Celebrity and royalty come together (literally and figuratively) in Tracey Livesay's steamy romance novel, American Royalty, which draws inspiration from the love story of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan Markle without once feeling derivative in doing so.
Dani has spent years building a hip hop career as Duchess, known internationally not only for her talent, but for her seductive dance moves and scant clothing. The latter, though, are dictated by the men who manage her career, not her. "She wasn't ashamed of her sexuality.... But she was also aware that she viewed it differently than the men who controlled her career and dominated the industry did." In need of a break and space to think about the future of her career, she leaps at the invitation to perform at a royal concert in England in memory of the queen's late husband. What she doesn't expect to find there is Prince Jameson, who looks to Dani "like a sex god trying to masquerade as a mortal professor," or a queen desperate for good press to turn around the family fortune.
In the weeks leading up to the concert, Jameson and Dani spend more and more time together, until the undeniable attraction between them becomes impossible to ignore--an attraction that Livesay explores in great detail throughout American Royalty ("Who'd known the prim and proper Prince could do what he did? And say what he said? She'd thought it would be a little more... vanilla"). What starts off as a very hot fling gets increasingly more serious as the two develop feelings for each other--feelings they are desperate to keep secret from the royal family and, perhaps more importantly, the press, which has the potential to ruin them both with a misplaced story.
This layering of the power of media attention to shape the lives of those it focuses on shifts American Royalty into something larger than the story of these two unlikely lovers, exploring family and duty, privilege and race, and the potential harm caused by losing control of one's own story, despite all the perks that may come with being famous as rapper or royal. Despite (or perhaps because of) all the odds stacked against "the black Rapper and the white Prince," though, readers will find it impossible not to root for a happy ending in this irresistible, sexy romance about two star-crossed lovers and the lengths to which they will go to get--and stay--together. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer
Shelf Talker: A sexy contemporary romance draws inspiration from the real-life story of Prince Harry and Duchess Megan Markle, as a (fictional) British royal falls into unlikely love with an American hip hop star.