Katharine McGee, NYT Bestselling Author of AMERICAN ROYALS, To Publish New Historical Romance Duology

Random House Books for Young Readers will publish A QUEEN’S GAME by bestselling author Katharine McGee, the first in a two-book series. The news was announced by Mallory Loehr, EVP & Publisher, Random House Books for Young Readers. McGee’s longtime editor, Caroline Abbey, Associate Publisher, Random House Books for Young Readers, acquired rights and will edit the duology. It will publish on October 1, 2024 with a first printing of 100,000 copies. 

Katharine McGee burst onto the publishing scene with THE THOUSANDTH FLOOR, a first novel in what would go on to become a bestselling sci-fi trilogy. But years earlier, McGee had begun another project, inspired by the royal wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton—a story that would eventually become the publishing sensation American Royals (2019).  

This first book in a quartet reimagined modern-day America as a monarchy, telling the tale of the Washington family—the most famous family in the world. AMERICAN ROYALS was an instant New York Times bestseller and was hailed as “deliciously soapy” (Publishers Weekly) and “thrillingly addictive” (Shelf Awareness). The debut of the royal romance series and subsequent three books, Majesty, Rivals and Reign, were enthusiastically embraced by reviewers and quickly captured a wide and dedicated readership, catapulting McGee to appearances on both the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. Fans couldn’t get enough of the romance, the glamour, and the juicy royal drama that followed the fictional Washington family. Now, with this new publication, McGee moves from fictional royals to real ones, in an exciting new royal adventure inspired by historical figures and events. 

In A QUEEN’S GAME, McGee transports readers to 19th century Europe, where the glittering age of monarchy is drawing to a close—and where three very different princesses are struggling to find their place. This is history retold from the perspectives of the young women who lived it: Alix of Hesse, Hélène d ’Orléans and May of Teck. 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. A QUEEN’S GAME delivers all the drama, intrigue, and romance that readers have come to expect from a Katharine McGee novel. 

Says McGee: “I first learned about Alix, Hélène, and May—and their hopelessly tangled love lives—while reading a biography of Queen Victoria, and I immediately longed to tell their stories. A Queen’s Game is truly a passion project, the product of years of research and a lifelong love affair with the Victorian era. The women in this book might be familiar to you; after all, they all became important figures later in life. But it was the decisions they made as teenagers that changed the course of history.” 

About Katharine McGee
Katharine McGee is the New York Times bestselling author of the American Royals series and the Thousandth Floor trilogy. She studied English and French literature at Princeton University and has an MBA from Stanford. She’s been speculating about American royalty since her undergraduate days, when she wrote a thesis on “castle envy”—the idea that the American psyche is missing out on something because Americans don’t have a royal family of their own. She lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas, with her husband and their two boys. You can find her online: katharinemcgee.com and follow her on social media: @katharinemcgee