Author: Katharine McGee
Genre: alternate history
Similar books: The Only Thing to Fear by Caroline Tung Richmond
Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin
Rating:
 |
| not as unique as I'd hoped |
Summary (provided by publisher): What if America had a royal family? If you can't get enough of Harry and Meghan or Kate and William, meet American princesses Beatrice and Samantha. Crazy Rich Asians meets The Crown. Perfect for fans of Red, White, and Royal Blue and The Royal We!
Two princesses vying for the ultimate crown.
Two girls vying for the prince's heart.
This is the story of the American royals.
When America won the Revolutionary War, its people offered General George Washington a crown. Two and a half centuries later, the House of Washington still sits on the throne. Like most royal families, the Washingtons have an heir and a spare. A future monarch and a backup battery. Each child knows exactly what is expected of them. But these aren't just any royals. They're American.
As Princess Beatrice gets closer to becoming America's first queen regnant, the duty she has embraced her entire life suddenly feels stifling. Nobody cares about the spare except when she's breaking the rules, so Princess Samantha doesn't care much about anything, either . . . except the one boy who is distinctly off-limits to her. And then there's Samantha's twin, Prince Jefferson. If he'd been born a generation earlier, he would have stood first in line for the throne, but the new laws of succession make him third. Most of America adores their devastatingly handsome prince . . . but two very different girls are vying to capture his heart.
The duty. The intrigue. The Crown. New York Times bestselling author Katharine McGee imagines an alternate version of the modern world, one where the glittering age of monarchies has not yet faded--and where love is still powerful enough to change the course of history.
My opinion: Alternate history can be a lot of fun. A really skilled author/historian can spin a complex world off of a simple change in our history. And that's what I thought we were getting here. It's a change of a small moment - George Washington becomes king instead of president. So we have a United States that is a monarchy. And It's fun to speculate how our world might have been altered by that change. The thing is, McGee doesn't really use that to full effect. Instead of considering how our society would be altered by being run by a king, the bulk of the plot is focused on love stories and duty to country. We have three couples not approved by society and the exploration of whether love will win over duty. The thing is, that plot could be told in any number of monarchies. There's not much uniquely American about the plot and no space given to a changed landscape. So the charm that I felt going into this book wore off quickly. It's possible that McGee will incorporate more of these elements in future volumes but this particular book was a disappointment.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
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