BY SOPHIA
Have you ever read a book that you were absolutely SMITTEN with and couldn’t stop thinking about? That’s how I felt about the prequel to this book, American Royals. But this post isn’t about that book and this post isn’t going to be a rave, unfortunately. No, this post is going to be an unapologetic rant because aside from the travesty that was Christmas in Paris (by Anita Hughes, DNR!!), this book has been the BIGGEST waste of my time and most poorly written sequel that I’ve ever read.
Strong words, I know but honestly … why does anyone read a sequel? Let’s be honest. We read sequels (and subsequent titles in a series) because we’ve fallen in love with the characters and story lines that authors have painstakingly created. If there are unresolved plot lines then we read sequels simply to find out WHAT HAPPENS, do we not?
The book before Majesty beautifully weaves a fictional reality where America wasn’t formed off a democratic but a monarchy, with the Washington line (descended, naturally, from George Washington himself) being the royal line. We are introduced the royal family and given clear protagonists to root for and clear antagonists to hate. The story had all the wonderful makings of a juicy Korean drama … the only thing that made it disappointing was that the first book ended on so many questions. We don’t know if the guy ends up with the girl we all want him to end up with. We don’t know if the evil villain finally gets what’s coming to her.
It is with THIS set-up and and anticipation that I eagerly dove into Majesty. And yet, you guys. AND YET —
IT šš» WAS šš» TERRIBLE šš»
Why was it terrible?
The entire second book, completely removes all the love-lines that the author had us readers rooting for in the first book and 180 pivots them. All the main characters, and I mean ALL the main characters come into the second book with new love interests. Every single one! Like, what the HECK? Why did we spend an entire book falling in love with characters and relationships for literally not a single one to get a seemingly happy ending?
Okay, so … fine. The author wants to mix things up. Not my cup of tea, but fine, I can roll with it, right? I kept reading hoping that somehow the new love interests would redeem the disappointment for me (a la Rhysand and Feyre in book 2 of ACOTAR). BUT NO! Even with the new love interests and characters, our beloved main characters STILL DON’T GET A HAPPY ENDING.
You want to know what the worst part of all is? The VILLAIN. THE EVIL ONE. THE ONE THAT YOU LOVE TO HATE. SHE ends up with the royal prince, which is who she was always vying for to begin with. The author does try to give some depth to her character by writing it so it seems that even though she “got what she always wanted” it wasn’t what she truly desired in her heart. But …. it was still deeply unsatisfying. Bitterly disappointed doesn’t even begin to describe how I felt after finishing this book. The endings didn’t even make sense.
There will be no pros/cons or a star rating for this book like we typically do for our book reviews because the only thing you need to know is DON’T READ THIS BOOK.
// end rant
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