Excerpt from American Princess by Stephanie Marie Thornton, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"Father's going to be president," I said slowly, staring out the window as my mind raced ahead to what this meant for us. I'd always resented the fact that Father had been shoved unwillingly into the token position that was the vice presidency, but had never really considered that he might one day be president.

That I might be the president's daughter.


President McKinley died at two fifteen the following morning, plunging America into a shocked grief and rousing us remaining Roosevelts from our sleepless beds to begin the long trek by buckboard and train to the nation's capital.

I gaped when the carriage finally turned onto Pennsylvania Avenue and allowed me my first glimpse of the Executive Mansion's stately white pillars, its curved portico shrouded in deep autumn shadows, and the dark velvet curtains in all the windows drawn as if the entire building was asleep and waiting for us.

"Which room do you think will be ours?" Ethel murmured from beside me, but I didn't answer, struck speechless for perhaps the first time in my life.

This was our new home.

My father was now president of the United States of America.

And that meant I was now First Daughter.

Excerpted from American Princess by Stephanie Thornton. Copyright © 2019 by Stephanie Thornton. Excerpted by permission of Berkley Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.