Book Review: American Royalty by Tracey Livesay
Tracey Livesay delivers a steamy, royal romance in her latest book release, American Royalty.
Check out my book review to see what I thought of this romance book!
*Disclosure: This post may include affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
American Royalty
by Tracey Livesay
Category: Contemporary Romance
Tags: Opposites Attract, Royal Romance, Musician, Forced Proximity
Published June 2022
Amazon | Goodreads
Rating: ★★★
Boyfriend Rating: 
Rapper Danielle “Duchess” Nelson is on the verge of signing a deal that’ll make her one of the richest women in hip hop. But an incident with a rising pop star has gone viral, unfairly putting her deal in jeopardy.
A brilliant professor and reclusive royal, Prince Jameson prefers life out of the spotlight. But with the Queen’s children involved in one scandal after another, she puts Jameson in charge of a tribute concert in her late husband’s honor.
Out of his depth, he takes the advice of a student and signs “Duchess” for the gig who’s anxious for the good publicity.
Too late, Jameson discovers the American rapper is popular, raunchy and not what the Queen wanted, although he’s having an entirely different reaction.
Thrown together, they give in to their attraction flaring between them. But as the glare of the limelight intensifies and outside forces try to interfere, will the Prince and Duchess be a fairy tale romance for the ages or a disaster of palatial proportions?
A great royal romance with fantastic characters but wasn’t the complete package.
It had been too long since I read a Tracy Livesay romance and I was SO excited for this one, it made my list of the most anticipated romance books of 2022.
I’d say that overall I enjoyed it but a few things, unfortunately, kept me from rating it higher.
A Great Storyline
I love how Livesay used Prince Henry and Meghan Markle as her muses for this royal romance.
We are first introduced to Jameson who is a reluctant member of the royal family.
Jameson is content living as a professor, out of the limelight of his royal family which has been marred by scandals.
When the Queen decides to host a celebration of her late husband’s life, she gives Jameson no choice but to be the royal liaison to the event.
A concert is one piece of the celebration and without knowing anything about musical acts, suggests that Duchess, on a suggestion from a student, perform.
Unbeknownst to him she is a rapper who is then invited to stay in his house for the two weeks of the royal celebration.
Strong Characters
Livesay did a great job with her character development in this romance.
By the time Duchess and Jameson met, I had a really good understanding of who each of these characters were, what they struggled with and what their dreams were as well.
I totally fell for Jameson and his quiet ways but Duchess was a force that stole the show for me. I loved her climb to fame, her entrepreneurial spirit, and her desire to live her life on her own terms.
While a bit of an opposites attract story, I loved them even more together. Their first meeting did NOT go well which set up a bit of an enemies to lovers vibe, but that didn’t last long.
I’ll admit however that I really cringed at the moment that they became more. It just seemed so out of character for Jameson and a bit abrupt from how they had been acting toward one another.
Had there been a different way to get them together, I think I would have enjoyed this more but that moment of disconnect just left me a bit off-kilter for the rest of the book.
From then on, Jameson was also quite the different man than I had initially pegged him to be and which he projects to the public. Behind closed doors with Dani, this man was quite the dirty talker! 😊
While it was quite the disconnect from who I thought he was, I totally jumped on board with it because these two were hot and steamy together.
Stories Left Unfinished
While I loved Dani and Jameson’s whirlwind romance (which only covers 2 weeks), I was disappointed by the ending because there were so many side stories that were left unfinished.
What happened to Dani’s skincare business?
Did the truth about Samantha finally come out and vindicate Dani?
Is Jameson going to be able to continue teaching?
How are they really going to make their relationship work?
If some of these side stories (which were pretty big plot points in my opinion to propel Dani’s storyline) had more of a conclusion to them I think I would have rated this higher, but instead, I was just sort of left to wonder and it left me feeling unfulfilled once I hit the end.
While I totally recommend this as a steamy read for the amazing romance between Dani and Jameson, I wish it all came together more solidly.
If you love royal romances, romances with musicians, and a steamy forced proximity story, give it a read!
*Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.
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