Review: American King by Sierra Simone (New Camelot #3)


Note: This ARC was provided by the author via Social Butterfly PR in exchange for an honest review.

"It feels more like I burn people out with my love, like I use them up until they've got nothing left. No one who loves me gets a happy ending, have you noticed? Just being close to me infect their lives with tragedy."

American King was, hands down, one of my most anticipated reads of 2017, and expectations for this conclusion to Sierra Simone's New Camelot series were astronomic to say the least, but feel free to pin the blame on the impeccable storytelling in the first two novels, American Queen and American Prince. I was so excited and anxious to find out how Maxen Ashley Colchester, Greer Galloway, Colchester, and Embry Moore would fare after the tumultuous end of the second book. They say that "heavy is the head that wears the crown" and never was it truer than it the case of an American president who was at the cusp of losing the two people he loved above all else. So, did this highly awaited third book in a much-touted trilogy finally live up to what I had expected of it? Yes...and no.

Without giving too much away, this trilogy, which was formerly titled American Queen but changed to New Camelot (not sure if it was officially called the former by the author or if it was something that librarians over at Goodreads decided to come up with), went in a direction I wasn't expecting. The first two felt like modern takes on the Arthurian legend; this third one, however, came off as more of a modern retelling of sorts, but with enough liberties taken that it's able to stand on its own. While I loved almost everything about it, I must admit that there was one twist to this otherwise modern tale that had me tilting my head, raising an eyebrow, and contemplating whether I liked it or not. Of course, I have my own ideas as to where I thought the story was going to be headed, and the author had her own vision. Not everything meshed together, but that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy this.

Here's the thing with a series, in particular, a series that's composed of books that cannot be read as standalones because they're all intertwined and each one happens to be above par: you become very much involved and invested in the characters and their story, to the point that you think it's going to go in one direction and then bam! It doesn't. The fact is, as a reader, I'm all strapped in for whatever ride the author is going to take me on. Sometimes we end up exactly where we expect to be at, and other times, we don't. In the case of American King, I have no complaints with as far as the quality of Sierra Simone's writing is concerned. This was far lengthier than the previous two releases, but this was the one where we truly got to know the man who would be king, whether he goes by the name of Ash or Maxen. Did I get the ending I wanted? Why yes, I did, and it was an ending that had me grinning like I had just won the powerball jackpot. The twist regarding one particular peripheral character did have me pausing, but after all's been said and done, American King still left me unequivocally sated. Five-plus stars. ♥

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Read my reviews for the New Camelot series:


American Queen (book one) - five-plus stars - My Review

American Prince (book two) - five-plus stars - My Review

American King (book three) - five-plus stars - My Review (posted above)

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Release Date: 31 October 2017

Date Read: 23 October 2017

Learn more about Sierra Simone.

Purchase American King on Amazon | B&N | iBooks | Kobo

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