Exclusive: 'American Royals' Author Katharine McGee's New Historical Romance Series

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Katharine McGee's follow-up to her bestselling American Royals series will take readers into real royal history.

A Queen's Game, the first in a two-book historical romance series, will be published on October 1, 2024, Town & Country can exclusively announce (and reveal the cover!).

"I was doing background research for the American Royals series when I stumbled across the stories of Alix, Hélène, and May: three princesses at the end of the Victorian era whose lives became wildly entangled, as they were all at various points linked to the same three princes," McGee tells Town & Country. "I immediately knew that this was my next project! It has everything that readers have come to expect from the American Royals series—drama, forbidden romance, and secrets—set against the glittering backdrop of nineteenth-century Europe. All too often, history follows the exploits and decisions of men, but it’s fascinating to realize how much these young women (and their choices about love!) changed the course of history."

A Queen's Game, as McGee references, will follow three princesses: Alexandra of Hesse, Hélène d ’Orléans and May of Teck. As the publisher notes, "From the ballrooms to the stables to sweeping countryside estates, these princesses will serve as one another’s friends and rivals as they become involved with the most eligible princes of the day."

Their lives as teenagers will be the focus of A Queen's Game, but if you look ahead in their lives, impact on history is clear: The first princess, Alix of Hesse, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, would go on to become Alexandra Feodorovna, the last Empress of Russia. The second, Princess Hélène, a member of the Orléans royal house, never married—though she had a romance with Prince Albert Victor (known as "Eddy"), who was second in line to the British throne (after his father, the future King Edward VII). And, the last princess in McGee's novel, May of Teck, was betrothed to the same Prince Albert Victor, but upon his unexpected death, she became engaged to his brother, George, who became King George V—you may know her best as Queen Elizabeth II's grandmother.

A Queen's Game will be released on October 1, 2024. Preorder here.

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