American Royalty

A Novel

By: Tracey Livesay

Narrated by: Antony Ferguson, Wesleigh Siobhan

Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

In this dangerously sexy rom-com that evokes the real-life romance between Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan Markle, a prince who wants to live out of the spotlight falls for a daring American rapper who turns his life, and the palace, upside down.

Sexy, driven rapper Danielle “Duchess” Nelson is on the verge of signing a deal that’ll make her one of the richest women in hip hop. More importantly, it’ll grant her control over her life, something she’s craved for years. But an incident with a rising pop star has gone viral, unfairly putting her deal in jeopardy. Concerned about her image, she’s instructed to work on generating some positive publicity… or else.

A brilliant professor and reclusive royal, Prince Jameson prefers life out of the spotlight, only leaving his ivory tower to attend weddings or funerals. But with the Queen’s children involved in one scandal after another, and Parliament questioning the viability of the monarchy, the Queen is desperate. In a quest for good press, she puts Jameson in charge of a tribute concert in her late husband’s honor. Out of his depth, and resentful of being called to service, he takes the advice of a student. After all, what’s more appropriate for a royal concert than a performer named “Duchess”?

Too late, Jameson discovers the American rapper is popular, sexy, raunchy and not what the Queen wanted, although he’s having an entirely different reaction. Dani knows this is the good exposure she needs to cement her deal and it doesn't hurt that the royal running things is fine as hell. Thrown together, they give in to the explosive 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?

©2022 Tracey Livesay (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

loved it

It was a fun read. unrealistic, but fun! I was definitely entertained by the story.

Great story

Great story! I loved the characters. The only problem I had with it was the the male narrator female voice. It was a bit annoying, but after a while I got used to it. As well as in the beginning it was very much third person a lot so I got confused on what was going on.

Mind Blown.

After reading all the positive reviews, I decided to purchase this book. And I'm glad that I did. Wesleigh is one of my favorite narrators, so I expected her to to do a great job. It took me a while to warn up to Anthony, but he did an great job as well. This was a great storyline with 2 people from different worlds but yet similar. The chemistry between these two were phenomenal. Jameson is such the gentleman. Only thing I did not like was that ending could have been a little bit better tho. But I'm looking forward to reading more of Tracey's books.

Loved it!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Wasn’t too fond of the male actors “female” impersonation but Wesleigh!!!!!! She never fails to deliver.

Taken from today’s headlines

If you pay attention to today’s news can’t say the storyline was original. It has its moments but felt like I was reading a lot of entertainment news all put together to create a plot. A little of this, a little of that. Enjoyed the philosophy though. We’re left up in the air as to how things work out for the two lovers and their futures if any. Not much satisfaction there. The Male narrator was good but needed to stay away from trying to do Dani’s character. Wesleigh Siobhan good as always.

Enjoyable

This is a new author to me, and I did enjoy this book. It has taken me a while to listen or read this book as I depriortized it on my reader list in part due to the mixed reviews. After reading and listening to this story, I'm a bit more surprised with the low ratings. I would recommend this series. I'm about to read the next one.

Narrators good enough; story memorable, but ...

★★★ 1/2
So, if you like royal romance and you can erase your preset memory of who’s who in the British Royalty, Inc., then you may like this one.

The British Royal family has all new names, the names aren’t very British either. That took some seconds to get over, but the scandal, history of abdication, British Royal men running off with unsuitables or doing unsuitable deeds are all loosely replicated. Plus the queen is in charge, as the last “old world” royal; her husband has passed, his memory being a driving force in this novel.

Through all of that, Prince Jameson, the hero of this story, has escaped the terrible spotlight left by his father and the scandals that circle his aunts and uncles, and we meet him as a philosophy professor in Birmingham.

The British Royalty is now suffering the always present threat of “abolish the monarchy” and the need to stay relevant (very plausible) and Jameson’s grandmother, the queen, has dubbed Jameson as a hopeful face of the crown. She wrangles Jameson into arranging a tribute week-long celebration, synonymous with the real life Queen’s Jubilee that just happened, where the queen’s late husband is honored with a concert of his favorite artists, accompanied by a young artists component for PR reasons.

Jameson goes into it half-heartedly, and somehow he is inadvertently responsible for the inclusion of Danielle Nelson, a female rapper who goes by Duchess, in the festivities.

For the most part the heroine, Danielle Nelson, Dani, is the character whose conflict shapes the story. While Jameson’s conflict becomes solely his interest in Dani, when he finds himself in forced proximity with her, his inner conflict about his responsibilities to the monarchy recedes into the background; meanwhile, Dani has to contend with a rival of sorts and social media, which try to tear down her success and image; Dani also is written as a self-made: a black female artist who is an entrepreneur battling being over-sexualized and underestimated (kind of overdone and cliche, but it worked for at least half of the book).

Overall, Dani remains strong but the blows keep piling on, despite them being partly because of her own decisions. Jameson also shows strong moments when it comes to wanting to “be” with Dani, and this is what is endearing about him. After the initial dislike between the two, Jameson shows great appreciation for the Dani he realizes is underneath all the glamor and hot press. the romance developed between Dani and Jameson is daring, it is hot in the way that the steam builds unexpectedly; for instance, there are scenes I kept thinking about after reading.

The ending is less than tight because the conflicts weren’t solved very satisfyingly, and the HFN that is hinted at. But overall, not a bad read.

Super Steamy Celebrity-Meets-Prince Romance

In this super steamy celebrity-meets-prince contemporary romance, a reluctant royal, who would prefer to spend his time in the university classroom, finds himself in insta-lust with a popular rapper / entrepreneur who is in the midst of rebuilding her image after she was targeted by a one hit wonder hoping to ride her coattails.

Forced proximity pushes their connection, and Dani and Jameson are drawn to each other. An interracial romance between an American rapper and the prince the queen has placed all her hopes on--how would that work?

This is a bit of a whirlwind romance leading up to the royal concert. Be aware that this one is open door in both action and the salacious thoughts of the main characters. I enjoyed some of the thoughtful things Jameson planned for Dani, how she connects with fans of both her music and makeup line, her strength, and their primary friendships.

I'm interested to see where their relationship goes from here in the upcoming sequel.

American Royalty

A Royal and a rap superstar. I went into this book not really knowing anything about it other than I liked the cover. Jamison is the grandson of the Queen and Dani is a rapper known as Dutchess. Both have their own struggles to overcome. I really enjoyed this book.

Great story but..,

Great story; however, the narrator who did the voice of the Prince when he recounted some of the things that Dutchess was saying gave her a southern accent and clearly she was not southern and the young lady that narrated Dutchess’s part didn’t speak that way so it was a little offputting otherwise I liked the story line.