I have a theory that Ethan from the American Royals is the Kings Illegitimate child and that the “commoner he fell in love with” is Ethan’s mother. Please I have evidence I need someone to give me feedback 😭😭😭😭
Blurb: When America won the Revolutionary War, its people offered General Washington a crown. Two and a half centuries later, the House of Washington still sits on the throne. 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.
“this was one of those instances where the English language fell short. The word for losing something insignificant-a baseball game, a library card-shouldn't be the same as for losing someone who defines you, someone you love. There should be a word for losses you can recover from, and a different word for the life-shattering losses, the ones that leave you forever changed.” 🥲
Samantha had never felt this way about anyone before—like she was grateful to the world simply because Marshall was in it, and at the same time like she wanted to make the world better because Marshall was in it. She loved him. It was as simple as that.
Finished Reign, the 4th and thankfully last American Royals book. Had low expectations and still, it was even worse than I expected. I think I rated it 1/5 stars on goodreads because oh boy was this awful.
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Spoilers below
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Book 3 left at such a cliffhanger that there was no way I wasn't picking up book 4 and yet the way things get resolved didn't do much of anything for me. The book felt all over the place and kinda like it was just thrown together to give every character a good ending. The romances and pairings were like a second thought and worse off was character development. Even the plot itself felt like a rehashing of the other books.
And to have a detestable character like Daphne get away with all the crap she pulled on Nina and Jeff and get off not only with no consequences but in a better place was very very annoying. After book after book of Jeff being blind to her manipulations there is no moment where everything comes to light. She doesn't even admit to lying about being pregnant...and then when it seems like she will get hated by the media suddenly there's a way to resolve it so that doesn't happen. Ugh.
I am so glad I don't have to give this series even a moment of thought now I finished this last book.
I mean I read Reign in one sitting because it was so captivating but that is supposed to be the end of the series? Really? I think the only one who got a conclusion more or less was Beatrice but even with her we are still kinda left in the air with how Teddy will fit into the role as her consort.
And the rest of the girls' stories just end in the middle of everything. All of them have great set-ups for more and yet this is how the author chose to end the series accordng to the acknowledgements? That's disappointing. After that end I expected a fifth book to drop soon.
I’m too much of a history nerd to just like, *not* fixate on the world building part of the American Royals series. Like yes, super interesting to go “okay Washington claimed the title of King” and trickle down from there in establishing a constitutional monarchy for America.
But it’s how *everything else in the last 300 years* also changed or didn’t happen that wiggles in the back of my mind. A *kingdom* of *Brazil*?? The French Revolution didn’t happen, or happened much differently? The anarchist movements of the 19th century didn’t take off and wipe out heirs and start wars?
The Great War didn’t happen???
The rise of communism? Fascism? No? Everyone went “right well, we’ve all got kings and emperors and sultans now, that’s jolly good” and *none of the revolutionary thought* came to the commoners?
Canada has its own king!!!!
Like I know that for a lot of things, the American Revolution and the establishment of modern-ish democracy was a big deal. But enough to erase communism or anarchism or literally anything that changed the world in the last 250 years?
(Also I don’t think any African country has been mentioned yet, it’s been a while since I read the first two books and I’ve just started the third, but uhhhh. Yeah monarchy and Africa didn’t go well together)