Review: Majesty by Katharine McGee

Author: Katharine McGee
Edition: eARC
Publisher:  Random House Books for Young Readers (September 1, 2020)
Genre: YA Contemporary Romance
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Synopsis

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My thoughts

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Majesty is a YA romance that follows the struggles and relationships of the fictional American royal family. It’s full of fluffy tropes and sweet moments which made it a great escapist book for me when I read it during downtime at work.

Plot and Pacing

Majesty relies heavily on miscommunication as a source of conflict, which has to be your thing to enjoy it. I also found the conflicts quite predictable, every time something was set up I had a pretty good idea how and when it would come into play. It didn’t impact my enjoyment of the story, but your mileage may vary! Just like in Americal Royals, Katharine McGee delivers tightly plotted drama that’s resolved somewhat satisfyingly at the end. I wish the resolution conversations between the different couples had been spaced out, though. Having them all clustered together made them feel a bit repetitive, despite being very different in their contents and outcomes.

Quite possibly my favourite aspect of Majesty was the fake dating! It’s a trope that immediately makes me want to pick up a book and it was handled just as I expected in this story. It’s not a huge part of the plot, mainly because it only concerns one of the multiple couples, but if you like fake dating, it might be a nice addition to the story for you.

As a sequel to American Royals, Majesty goes a little deeper into the loneliness of being royal and the pressure that comes with fulfilling the public expectations. It also acknowledges the racism that people of colour dating someone from the royal family face (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?). I do really wish the book had spent more time on that, I didn’t feel like any of the main characters really acknowledged their white privilege or the inherently racist history of the monarchy. There are a few throwaway lines but considering that Samantha – the “party princess” – is supposedly “bringing the monarchy into the 21st century” by dating a Black man…that didn’t sit right with me. I understand that it’s not the central story but half-heartedly addressing real issues and then not doing much with it and having your characters just sort of carry on is not the way to go.

Characters

As with the last book, I enjoyed the different POVs, it’s a great chance to get to know the characters. Additionally, it keeps the pacing up and the story interesting because we get to jump from perspective to perspective. A few new characters are introduced and some familiar faces get more attention (looking at you, Ethan). Overall, to me it helped keep a sense of freshness, new characters to have opinions about and new relationship constellations. However, if you were particularly attached to any pairing of the first book…I have bad news for you: almost all of them are gone and different in the sequel. For me, that made for interesting new conflicts but you might miss your OTP.

I loved seeing Sam and Beatrice develop, there’s a real sense of coming-of-age for both of them. They struggle with knowing who they are or who they want to be and I was happy to see that the story allowed them the space to start figuring it out. Beatrice definitely grew on me more in this book as we got to know her better and feel with her in struggling to balance her duties as queen and her personal desires.

When I read American Royals, I had conflicted feelings about Daphne, particularly how her chapters were written. Luckily, now that her big secret has been revealed, there is no longer the insane amount of foreshadowing/flashbacks that annoyed me in book one. Daphne is a great character and certainly the one that feels the most complex. She’s a terrible person but you can’t help feel sorry for her. I’m wondering if there’s going to be another book because this one left her in quite an interesting place that I would love to explore further.

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This book is for you if…

…you enjoy YA romances with lots of fluff and don’t mind a heavy dose of miscommunication.
…you’re looking for a book to read with a cup of tea when you’re looking for escapism and entertainment.

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