One Old, One New: The Royal Edition

One Old, One New features two books - one old, one new, which are connected in some way. Today, I am sharing two royal romances.

American Royals
Katharine McGee
Series: American Royals, #1
Age/Genre: Young Adult, Alternative History
Publisher: Random House
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

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.

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. And their country was born of rebellion.

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.

What would American look like, if George Washington had been our first king instead of our first president? This was the very question Katharine McGee answered in her spectacular book, American Royals.

Though technically a fantasy, this book felt contemporary, as it is set in our current time in a slightly different America. In this America, Washington's descendants ruled from their palace, and it was such a treat to spend time in their world.

I was a HUGE fan of McGee's Thousandth Floor series, and was over the moon, when I heard she was writing a series featuring royals. Let me tell you, this book was everything I was hoping for and then some. I came here looking for more of the delicious drama that McGee had previously dazzled me with, and I was delighted to find an abundance of it.

The story was told via four points of view

• Beatrice - the first female heir to the throne, who was struggling with putting crown before self due to matters of the heart. 
• Samantha - the spare, who was being denied the one she wanted and living in the shadow of her sister. 
• Nina - Samantha's best friend, who got in over her head with her love match, as she was not up to the challenges of navigating the royal world. 
• Daphne - the social climber, who was bent on getting her princess plan back on track. 

I have been known to laud books with low drama, but here, I found more was better. I could not get enough of all the forbidden love, the sneaking around, the subterfuge, and the plotting, but the heart of this book, for me, was the characters and their struggles. 

I found each character to be fully formed, and loved that they were all really human and flawed. They may have lived in a class way above me, but they were dealing with many of the same everyday problems we all do, and I found everyone very relatable and easy to like. Even the "villain" of the group was created in a way, that I was able to feel some sort of empathy for her. 

There were also many relationships examined throughout the story. We got into the family dynamics, the friendships, and the romantic entanglements within this group, which were all a bit more complicated, when they were between a royal and commoner. A lot of the characters' dilemmas were related to trying to reconcile their modern beliefs with the archaic laws they were expected to follow, and that created some major conflicts of the heart. 

I have seen people call the ending "predictable", but I DON'T CARE! It was done with so much emotion and dramatic flair, I was shedding tears and wishing I had the next book on hand. 

If you are looking for a soapy and delicious drama stacked with fabulous characters -- look no further, because American Royals can deliver all that with the bonus of an emotional punch. 

**ARC received in exchange for an honest review.

The Heir and the Spare
Emily Albright
Series: The Heir and the Spare, #1
Age/Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: SimonPulse
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

Family can be complicated. Especially when skeletons from the past pop up unexpectedly. For American Evie Gray, finding out her deceased mother had a secret identity, and not one of the caped crusader variety, was quite the surprise. Evie’s mom had a secret life before she was even born, one that involved tiaras.

In this modern day fairytale, Evie is on a path to figure out who her mom really was, while discovering for herself what the future will hold. Charged with her late mother’s letters, Evie embarks on a quest into her past. The first item on the list is to attend Oxford, her mom’s alma mater. There, Evie stumbles upon a real life prince charming, Edmund Stuart the second Prince of England, who is all too happy to be the counterpart to her damsel in distress.

Evie can’t resist her growing attraction to Edmund as they spend more time together trying to unravel the clues her mother left behind. But, when doubts arise as to whether or not Edmund could ever be with an untitled American, what really ends up unraveling is Evie’s heart. When Evie uncovers all the facts about her mom’s former life, she realizes her mom’s past can open doors she never dreamed possible, doors that can help her be with Edmund. But, with everything now unveiled, Evie starts to crack under the pressure of new family responsibilities and the realization that her perfect prince may want her for all the wrong reasons.

Evie enrolled at Oxford as part of a quest her mother planned for her prior to her death. She wanted her daughter to uncover her roots, but Evie was lucky enough to make some amazing friends and fall in love along the way.

I won't lie, I bought this book years ago fully expecting allusions to William and Kate's romance, and not to worry, it was there. However, I felt that Albright took the story up a notch by including the storyline involving Evie's mother. Her mother had passed away many years prior, but before her death, she penned letters to her daughter, which Evie received yearly on her birthday. My feels were already tingling from that, but then upon her high school graduation, Evie received another letter. This one encouraging her to apply to Oxford to, as they say, walk in her mother's shoes.

I loved the idea of Evie connecting with her mother in this way. She got to see the sights and sit in the very classrooms that her mother once had. Though a bit predictable, since whoever wrote the blurb revealed what I felt was a major plot point, I still enjoyed waiting for each of those letters and seeing where they would take her.

This was also a royal romance! Evie was able to capture the eye and heart of Prince Edmund, and I thought they made a great pair. They had their ups and downs, mostly complications due to outside forces, but there was definitely something I liked between those two. Albright did a beautiful job capturing that infatuation and those emotions associated with falling in love, and I definitely ate it all up.

Although he was the "spare", Edmund's family still had expectations for him, and their meddling in his romantic affairs caused the type of drama one expects. Not to worry, the drama was balanced out well by the camaraderie Evie and Edmund enjoyed with their fantastic group of friends. I could not help but envy Evie's good fortune to be taken in by this group, and I enjoyed spending time with them.

Overall: This was a fun and super cute royal romance, which focused on friendship, family, and finding your own path.

Favorite "royals" book?
Let us know in the comments!