American Royals

“Long ago, monarchs existed so that the people could serve the monarch. Now the monarch must serve the people. Remember that it is an honor and a privilege to be a Washington and devote your life to this nation.”

Since childhood, Beatrice is taught that she will be the Queen of America one day. Before Beatrice’s grandfather dies, he warns her that her future as queen is a heavy burden, but a noble one. If Beatrice ever starts to question her role as queen or her resolve to always do what is best for the American people, she is urged to remember all the Washingtons who have come before her and allow her sense of familial duty to win out against the passions of her heart.

“A psychologist might assume that Daphne had inherited her ambitions from her parents, but it would be more accurate to say that her parents’ ambitions were magnified and concentrated in her, the way a curved glass lens can focus scattered beams of heat.”

Early on, McGee establishes Daphne Deighton as a force of nature. She is beautiful, intelligent, highly-driven, and willing to do anything to get what she wants. Mr. and Mrs. Deighton’s hunger for power has heavily influenced their daughter, and after years of intense pressure and training, Daphne has allowed herself to be used as a pawn in her parents’ schemes. Daphne might want to be a princess for her own reasons, but her parents are more than willing to throw her at the feet of the Prince of America in hopes of elevating their family title.

“Daphne felt a momentary stab of panic that he somehow knew everything—knew the terrible, unthinkable thing she had done. [...] Did he know what she had done that night?”

Daphne’s plot to marry Prince Jefferson has been riddled with unexpected challenges, especially since Samantha and Jefferson’s graduation party. Driven by relentless ambition and a burning need to eliminate any threats that might keep her from getting a crown, Daphne did the unthinkable and drugged her best friend, which caused her to fall down the stairs and end up in a coma for more than half a year. Daphne lives with this guilt but also fears that Jefferson will learn what the sweet, mild-mannered, and proper Daphne Deighton can do.

“No one cared what she really thought; they just wanted her to shut up and stop stealing media attention from picture-perfect Beatrice. To stand in the background. To be seen and never heard.”

Samantha Washington has grown up with all the same wealth, privilege, and freedom as her older sister. However, as the second-born Washington child, Sam has never been held to the same standard as her older sister Beatrice. Sam is exuberant, intelligent, and relatable, but instead of being valued for what she brings to the Washington family and the country, Sam has been shoved to the side for the entirety of her life.

“So what if Jefferson hung out with some of those skanky, stalkerish girls from the prince posse? Those girls didn’t mean anything to him. He would come back to her, because in the end they belonged together, and he knew it as well as Daphne did.”

Even though they have been broken up for over six months, Daphne still feels a sense of ownership and possessiveness over Jefferson. Her feelings are not driven by love or genuine affection but by a territorial urge to protect her perceived title as the future princess of America. Daphne is not jealous of these girls because they could get Jefferson but of the possibility of them getting the crown she believes is rightfully hers.

“Daphne was the girl Jeff would marry, and Nina was the girl he’d snuck upstairs at a party, then sent home in a hired car before anyone found out.”

Unlike Daphne, Nina feels genuine love and affection for Jeff her friend, not just Jefferson the prince. However, Nina has never felt worthy of Jefferson the prince, so she was always afraid of ruining her shot with Jeff her friend. Even after they hooked up on the night of the graduation party, Jeff’s treatment of Nina afterward makes her think she is out of her league and just another drunken encounter for the Prince of America.

“Writers got to pick the endings of their novels, but Beatrice wasn’t living a story. She was living history, and history went on forever.”

In a world where the role of princess is romanticized through inspiring stories of girls taking charge of their own destiny, Beatrice feels frustrated by her own lack of autonomy. In stories, princesses are powerful and confident, and although Beatrice has been trained to always exude the facade of power and confidence, deep down, she is terrified of what her title means for her life. Beatrice cannot relate to these characters, so she tends to avoid works of fiction that might get her hopes up about her future.

“[I]t didn’t matter what Teddy thought of her. It didn’t matter that the entire world thought she was less than Beatrice, as long as she had Nina and Jeff. These two people, at least, knew the real her.”

After a lifetime of being put to the side, Sam believes she has finally found something special with Teddy Eaton. When she learns that Teddy has chosen Beatrice instead of her, Sam is hurt and feels like he is just like everyone else. However, Sam finds comfort in her brother and her best friend, who love her unconditionally and have consistently chosen her instead of Beatrice. Sam might not have many friends, but she cherishes the ones she has.

“Unlike Beatrice, Jeff and I have no defined role or purpose, no job we’re being trained for. We just…exist.”

Beatrice might envy Sam for the immense freedom and privilege she has as the second-born Washington child, but Sam has been stuck in an endless cycle of idleness for so long that she finds it paralyzing. Sam longs to do something that helps others and proves her worth, but instead of being trained and nurtured, Sam has been left to her own devices, and it has led to lifetimes of poor choices, wild living, and deep feelings of inadequacy.

“Sure, no commoner had ever married into the royal family. But no woman had ever sat on the throne before, either. Times were changing. Maybe a future with Connor wasn’t as utterly impossible as she thought.”

When Beatrice falls in love with Connor, she knows she has committed a serious breach of propriety. A princess and a commoner can never work out—or rather, they have never worked out before. Still, Beatrice holds out hope that her situation with Connor could be different, and perhaps she holds the power to bring real change and make their situation less taboo.

“In the span of a single half hour, she’d gone from blissful anonymity to being the most hated girl in America.”

Nina never wanted the spotlight: She wanted a normal life full of peace and autonomy, where she would be seen and valued for who she is by the close inner circle of people she loves. When news of her relationship with Jefferson breaks, Nina’s quiet existence at King’s College is plunged into a nightmare of paparazzi, hateful comments, and no freedom to be herself without judgment. By daring to love the Prince of America, Nina has incited the jealousy and fury of Jefferson’s admirers and a society that expects nothing less than the “best” from their royals.

“The portraits along the gallery seemed to be staring at her, their jaws tightened in judgment, their eyes cold and disappointed. As if they were silently telegraphing their displeasure at her—the worthless spare daughter, the flighty and ridiculous Sparrow.”

Samantha already feels the disapproval of her living relatives: Her parents are vocal about her shortcomings, and Beatrice seems to look down on Sam for her wild antics. In this scene, Sam also feels the pressure of her ancestors, who look down on her from their portraits in (what she considers) deep disappointment. Sam feels scrutiny from all sides, and her role as the “spare daughter” offers her no chance to prove herself or her true worth.

“What if her mom had never interviewed for the chamberlain job, if Nina and Sam had never become such good friends? How would Nina’s life be different—or, more importantly, how would Nina be different?”

Nina’s life changed when she came to the palace with her mother and met Princess Samantha. Although Nina loves Sam and Jeff, her proximity to them has led to a life of questioning her own value and feeling like she doesn’t belong to the world of her best friends. Nina walks between two worlds: the life of a commoner, and the life of a princess’s friend. Nina can’t help but wonder if her life would have been less complicated if she had never met Princess Samantha.

“It was hard not to resent Sam a little bit, for being so blissfully unaware of the struggles everyone else faced.”

Nina has often been brought into Sam’s world of royalty, court, and extravagance, but because of a wealth of personal privilege, Sam has had little to no experience with the “real world” and the life of a commoner. Many members of the royal family have no basic life skills or understanding of how the world works beyond the palace, and Nina starts to lose patience with Sam’s flippancy toward her personal struggles.

“She reached into her pocket for her diamond engagement ring and slipped it back over her finger, covering every last trace of the ink.”

Beatrice doesn’t want to marry Teddy, but because of her father’s illness, she feels like she has no choice but to let the engagement and marriage unfold. Still, it isn’t easy for her to let go of her feelings for Connor. By using her diamond engagement ring to cover up Connor’s Sharpie mark on her finger, Beatrice shows that she is unwilling to completely put Connor out of her life, and she will always cherish the love they had for one another.

“Daphne didn’t feel especially sorry about what she’d done. Nina had brought this down on herself by going after the prince, when everyone knew he belonged to Daphne.”

Daphne’s territorial behavior allows her to think she is well within her right to defend what is hers by any means necessary. Ironically, Nina has been in Jeff’s life for longer than Daphne, but Daphne never looked at Nina as a potential threat or even acknowledged her existence until she learned about Jefferson and Nina’s covert relationship. Because Daphne is capable of social climbing and manipulation, she assumes the worst about Nina and projects her own insecurities onto her.

“What would happen if Himari ever woke up and told the world—told Jefferson—what Daphne had done?”

For years, Daphne has done everything right: She wore the right clothes, said the right things, went to the right school, and led Jefferson to believe she was right for him. Daphne has worked so hard to wrap herself in the illusion of a “perfect girlfriend” that Jefferson has no idea who she really is. If word were to get out about how Himari got hurt and how Daphne was responsible, she knows that her picture-perfect image with crumble, Jefferson would want nothing to do with her, and everyone in America would hate her. This possibility frightens Daphne more than anything, and she will do anything to keep her dark secret under wraps.

“She might be the second-string princess, but she was still her. She could use her position to do something meaningful, to make a real difference.”

Sam’s talk with her father in Chapter 29 signifies a shift in their relationship and Sam’s relationship with her family. On the heels of her late-night conversation with Beatrice, Sam learns that her father won’t be around much longer, and his encouraging, loving speech inspires her to take action and be the best version of herself she can be. The conversation is framed as a goodbye: one last heart-to-heart between Sam and her father before his untimely end.

“How stupidly naive she’d been, thinking she could just stroll into this party in a beautiful dress and everything would be okay.”

In a world where high fashion and couture gowns showcase a person’s wealth and style, wearing the right dress to court functions is an act of the utmost importance in American Royals. Daphne goes out of her way to sabotage Nina’s dress for the engagement party, and Samantha leaps in to save the day with her vault of high-end gowns. Still, beneath the fabric and sparkle, a dress is just a dress, made of fabric and unable to grant Nina magic powers to overcome her status as a commoner.

“Jeff doesn’t know you like I do. All he sees is what you look like, which is a damn shame, because your mind is the best thing about you. Your brilliant, stubborn, unscrupulous mind, and the sheer force of your willpower.”

For years, Daphne has learned to mask who she truly is around Prince Jefferson. She must always behave like a proper lady in his presence: demure, kind, selfless, and subservient. Although this facade has helped her get what she wants throughout the years, it has also forced the real Daphne to stay in hiding, and Ethan is the only person who sees through her disguise and still loves her for who she really is. Jefferson doesn’t know the real Daphne, and even the “perfect” version of her proves not to be enough to hold his attention.

“The parent in me is overjoyed that you’ve found love [...]. That other part of me, the part that answers to the Crown, knows how impossible it is.”

When Beatrice’s father is on his deathbed, he warns her that she will have to take on two personas: Beatrice the girl and Beatrice the heir. When Beatrice tells her father that she is in love with Connor, he hints that he got a similar talk from his father. He mentions that there are two parts of him as well: George the king and George the father. George the father may empathize with his daughter and approve wholeheartedly of a man like Connor, but George the king must hold fast to the ways of his ancestors and forbid the improper marriage.

“I’m just sick of it all: the paparazzi attention, the way the palace kept butting into our relationship. The fact that I had to dress differently if I wanted to be with him.”

Nina admits to her moms that although she loves Jefferson, she gave up too many pieces of herself to be with him. Nina has always valued her individuality and privacy, and by getting involved with the prince, she forfeited her right to either. Through Robert Standish’s demands and veiled threats, the palace makes it clear that anyone who dares to earn the prince’s attention must fit a certain mold of appearances and behavior, even if Jefferson himself is not beholden to these expectations.

“She couldn’t end her engagement with Teddy, not right now. Not after the threat of leaving him had literally sent her father to his deathbed.”

Although Beatrice stands up for herself in Chapter 39 and vows to renounce her title as queen to be with Connor, shame can change a person’s plans. After her father’s hospitalization, Beatrice is wracked with guilt. She believes she is responsible for bringing on her father’s medical emergency, and despite what her heart might say, Beatrice’s intense desire to honor her father’s wishes leads her to give up on Connor and stay engaged to Teddy.