Majesty - Katharine McGee

Majesty by Katharine McGee

Genre: New Adult Contemporary Fiction

Blurb (on back of book): 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.... 

MY OPINION: **

I had SUCH high expectations for this book, and sadly it fell short. I really enjoyed the first one and was interested to see how the relationships that had been started in that book were going to be developed in this one. However, I was sorely disappointed. *slight spoilers ahead*

Beatrice. She is now the Queen of America, after her father's tragic death in the previous book. I would have liked to have seen more of the impact that the king's passing had on not only America, but also on each of the main characters, specifically Bee and Samantha. We see a bit of the aftereffects, but I would have liked it to have been a bigger component of the novel, since it's such a large and extreme event. 

I was a strong fan of Beatrice and Connor. I loved everything about their relationship in the first book and had high expectations for them. I was expecting the trope of love-trumps-everything and Beatrice realizing that the difference in status doesn't matter when it comes to love and finding some way to get her happily ever after with CONNOR. To quote my own review of American Royals, "This is a fairly obvious trope, I would think, with the royal falling for a commoner, and I can't wait to see how that plays out in the next book." However, this was not the case. 

All of a sudden, Beatrice and Theodore are thrust together and while this is to be expected, I hated their relationship. They're an arranged marriage and Beatrice had a strong connection with Connor but somehow, she forgets all about it and lo and behold, she's in love with Teddy. Their relationship felt so wrong, fake, and forced, and I wasn't at all here for it. While I do admit they shared some cute moments, I still missed Connor and everything about him. The closure that their relationship had wasn't nearly enough and made me sad because I had expected her to truly end up with him. 

Samantha's character was so much more interesting in this book than in the first. I loved seeing her growing into the mature princess that she truly is, while also retaining her wild, madcap ways. I will admit that I never shipped Sam and Teddy in the first book so the end to their relationship wasn't the worst thing in the world. However, I did think it was stupid because their relationship had been so built up in the first book only for it to end with basically no closure between them and Sam undertaking a crazy plan to make him jealous and win him back. I did love the trope of fake-dating-and-then-falling-in-love that Sam has with Marshall and I did end up shipping these two way more than I ever shipped Sam and Teddy. Their relationship was undeniably adorable and were definitely the highlight of this book for me.

It was interesting that the author decided to make Marshall's character Black because it not only added a new diversity factor to the book but also opened up potential exploration of conflicts stemming from racial prejudice, especially in the media. While I think this could have been way more developed and talked about throughout the book, I liked that it was included in the first place. 

If the book had been focused entirely on Samantha and Beatrice and their relationships, it would have honestly been a lot better. 

Nina was always one of my favorites out of the four main girls and this was still the case in this book. However, this girl got basically no page time and I was really irritated at the lack of chapters told from Nina's perspective in comparison to Daphne, especially. However, I treasured the moments we got with her even though I definitely did not like her storyline throughout this book. 

Her relationship with Ethan felt SO forced, most likely because it was. I would have LOVED to have seen her with Jefferson, especially since he was AVAILABLE. I was expecting such a cute make-up-and-get-back-together moment between them, but no. We didn't get anything like that and instead we see Nina paired up with his BEST FRIEND, Ethan, who we have never really talked about before with Nina. This is all a result of our favorite mean girl, Daphne, and I've never hated anything more. While they had some cute moments throughout the book, and I started to warm up to them gradually, I wanted her to be with Jefferson so bad and it broke my heart when he found out she had basically betrayed him by getting with his best friend behind his back. I hated this storyline so much and wish it had all worked out for Jefferson and Nina in the end. 

Daphne. Where to even begin. I hate this girl with a fiery passion but at the same time, her determination and utter cruelty is sort of admirable in the best possible way. I obviously don't condone any of her actions but it was amazing the lengths she was willing to go to get what she wanted. I would have liked to have seen how her relationship with her (ex?) best-friend, Himari, changed after the truth came out but alas, Himari is shipped off to Japan after a few sappy moments between them that felt flimsy and underdeveloped. 

I didn't ship Daphne with anyone purely because of her awful personality but at the same time, I felt bad for her throughout the book because of how alone she really was. In my previous review, I wanted her to be with Ethan and have a more real and developed relationship in this book, but obviously that was not the case. I did like the moments they had with each other because I honestly think they got the most closure out of any of the failed couples in this book. I never shipped Daphne with Jefferson but I hated the way that he NEVER truly found out just how evil she really was. 

However, despite all my ranting about the relationship changes throughout this novel, I was still fully immersed in it for a long period of time and enjoyed reading it. It was nice fluff and a good book to read after-school to get rid of stress. The writing is simplistic but not bad and I liked seeing all the melodramatic plot lines play out. I just wish my ships had sailed. 

I would recommend this book to readers looking for a romantic and dramatic contemporary novel set in an alternate America. 

Main Character: Beatrice, Samantha, Daphne, Nina

Sidekick(s): Jefferson, Teddy, Ethan, etc

Villain(s): Daphne, manipulation, love, etc

Contemporary Elements: This book was set in an alternate universe but was real to life.