I’ve been waiting for this one and it did not disappoint.

In this book, Beatrice is set to run her first League of Kings conference – it is her first big event as Queen and all eyes are on her to make sure she doesn’t fuck it up. Let’s just say things don’t go exactly as planned for her, though she does make some friends.

Basically, the League of Kings conference is a big event where royalty all around the world get together and discuss important issues but also they just kind of party and live their best wealthy lives. Super fun.

I honestly feel bad for Beatrice, she is always struggling with being Queen and it hasn’t exactly been going well for her. Especially when she is trying to find a place for Teddy to fit into all of this, Teddy is her King consort to be but because America has never had a King consort before, they need to find something for him to do.

On top of that, Beatrice is also trying to win over everyone at the conference to vote for her climate change accord, it was something her father had pushed before and she wanted to see it through. That doesn’t really work out for her either, at least not initially. Once she kind of stands up for herself and takes command she is able to get people to reconsider, not without the help of a new possible friendship with Louise, Princess of France.

Meanwhile down at King’s College, Nina is making friends with Daphne? I know who would have thought? But it turns out they share a common enemy, Gabriella. The girls are convinced that Gabriella is the reason why Nina’s financial aid gets revoked after Nina makes some nasty comments about her. Gabriella’s father is also the reason why Daphne’s family is at risk of losing their baronetcy and if they do then Daphne will be nothing but a commoner. Ouch.

So the girls team up to take down Gabriella and they thought they would be able to do it, and honestly they had me fooled too. I thought they could do it.

Sadly for them, the dirt they had on Gabriella was really nothing and Daphne’s family ended up losing their title. Luckily for Nina though, good old Prince Jefferson noticed something was up with her financial aid and looked into it and had it reinstated so Nina lucked out.

Speaking of Prince Jefferson, he and Daphne are back together but Nina and Jeff have been getting close again. Yikes.

So the friendship with Daphne and Nina doesn’t last long especially when Jeff says to Nina that Daphne has been acting weird lately and then kisses Nina. Naturally, Daphne sees this and is furious. She thinks Nina double-crossed her and was working with Gabriella this whole time and now she was taking Jeff from her again.

This leads Daphne to pull out all the stops to prevent Jefferson to break up with her, so she pretends to be pregnant. I mean I saw this coming lol I didn’t know what she was going to do but this is definitely on brand for her. There’s nothing like a pregnancy scare to make someone stay with you, especially in the fictional dramatic world of TV/books. It’s not original but I am excited to see how Daphne plays this one.

Meanwhile, Nina finds out Jeff didn’t break up with Daphne but she doesn’t know the reason, she just figures that Daphne was the one double-crossing her and that she was done competing with her.

Honestly, I am sad that this happened to them, Nina and Daphne would have been a great friendship. I imagine they could have a big confrontation in the next book and possibly be friends again but at the same time would Nina be able to forgive Daphne for pretending she could be pregnant just to keep Jefferson on her hook?

Side note, I feel so bad for Jefferson constantly being in the middle of these two. I mean the main thing is he is just being manipulated by Daphne 24/7 so he can’t just be with a person he actually has feelings for like Nina. I just need him to snap out of it and realise who Daphne really is, he got a glimpse of who she really was this time around I imagine it’s not going to take long for the cracks to continue to show with her.

And then there’s Sam who is trying to choose between her relationship with Marshall, the future duke of Orange, and her duty as heir to the throne. If she and Marshall got married she could only see a future where Marshall would have to give up his dukedom which she didn’t want. And then she realises she could just give up her title instead. Honestly, Sam’s dilemma was not that interesting in comparison to other things going on. If anything it was kind of mirroring what Beatrice and Teddy are going through but it’s more serious for Beatrice as she is the queen.

Sam and Marshall end up running away to Hawaii for a while where they can live as normal people because Hawaii stays separate from everything and doesn’t recognise foreign royalty on its soil. So that’s nice for them.

The book doesn’t end all sunshine and roses though as Beatrice and Teddy’s relationship ends up becoming strained as Teddy feels like Beatrice hasn’t been focusing on and working as much on the relationship as he is. Especially since Teddy has willingly given his all to Beatrice, including his own Dukedom.

Teddy explains to Beatrice after the League of Kings conference ends that he needs some time apart but in true romance movie fashion, Beatrice thinks that’s a terrible idea and asks for a driver to take her to the airport to stop Teddy from taking off. As she is being driven to the airport she gets into a car crash and is left in critical condition. Uh oh. Not a good time for Samantha to renounce her title and run off to Hawaii.

This leaves Jefferson to take on the duty of Acting King which he agrees to do with Daphne at his side. It is in the hospital that Nina is watching this unfold and pieces together that Daphne was only ever looking out for herself and now that Jefferson was going to become the Acting King there was no way she was going to be able to get between them now. That and whatever friendship they had was over.

And that’s where we end things. Honestly, I am not sure where we go from here. Naturally, I don’t want Beatrice to die, the family has already been through enough since their dad passed away not that long ago. Plus, Sam is going to feel awful for leaving town and being unreachable when she finds out about Beatrice.

Daphne will probably do what she always does and stand by Jefferson’s side and gently guide him in his new position as Acting King. I don’t know how everyone will react when they realise Daphne isn’t pregnant and she exaggerated but that’s something I look forward to finding out. And also you know what Nina is going to do if Daphne refuses to let her see Jefferson again…

So yeah, it’s all a mess but I am hooked on the drama. And I just looked it up and the next book is set to be published later this year so sign me up because I am more than ready for more American Royal family drama.

A full book review on something not Gossip Girl? I’m surprised too.

So this is American Royals, which might as well be Gossip Girl if they were royalty haha. In case you couldn’t tell I do love a good bit of drama in my books.

This one took me a while to get into though because I was thrown in the deep end with like six characters I didn’t know and new point of view’s every chapter so a girl needed a minute to be like – who is that? Once we got that down things became a lot easier.

So I’m going to break it down for you real quick here before we dive in haha:

• Beatrice: The first in line for the throne
• Sam: Beatrice’s younger sister
• Jeff: Sam’s twin brother
• Nina: Sam’s best friend who has a crush on Jeff
• Daphne: Used to date Jeff, wants to be a royal
• Connor: Beatrice’s security detail but also is in love with her
• Teddy: Beatrice’s potential husband but has feelings for Sam

Okay so they are the main players, even from my bullet points I feel like you can tell a lot from them haha.

Let’s start with Beatrice, the first in line for the throne. Always prim and proper and does the right thing…until she falls in love with her bodyguard. Well, I saw this coming a mile away with the way the story was written. You just knew Connor was in love with her and it was only a matter of time before she fell too. I ship it.

Sadly though they could never be together, not when Beatrice is up to be Queen. Not only that but the first Queen ever. Because they had a rule that the successor was always meant to be male because you know…that’s always a thing.

Also it’s super weird to read about if America had royalty. Like adjusting to this, me forgetting it’s not set in England and isn’t about the British haha. But it’s good, better to keep it fictional. I also find it fun how I’m reading about American royal drama when currently there’s real British royal drama with Prince Harry and Meghan but like we didn’t come here to talk about that. I just felt the need to say it was a weird coincidence I would read about this when actual royalty is getting so much attention right now.

Anyway yeah so Beatrice is gonna be Queen and it’s going to happen sooner than she thought because the King has stage four cancer. Not good. Plus not only that but she is being pressured into finding a husband because it would make it easier for America to adjust to the idea of a Queen if she had a King. Cue: Teddy.

Teddy is introduced at the ball and he is the only one of Beatrice’s potential suitors that she can really tolerate. They both come from a mutual place of understanding when it comes to what is expected of them making them the perfect couple. At least it would appear that way.

Before Beatrice had met Teddy he had actually run into Sam first and they had a moment together, kissed and everything. So scandalous. Obviously Sam wasn’t too thrilled to find out about Beatrice and Teddy but we will get to that.

Beatrice actually isn’t too thrilled about her relationship with Teddy either as she and her bodyguard Connor have admitted their feelings for one another and are sneaking around. Keeping everything pretty PG though.

Next thing you know, Beatrice has run out of time and has proposed to Teddy. This is obviously not the news Connor expected to hear and so he proposes to Beatrice right after her announcement. I was expecting her to go with her heart and accept Connor’s proposal but she declines! She accepts Connor’s resignation and continues on with her planning of the wedding.

Honestly, props to Beatrice for wanting to serve her country, but at the same time part of me wonders if things begin to fall apart once the actual wedding day arrives…

Moving onto Sam, who is always feeling invisible and like the “spare” child. She is next in line to the throne and she feels like that’s all people see her as. She is jealous of all the attention that is brought down on Beatrice but does not understand the pressure her sister is under.

However, the two do end up having a cute heart to heart moment in the kitchen so I think they’re relationship is on the mend.

Sam is also BFF’s with Nina who she has known since she was little. Nina is not a royal but her mother worked for them so she grew up basically as part of the family. However now that Nina is in uni she tends to keep her relationship with Sam on the DL so no one knows.

This was all working well for Nina until she starts dating Jeff, Sam’s brother. I saw it coming from the way the book is written – it tries to act like there was all this drama going on between Jeff, his ex – Daphne, and Nina but I clocked that Nina totally hooked up with Jeff ASAP – you know I love the drama.

Anyway Nina starts dating Jeff in secret and it is going well until the press finds out about them and everyone starts calling Nina a social-climbing gold-digger. All this comes down on her courtesy of Daphne, Jeff’s ex.

After Nina ignores Jeff for a couple weeks he decides to go and talk to her and they believe they can make it work. For about five minutes. Nina is very insecure about her relationship with Jeff so when Daphne talks to her and explains she will never fit in, well that seems to be the end of her and Jeff.

I was surprised that Nina gave up on Jeff again so quickly but it really annoyed me when he didn’t believe Nina about Daphne being the one to leak photos to the press etc. Then again Jeff is kind of an idiot haha. I feel like he doesn’t want to put effort into his relationship to make it work and maybe being with Daphne would be easier for him…

Speaking of Daphne. I do kind of love her character. She was dating Jeff until he dumped her and now she is doing everything to get him back. She has been working her whole life to become a royal and it is a lot of pressure. I also keep forgetting how young she is because honestly she sounds like she’s 23 but she’s only like 18.

As determined as Daphne is to be an adult, she doesn’t have together all the time. Even though she is trying to get back with Jefferson she can’t deny she may have real feelings for his best friend Ethan.

Ethan can see right through Daphne and her schemes and she really enjoys the fact that there is someone out there that can see the real her. It’s only a matter of time before her facade slips in front of Jefferson and he finds out who she really is. At least I hope so.

Not to mention Daphne is so ruthless that she DRUGGED her own best friend to stop her from spilling the tea about her and Ethan to Jefferson. That is why her friend is in a coma. Like damn. I knew she did something, that was obvious but who knew it was this, I thought she just pushed the girl down the stairs haha.

Can’t wait ’til Himari comes out of that coma girl.

Anyway, everything comes to a head at the big engagement party for Teddy and Beatrice. This is when Beatrice realises that she cannot go through with this engagement and wants to call of the wedding. Hallelujah, she has come to her senses.

Connor finds Beatrice at the engagement party and Beatrice realises that he is the one she should be with. He agrees to come back and work for Beatrice but she knows that could never be enough. So she makes plans to tell her father after the party.

Sadly, when Beatrice tells her father he is not in support of it. Not surprising but at the same time I thought he might have just stood by his daughter anyway. The news comes as such a shock to him that he ends up having a heart attack. Eeek. Though this isn’t the first time someone has used shocking news to bring on a heart attack to someone in a book/movie/TV show.

So the King is rushed to the hospital and everyone in the state has put their own life on hold so they can monitor the King’s. Beatrice and her family are in the hospital and no one knows about Beatrice calling off the engagement. She couldn’t call it off now that the King is in the hospital.

Beatrice manages to have a few last words with her father but he does not get a chance to tell her about what he thinks about Teddy and Connor. Though Beatrice comes to her own conclusions about that, she needs to stay with Teddy in order to be a good Queen. Whatever her and Connor have will be torn apart by the media and the people thinking he is not good enough for her.

Too bad we will never know what he really thought. As the family are outside accepting well-wishes and gifts from the people outside the hospital, they receive news that the King has passed away.

This is when the whole nation turns to bow to Beatrice, their new Queen.

And I am left over here with a bunch of questions. I’m glad there will be a second book but apparently it will not be out until Autumn so I have a lot of waiting to do.

I want to know what Beatrice will decide about Connor and Teddy. I mean I guess it is kind of made clear what will happen. She will go through with her wedding but still see Connor on the side and it’ll probably be a hot mess. Though she could just marry Connor anyway and perhaps give the title up to Samantha?

It would make sense if Samantha became Queen, especially with Teddy on her side. Sure it is going to be super tacky to just take your sister’s place with her fiance and everything but like…it’ll be fine. Though I’m not sure if Sam would really want to be Queen. So we see what happens.

There there is the whole Daphne/Nina/Jeff situation. Nina saw Daphne at the hospital with Jeff and decided it was too much to handle for her so she left without anyone seeing her. I hope that she can either move on from Jeff or find someway to expose Daphne and get her man back.

As for Daphne, well she is on cloud nine and is surprised things are working out so well for her. After waking up to the news about the King, she wasted no time going to the hospital to console Jefferson. If only he knew who she woke up next to…

I imagine the truth will come out about Daphne soon, whether it comes from Himari if she wakes up from her coma, Ethan the angry lover or Nina the jealous ex. The world will find out the tea. Or at least Jeff will.

So that is where I am going to leave it. I definitely did not expect this series to draw me in like it has but now I want to know what happens next. I think Beatrice will make an amazing Queen but I know that there will be issues no matter who stands beside her as her King consort.

Not to mention that whatever she chooses will change Sam’s fate also, if she isn’t with Teddy then Sam can be, but if not then Sam has to watch them be a happy couple to the world…

So yeah, lots of questions and wondering. It’s safe to say I’ll be picking up the sequel whenever I get the chance. In the meantime it is time to venture back to the Upper East Side, I think I only have like four books left to read so let’s get to it, shall we?

~ Courtney x