American Royalty
Content warnings: sexism, racism, sexual harassment, grief, past loss of a family member
American rapper Duchess is invited to perform at a UK royal event.
Dani "Duchess" Nelson is an American rapper who used rapping as her gateway to fame and financial success, but she wants to leave the business and focus on her skincare business. MelaSkin creates skincare products for women of color, which Dani is passionate about much more than her music.
Prince Jameson is a philosophy professor at the University of Birmingham in the UK. His deceased father was a senior royal, and the prince was allowed to continue normal life after his father's death at his mother's request. But his grandmother, Queen Marina II, wants Jameson to begin his role as a working member of the royal family with a concert to honor her late husband. Jameson is expected to step up and become one of the few royals without an associated scandal.
Jameson knows nothing about music and asks a student for recommendations of potential performers, and Duchess is mentioned. Jameson thinks it's amusing to have a performer named Duchess at a royal event and submits her name without looking into her career. Dani needs good publicity after a pop star posted a video on social media that made Dani look bad, so she accepts. But the queen was not expecting a risqué hip-hop act to be performing.
When Duchess arrives in the UK, she finds that her rented cottage sprung a leak. This forces her to move into the main house, which happens to be Prince Jameson's sprawling country estate. Dani and Jameson have a terrible first meeting, but in private they admit they're attracted to each other. When Jameson tries to correct his first impression, he ends up spending a lot more time with Dani. Will they be able to overcome their dislike and admit their desire? And once the queen finds out, will it all fall apart?
Wesleigh Siobhan captures Dani's spunk and lyrical flow in her narration, while Antony Ferguson's narration takes a proper English tone. Ferguson needs to work on the sex scenes as he sounds like he's reading the phone book, not a passionate encounter. His attempt at reading Dani's dialogue in Jameson's chapters is abysmal; he attempts a Southern American accent without success and it doesn't match Siobhan's performance as Dani.
Recommended for royal watchers and fans of interracial romance.
Tracey Livesay is an author focusing on interracial romance who was an attorney before writing. She lives in Virginia.
Publisher: Avon (print); HarperAudio
Narrators: Antony Ferguson & Wesleigh Siobhan
Running Time: 10 hours, 46 minutes
Length: 384 pages
Release Date: June 28, 2022
Representation: African-American main character, interracial romance, orphan, female business owner, black business owner, POC side character
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