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…

While I didn’t like this one as much the first book, I still think it’s a pretty good follow up. The story of American Royals continues a few weeks after the end, where Beatrice is now the Queen of America. As it is, she’s the first woman monarch of the country and the Americans are watching her every move, especially since a lot of them don’t want a woman monarch. So Beatrice has that pressure on her as well as trying to plan a wedding with Teddy Eaton.

Just as it was in the last book, I adored Beatrice and felt bad for her. She was under so much pressure along with the guilt of what happened to her father. She feels like it’s her duty to marry Teddy, which puts her relationship with Connor on the rocks. No, actually, it just blows up entirely. And it’s sad because I loved Connor in his entirety. However, I do like the growing relationship with Beatrice and Teddy because you can see them slowly falling for each other, and it’s cavity inducing.

Still, I feel bad for Connor, and I was really rooting for him and Beatrice.

The other girls – Samantha, Nina, and Daphne – had good story lines as well, but not in a ‘I loved it’ way. Daphne is as much of a snake as ever, and she has absolutely no regard for other people’s feelings. She’s quite a menace, really. Though at times I do feel bad for her when she’s dealing with her mother, as her mother is controlling and even worse than Daphne about not caring who she hurts. I get upset with Jeff as well when it comes to Daphne because he’s so easily manipulated by her that it’s disgusting.

Samantha is going through her own thing, with dealing with getting over Teddy and falling for a new guy, while Nina is getting over Jeff and getting closer to Ethan. I feel bad for the way these girls were hurt, but they have each other as best friends, so they are able to support each other through the bad times. I love how Sam is with Nina and doesn’t care that Nina doesn’t have any titles.

Going back to Beatrice, she does finally get her moment where she stands up for herself against the Royal Chamberlain (I think that’s what it’s called) because he is just as manipulative as Daphne, and Beatrice finally sees his true colors (she sees Daphne’s as well, so I’m waiting for that to come up again in book three). I didn’t even like Robert in the first book, so when he undermined Beatrice’s authority and tried to control her in her position, I was celebrating when he got called out and the boot.

As with the first book, I love the concept behind this series. I felt like a lot of this book was sort of filler for what’s coming, but it’s still pretty good. I’m reading book three as I write this, so we’ll see what’s in store for these characters next.

Rating: 4/5 stars