Book Review: Majesty by Katharine McGee

Publisher: Penguin Random House
Publication Year: 2020
Page Count: 374
Format: Audiobook
Rating: 1 star

WARNING: There may be spoilers ahead for American Royals (Book 1).

Synopsis (From GoodReads):

Is America ready for its first queen?

Power is intoxicating. Like first love, it can leave you breathless. Princess Beatrice was born with it. Princess Samantha was born with less. Some, like Nina Gonzalez, are pulled into it. And a few will claw their way in. Ahem, we’re looking at you Daphne Deighton.

As America adjusts to the idea of a queen on the throne, Beatrice grapples with everything she lost when she gained the ultimate crown. Samantha is busy living up to her “party princess” persona…and maybe adding a party prince by her side. Nina is trying to avoid the palace–and Prince Jefferson–at all costs. And a dangerous secret threatens to undo all of Daphne’s carefully laid “marry Prince Jefferson” plans.

A new reign has begun…

In the wise words of Jake Tapper, ““That was a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck.”

Before you read ahead, there may be spoilers from book 1 in this review. If you have not read American Royals and plan to, I would not read ahead.

Um…. so what the heck was this? I gave American Royals 5/5 stars. I loved the drama, the gossip, the relationships the author built, the characters… it was so much fun and so entertaining. This sequel essentially took everything that Katherine McGee spent book 1 doing, and totally unraveling it. The reader spent the entire first book learning to love these characters, becoming invested in their relationships, and then essentially decided to start the story over.

Obviously, the first book followed 4 main characters: Beatrice, Samantha, Nina, and Daphne. They were each so defined from one another and had totally different personalities. In this book, the characters lost all of their uniqueness (except Daphne- but we’ll get there later) and became obsessed with the men in their lives. Beatrice is now queen after the death of her father. In book 1, she was struggling with choosing between her heart and her duty to her country, while in this book she was too busy pining over her sister’s ex-boyfriend. Nina had no personality traits- I could not tell you a single thing about her except for what I remember in book 1. Samantha was surprisingly my favorite character in this novel, as her relationship definitely seemed the most believable. She is the only character in this to have the slightest bit of character development.

Also, can we please talk about that ending? We spent the entire story reading about all these women and their love interests, and for what??

I feel like I cannot talk about the ending without inserting a spoiler, so if you have not read Majesty, I would stop here. Essentially, if you liked American Royals, I would not read Majesty because it ruined book 1 for me.

Anyways, onto the spoilers!!

There was not one single relationship that was believable in this book. The author really wanted us to believe that Nina would date her ex-boyfriend’s best friend, Beatrice would become engaged to her sister’s ex-boyfriend, and Jefferson would fall for Daphne? She really expected us to disregard every single relationship that happened in book 1 and forget it all ever happened? What happened to Connor? Samantha’s thing for Teddy was merely a fling? It made absolutely no sense.

Lastly, can we please talk about Daphne? When I said the other characters didn’t have development, I didn’t include Daphne because she is on a whole different level. Not only does she not develop, but she becomes even more infuriating in this book. She nearly killed her best friend, sends her off to Japan, sabotages Beatrice and Nina’s relationships, and manipulates Ethan, all with literally 0 consequences. In fact, she still gets what she wants: a relationship with Jefferson. Which, by the way, was the most unbelievable part of the whole story. Jefferson moved on from Nina extremely fast, and felt more like a prop in the story rather than a character.

Anyways, that concludes my rant for the day. Did you all think the same thing about this book or am I the only one? Leave a comment below and let’s chat!