American Royals Quotes

“Who said anything about forgetting? The point of forgiveness is to recognize that someone has hurt you, and to still love them in spite of it.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“That was the thing about success, it could be even more draining than failure.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“All she knew was that one day she woke up and her love for him was simply there, like newly fallen snow. Maybe it had been there all along.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“Writers got to pick the endings of their novels, but Beatrice wasn’t living a story. She was living history, and history went on forever.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“The point of forgiveness is to recognize that someone has hurt you, and to still love them in spite of it.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“Tell no one your secrets, Daphne's mom always said, but make them think that you have. It creates the illusion of intimacy.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“At the mention of children, Connor halted his steps. For a moment Beatrice thought he was going to storm off, turn away from her and never look back.
Instead he fell to one knee before her. Time went momentarily still. In some dazed part of her mind Beatrice remembered Teddy, kneeling stiffly at her feet as he swore to be her liege man. This felt utterly different. Even kneeling, Connor looked like a warrior, every line of his body radiating a tensed power and strength.
"It kills me that I don't have more to offer you," he said roughly. "I have no lands, no fortune, no title. All I can give you is my honor, and my heart. Which already belongs to you."
She would have fallen in love with him right then, if she didn't already love him so fiercely that every cell of her body burned with it.
"I love you, Bee. I've loved you for so long I've forgotten what it felt like not to love you."
"I love you, too." Her eyes stung with tears.
"I get that you have to marry someone before your dad dies. But you can't marry Teddy Eaton."
She watched as he fumbled in his jacket for something - had he bought a ring? She thought wildly - but what he pulled out instead was a black Sharpie. Still kneeling before her, he slid the diamond engagement ring off Beatrice's finger and tucked it in the pocket of her jacket. Using the Sharpie, he traced a thin loop around the skin of Beatrice's finger, where the ring had been.
"I'm sorry it isn't a real ring, but I'm improvising here." There was a nervous catch to Connor's voice that Beatrice hadn't heard before. But when he looked up and spoke his next words, his face glowed with a fierce, fervent hope.
"Marry me.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“She could smile until the bitter end, no matter what it cost her--because she was a Washington and had been trained to smile through anything.
Even through her own heartbreak.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“The only people free from censure are people who’ve never taken a stand.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“Real love comes from creating a family together, from facing life together -- with all its messes and surprises and joys.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“I expect you to give her your support when she's earned it and your criticism when she deserves it. That's what siblings are for, after all.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“Sam had long ago resolved that if she couldn't be beautiful, she should at the very least be interesting.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“I wish we could erase all those—those atrocities,” she stammered, and was surprised by her father’s reply. “Never say that,” he insisted. “Say you want to make things right, to build a better future. But erasing the past—or worse, trying to rewrite it—is the tool of despots. Only by engaging with the past can we avoid repeating it.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“What are we doing?” she wanted to ask, except she already knew the answer.
They were being reckless and foolish; they were tempting fate; they were breaking the rules; they were falling in love.
But they both knew that last wasn't true. They had already fallen in love, a long time ago.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“When she finally lifted herself up, she was Princess Beatrice no longer. She had become Her Majesty Beatrice Regina, Queen of America, and long may she reign.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“Elect the king or queen—what a funny concept. Everyone knew that elections only worked for judges and Congress. Making the executive branch pander to the people, go out begging for votes—that could only end in disaster. That structure would attract the wrong sort of people: power-hungry people with twisted agendas.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“Sorry isn't a magic eraser that undoes whatever wrong thing you did! You can't just say sorry and expect everything to be the way it was, not when people have been hurt!”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“Beatrice is going to be queen someday.” Samantha didn’t sound resentful, just pensive.
“And what are you going to be?” Nina asked, curious.
Samantha grinned. “Everything else.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“All I know is that when I need to eat my feelings, my feelings taste like Wawa milkshakes with extra M&Ms.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“Samantha, criticism is a good thing. It means you've fought for something.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“Only by engaging with the past can we avoid repeating it.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“Yes, exactly, because you’re a woman, and the world will make everything exponentially more difficult for you. It isn’t right, or fair, but it is the truth.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“It was so much easier to break an arm than to break your heart. Hearts didn’t heal themselves. Hearts didn’t remake themselves stronger than before.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“You think your predecessors never made mistakes?” he asked, then swiftly answered his own question. “Of course they did. Our nation’s history is woven from their errors in judgment, their wrong decisions, as much as it is from their achievements.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“This was how a kiss was supposed to feel—electric and pulsing and smoky all at once, like you'd discovered a new source of fuel that could warm you from within.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“Relationships never make sense from the outside; the only people qualified to weigh in on them are the people in them.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“criticism is a good thing. It means you’ve fought for something. The only people free from censure are people who’ve never taken a stand.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“She felt, for the first time in years, like herself. Not the public, painted-on Daphne that she showed the world, but the real seventeen-year-old girl she kept carefully hidden beneath.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“She hated that her siblings thought she was cold or unfeeling. Just because she'd been brought up to keep her emotions hidden didn't mean that she never experienced those emotions.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals

“There was a nebulous, infectious energy to her, as if she were somehow more *alive* than everyone else. As if all her nerves were sparking at once, just below the surface.”
― Katharine McGee, American Royals