Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

American Royals by Katharine McGee

25 reviews

rhythmofryn's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This was a rough book for me because of the heart-wrenching decisions required by the characters. The more I learn about royalty, the more I’m convinced I would never ever want a crown. I get too emotional over characters and I aches for every character who had to choose between what they truly wanted and what was expected of them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Moderate: Toxic friendship and Alcohol

Minor: Misogyny

pagesfromhome's review against another edition

hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

American Royals has an excellent idea behind it: What would America be like if we had a royal family? I think that's such a fascinating question to ask and explore so this one had been on my list for a while before I finally got to reading it.

All in all, it was a solidly fine read. It was a three-star read for me until the final couple of chapters. I think the author did an incredible job of bringing lots of emotion to the end of the book so it bumped up an extra half a star on that alone. I found myself not really being able to feel like I had a grasp on the characters because we were bouncing from one to another so quickly so I would have preferred not having the story told from 4 different perspectives (maybe just 2 or 3 would have felt less rushed). I also found myself not particularly intrigued with the mystery subplot, I think that could have been handled more clandestinely - it was a lot of telling rather than showing or feeling. But the romances were really sweet (even if they felt rushed as well) and I liked the father-daughter relationships we see between the King and Beatrice and Samantha. I just really wish the story had slowed down a little bit and really let us get a feel for the characters.

I still really enjoyed it and will happily be reading the next in the series!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, and Infidelity

Moderate: Death of parent

summerif's review against another edition

emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Minor: Infidelity

reddeddy's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Grief, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Dysphoria

Minor: Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Slavery, Xenophobia, Blood, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

elskabee's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

There just wasn't enough that I enjoyed about it to give it a better rating but it's not terrible, 3 is a respectable rating. It was a reasonably fun audiobook to listen to while cooking, but it's not a series that I'll be continuing either.

Unfortunately, the book suffered from focusing on too many characters and so only superficially dealt with each characters conflicts and romance. In fact, it was really difficult for the first 50% of the book to keep track of each character (who they are, who they like, their personality) because there's FOUR character perspectives that it's roughly equally split between and they're all young women who are either in the royal family or closely tied to it. Not to mention everyone is cheating on everyone (not judging but it makes it even harder to keep track) or in some other secret relationship. So why did we need four characters?

I also don't feel like this needed to be a royalty focused book? So much time is spent on relationship drama and hardly any on the royalty stuff? It's just kind of a backdrop that has only some impact on the plot so it felt more Gossip Girl than say, Red, White, and Royal Blue. I honestly think this would make a better TV show than book series just because of the way it's structured. But that's just my opinion lol

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity and Death of parent

Moderate: Chronic illness and Toxic friendship

Minor: Sexism

katleenfraser03's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

this book was really good; I did have alot of trouble getting into it in the beginning though. I found the beginning really slow but once things started to pick up it was really enjoyable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Death, Sexism, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Stalking, and Alcohol

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Stalking, Lesbophobia, and Toxic friendship

sarahmae531's review against another edition

hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Infidelity, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

Minor: Drug abuse and Toxic friendship

mostlypoptarts's review against another edition

lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

if i could rate on enjoyment alone… this score would be way different. it’s trash, but it’s MY trash.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Infidelity, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Grief, Medical trauma, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body shaming, Genocide, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic friendship, and Colonisation

ekcanales's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was a romantic whirlwind with all of my favorite tropes, from forbidden romance to only one bed! Multiple points-of-view are masterfully used to build suspense and drama between the characters. Although at many points, the plot was predictable, which removes the shock-value from the surprises. Overall, SUCH a fun read that I binge-read in 2 days! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Infidelity, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcohol

emilysreadingbooks's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Homophobia, Infidelity, Medical content, Lesbophobia, and Colonisation