailed alternate history (particularly galling in the context of U.S. history was an absence of discussion about the history of slavery and the civil war and of treatment of Native Americans - as far as I remember, both these topics were absent from the book). Besides the mentions of actual royal figures, the world felt pretty unchanged. The American royal family as portrayed here did have a lot of commonality to stories from the British royals. I liked the characters for the most part, though I am not sure anyone read as the age they are.

Here’s what I didn’t like. First, as I mentioned, the plot and character development falls into tropes you can see in everything from Netflix’s <i>The Crown</i> to the <i>Royal We</i> to the <i>Princess Diaries II</i> movie. Heavy is the head that wears the crown and all that. Sometimes this book was still really fun, but there isn’t a lot of new ground here. This book is also marketed as really catty (which I didn’t see until after I’d finished it). There is a mean girl, Daphne, and the sisters do have conflict, but I don’t think this girl-vs-girl stuff had to be front-and-center in the marketing because it is more nuanced than that in the book and the conceit of an American royal family seems to be enough. Also, for a book with romance plot for each of the main characters, this book is pretty sex-negative. The characters are on the older side for YA - Sam is 18 and Daphne is in her 20s, but the only character who is explicitly sexually active (mild spoiler) kind of fits the villain role. After reading the new Jenn Bennet recently, this really stuck out to me. I also didn’t know that this was the first in a series and I found the ending of this one to be pretty unsatisfying even for the first of a series- know going in that this is not a standalone. Finally, as a university librarian, I had to laugh at some of the descriptions of Nina’s library job - maybe in this AU, the Library of Congress system was never invented, but universities in the real world have collections mostly in the LC classification. Also, Nina, as a shelver does not have to worry about “cataloging” books into their correct section. She only needs the number. This was a pet peeve, though, and won’t bother most readers.

Bottom line, I obviously had issues with this book, and some were serious, but I did enjoy reading it until the unsatisfying end. This is the kind of book I want to be a show on the CW - cast some cute people and I am in for like at least 6 seasons. I enjoyed these characters and I honestly wasn’t too mad about the well-worn ground it covered, but if you haven’t read the <i>Royal We</i>, pick that up before this one for sure.

I could not put this alternate history with George Washington becoming king instead of president. I have no idea how I'm going to wait for the next book in the series when this one isn't even out til September. It was so fun.

If you're in the mood for drama, romance, and scandal, look no further. Don't get me wrong, this book is mind candy, but it's mind candy at it's most delicious. Warning: there are unresolved plot threads at the end, but the cliffhangers didn't feel cheap. I do wish that the worldbuilding was a bit more rich--McGee clearly had fun with the alternate history angle, but it just didn't feel different enough from the United States of the present for the book to be exceptional. Also, I find it a bit distasteful that nobody ever mentions native Americans, even in the context of the violence of the British colonizers being swept under the rug in favor of a more "honorable" origin story for the founders. But, again, it's mind candy, so how much can you expect?