Hi, I'm Zibi Owens, and you're listening to the Webby-nominated podcast, Moms don't have time to read books.

This episode has been sponsored by Lauren Gabrielson, which is a women's wear brand that creates elevated essentials for the modern women's wardrobe.

The collection is entirely designed and produced in Brooklyn, New York.

The Lauren Gabrielson woman values quality, versatile pieces that she can wear every day

that are customized to her body, her time, and her style.

And by the way, I have two Lauren Gabrielson headbands, which I wear all the time. And you can see in my photos on my events page because I wear them everywhere. And they're amazing. And actually my six-year-old daughter steals mine all the time. So anyway, Lauren Gabrielson.com. I'm really excited to be here today with Catherine McGee, who's the author of the New York Times bestselling series, The Thousandth Floor, and her latest book, American Royals. In English and French Literature Major at Princeton, Katie earned her MBA from Stanford. She currently lives with her husband in Houston, Texas. So welcome to Katie. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. It's so nice to be here in person together. Thanks for flying in. I know you have all these good exciting book events in the city, so I'm really excited that you made time. This was so fun. I love doing this. So American Royals, so good. I was saying to you earlier. I like couldn't wait. I had to read every page like voraciously. Like what was going to happen? It was really great. Tell listeners, please, what American Royals is about and what inspired you to write it. So American Royals is essentially Crazy Rich Asians meets

the Crown. So it is a what if scenario of what if instead of being our first president, George

Washington had been our first king and present day America is still a monarchy. And it follows

the love lives and relationships and adventures of

the three children who are all the current generation of heirs to the throne. So there's

Princess Beatrice who will be the very first Queen of America and then her two younger siblings,

Samantha and Jefferson. And are you a royal family addict type of person? I am, but I'm more of a historical fiction

addict. So I read a ton, ton, ton of historical fiction. Anything about Versailles, Charles

the second, Queen Victoria, the Tudors, I'm here for all of it. And so it's been in more recent years that I've become reinvested in the modern British royal family.

There was also a long time where they weren't that fun, to be totally honest.

Because like William and Harry were teenagers and, you know, Charles is just Charles, sadly. And so I feel like they've had this whole,

you know, rebranding in recent years because, you know, they've had two really big weddings,

and now they have a whole new generation, and we have all these really fun photos, and it's been

really exciting to kind of dive back into them as the royal family is changing

in so many positive ways. I remember waking up my twins who are now 12. I woke them up. I think

they were five. I can't remember when exactly the princess came wedding was, but I woke up my

daughter and I was like, get off. We have to watch this. I have to watch the wedding.

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