Red, White, & Royal Blue
Casey McQuiston
B+

Reviewing a book with this much hype and buzz pre-release almost makes me want to...not. There are already legions of fans for Red, White, & Royal Blue to gush about how amazing it is, and dissenting from that opinion always seems a little uncomfortable, but I must. While McQuiston’s debut has a lot of charm going for it, and was a pleasure to read at times, I don’t find it to be a perfect book.

Let me set up for you that, first of all, this story takes place in essentially an alternate universe where the 2016 election was won by a Texas democrat named Ellen Claremont, and across the pond an entirely different royal family is ruling England (but Brexit is still a thing). Is this more dayglow world, Claremont’s son Alex Claremont-Diaz is an up-and-comer in D.C. who has made a name for himself as part of his mom’s political team. Unfortunately, he has a bad run in with His Royal Highness, Prince Henry of Wales (yes, not Harry) at a royal wedding and now needs to do damage control for the image of US/UK international relations.

The idea is that they’ll pretend to be friends, show up to some events together, get photographed, and it will smooth over any ruffles. Red, White, & Royal Blue advertises itself as an enemies-to-lovers romance, but really the flares of annoyance between Alex and Henry burn out fast, and soon they’re texting late at night, and getting to know each other as people, not just political figureheads.

To be honest, the book almost lost me in the setup. I was incredibly excited for this book based on the premise, but it’s a slow starter. If you look at the page count, maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise because, overall, it’s very long for a romantic comedy. Alex and Henry spend ages on opposite sides of the pond, with only tiny interactions, and I was impatient for the romance to start. At the same time, I had to adjust some to the voice. I don’t think I’d be wrong to say this book is very “millennial”. I’m a fellow millennial, but dear God. The humor, cultural references, and general style of dialogue between Alex, his sister June, and friend Nora is like someone was screaming “We’re youths!!!” The humor could be funny, or plain forced. It gave the story weird feel of both existing exactly in our current time, and also being eerily so not our current political climate (because politics are a huge portion of the book) that I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I do wonder if the whole book will feel terribly dated in a very short time.

Now, once the romance sparked, it was lovely. Alex and Henry are both adorable, well-rounded characters that I loved. Really, the whole cast of the book is fantastic. Alex comes off as someone young and probably reckless who isn’t sure where he wants to be, but he’s very rooted to the people in his life. Henry is almost the opposite in that he’s cautious and thinks his fate is predetermined by birth, but longs for relationships with anyone who can deeply understand him. The boys falling for each other is steller, and I’d recommend the book to anyone just for their relationship. It felt realistically like young love- all uncertainty and newness and excitement. If you extracted the romance alone from the story, it would’ve been an A+, hands down.

My only caveat to that is a personal one for me, in that so much of their relationship takes place via text message and email and I have a pet peeve about that. I just don’t enjoy reading long exchanges in an epistolary format, and there’s tons of that here (including a podcast). Also, their emails were...a lot. If there are twenty-something guys that write evocative, maudlin emails with quotes from historical figures, I’ve never met one.

Besides that, one of the biggest issues I had was that the pacing, and the timeline of the book, was very odd. There were no real transitions from scene to scene. You’d be in D.C. with Alex thinking about something, then suddenly he’s sitting beside Henry. How did we get here? When is this? I’m hoping this was partially due to the formatting of the ARC I had, but I think a lot was the writing style and how McQuiston kind of meanders from thought to thought at times. It was a challenge to understand how long the book took place over and when characters changed location, which pulled me out of the story.

Obviously, scores of readers already enjoyed Red, White, & Royal Blue, and plenty more will as well. I found myself both completely engrossed and wanting to savor parts, as well as skimming others. I don’t think my reservations are enough that I would tell anyone not to read it, because most people will fall into the camp of enjoying this despite any flaws. And really, I think Alex and Henry are pretty swoony-worthy, and I look forward to the movie version of them when it inevitably gets made. If I sound overly critical, it’s because I think this book could have been perfect if not for these drawbacks. There’s so much to love about a queer, international royal romance that also has humor and a New Adult voice, that I wish so much I hadn’t found a single issue. Sadly, I think it just had too much going on in some ways, and that hurt in for me and kept it from the DIK potential it had.

I don’t think I have ever read a romance novel with a gay couple as the main characters. I gotta admit, I’m loving it!!! The characters and the premise is a little trope-y but it’s just such a fun read.

The last chapters of the book had me crying. Flashing back to the 2016 election, remembering buzzing the whole day thinking that we were maybe moments away from having the first woman president. This is a feel good book and I would highly recommend it to the hopeless romantics out there.

Way too cutesy and teenagery for me, despite the main characters being in their 20s. I wanted to love it, especially with the politics angle, but I just couldn't get into it, or bear to read all 432 pages (why so long?!)

I’m not a big romance fan but I loved this and it made me want to try out more from the genre. Everything from the characters to the romance to the politics was great. I just didn’t fall in love with it.

I absolutely loved this book. Five stars, all the stars. I was so into this book that I forgot to mark any of my favorite lines or passages. I started looking for quotes to use and accidentally started rereading it, that’s how much I loved it.

To be honest, I don’t really have words to describe how much I loved this book, so I’m just gonna talk about some of my favorite parts. Like the banter. Interactions between Alex and Henry had me laughing almost immediately. And let’s be real, banter is the best part of any enemies to lovers story. I really liked that Alex and Henry became friends before becoming more. I love friends to lovers almost as much as enemies to lovers, so having it all in one book was wonderful. The first and second kisses between them were amazing and quite literally what romance books are made of.

Now, for Alex. If you know me at all you know that Monty from The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue is one of my favorite characters ever. Alex is pretty much on the same level. What can I say, I love my bisexual disasters 😂
Something that I really connected with in this book was the chapter solely dedicated to Alex figuring out his sexuality. It’s an extremely important part of the book, one that I really appreciated. One that I think a lot of others will connect with. Because sometimes you haven’t “always known” and sometimes you figure yourself out later in life than people feel you should. But it doesn’t always work out that way and seeing that in a book was wonderful.

I’m recommending this book to everyone. I adored it and I want everyone to gush about it with me.

This was a delightfully delightful experience of delight. Oh, and did I mention it was delightful? Casey McQuiston knows how to deliver absolutely all of the feels, while still absolutely refusing to pull any punches when it comes to politics. Though set in an extremely veiled version of the current political landscape in the U.S. in which a woman actually won the 2016 election, McQuiston's commentary on her characters' lives in Washington takes aim at the current administration and hits the mark every time in a brilliantly beautiful way. I cried-- with love for these characters who felt so real it was like they were standing in front of me, with regret that McQuiston's version of the U.S. isn't the real one, and with hope for the future. This is one of the most passionate love stories I've ever read, while still delivering all of the sass, wit, and snark of the best rom-com, Red, White & Royal Blue delivers laughs, tears, sorrow, and joy in equal measure. It was quite simply, the best.

Honestly, I'm not sure what I"m supposed to say in this note to the publisher? I thought that this was a really fun romance novel. The premise jumped out to me from the start (president's son falls in love with the prince of England), and it delivered on the plot. There was enough backstory and heft to the main story that made me care about the supporting characters, and I really enjoyed the political undertones/the election theme.

This book is my favorite book of 2019. I read it in one day and could not put it down. The book lives up to the hype and I highly recommend it. There were parts of the book I was dying laughing at. The romance and characters were well written.

I think , the Urban Dictionary , should from now on, describe the feeling of Delight . Happiness . Joie de vivre . Cheerfulness as RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE ; because that what I felt reading this amazing and utterly entertaining book.



I just reviewed Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. #NetGalley
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**I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

As you might know, I don’t usually read fluffy romantic books, Malka is usually the expert in that sense. However, when I saw the title, cover, and synopsis for Red, White, and Royal Blue, I knew I had to read it! It was such a refreshing break from all the angsty books that I generally read, and I enjoyed it very much!

Red, White, and Royal Blue follows Alex Claremont, first son to the President of the United States of America. When a mishap at the most recent royal wedding threatens international relations, Alex has to play nice in a fake friendship with his arch-enemy, his royal highness Prince Henry of Wales. Henry is charming, stuck-up, and disgustingly perfect, or so Alex thinks. As their fake friendship develops, Alex begins to see the sweet genuine person that Henry is under his princely exterior. When one thing leads to another Alex and Henry find themselves hiding a secret relationship in the midst of Alex’s mother's reelection campaign.

Gah, there were so many amazing things about this book I can’t decide which part to rant about first! I guess I’ll start with the amazing cast of characters. From the main characters-Alex and Henry-to the side characters-Alex’s mom and sister and Henry’s best friend-everyone was just so perfect. I loved how Alex’s family interacted, his mom, the President (female president for the win!!) is incredibly supportive and Alex has a fantastic relationship with his sister June and their best friend Nora. Yes, I am totally including Nora as part of the family because she 100% is. The banter throughout the book between all the characters is just amazing! They’re all so hilarious and I can’t get enough of all their interactions.

As for Alex and Henry, they’re just so cute together! I absolutely adore the enemies-to-lovers trope, especially when they’re like...wait...this very strong burning feeling I feel for said person is...love?? Alex is generally pretty clueless (classic American), and is figuring out that he’s bi while developing this relationship with Henry. While Henry is deep, deep in the closet out of fear of the enormous repercussions he could face as coming out as a gay member of the royal family. I’m not going to lie, there is some angst, but it’s handled so well.

Some of you might know about my love for writing dramatic letters from my open letter to my TBR, and let’s just say that in this book there is a fantastic exchange of letters going on and it was probably one of my favorite parts of the entire book.

This book made me very happy and also made me realize that maybe a cute book thrown in every now and then wouldn’t be the end of the world.

This book was fantastic and very well written. While I did love it, I cannot recommend it to my students because of the amount of sexual content that happens. Yes it's veiled but it's still not something that YA readers may be used to reading. Thus it would be better as a New Adult novel.

This is such a cute book. I was literally smiling while I was reading it. Alex and Henry were so perfect together. All of the characters were nice mix of loving and snarky. Once I was done reading I wanted to immediately reread it again,

I enjoyed every line and every character in this book. It was a great mixture of romance and politics, both of which make my heart happy. Such a wonderful read.

What an utter delight! Sexy, fun, sweet and thought provoking. This is the political gay rom-com we need in these dark times. Cannot recommend highly enough.

Y'all. I thought this book was a cute lil contemporary YA LGBTQ book. No honey. This book was so explicit, it had me clutching my pearls. I loved every minute of it.

RW&RB is a reimagining of our 2016 presidential year where instead of an very large and angry Cheeto being president, the role is filled by a sexy, powerful woman with a biracial family. The main point of view is her son, who, throughout the book, falls in love with the prince of England.

So much of this book was an outlet for me. A sweet juxtaposition of our messed up world, a boy realizing he's bi at age 21 (hello friend), all of it was a release. A world I could climb into and believe, for a moment, was real. I can easily see this book being one I crawl back to when my hopes for the world feel too small.

This is a sweet romance that took me completely by surprise. I was totally sucked into this world, and it's sort of alternate 2019/2020. I highly recommend all romcom fans pick this one up, even if you think you're not the main demographic.

Red, White and Royal Blue is a refreshing coming of age M/M romance. The White House Trio who is Alex, June and Nora definitely made me smile numerous times. Their friendship is tight knitted and it showed from their bantering and jokes among one another.
Henry the prince is a great character as well. He and Alex shared wonderful chemistry. There’s no denying that. I especially enjoyed their first encounters where they’re not fans of another. So much chemistry and heat lied beneath the surface. Alex and his mouth. He knew how to push Henry’s buttons which was a lot of fun.

Alex and Henry gets to know one another on a deeper level via words through texting, emails and phone calls. Henry is certain of his sexuality. For Alex it’s not foreign territory to kiss a man but wanting or feeling more is. His exploration of his sexuality is wonderful written.
It’s a great story of love and not being afraid or ashamed of wanting a person who history deems not right for you. Henry and Alex defy those people.

As much as I enjoyed this book I struggled too. The political aspect of the story took my focus away from the love story. I know it had to be a part of the story because of Alex’s mother but sometimes it became too tedious.
Overall I enjoyed Red, White and Royal Blue thanks to the characters. For a debut it’s pretty good and I’m excited to read more from this author.

This book was delightful! It felt really fresh and down to Earth, and it just felt like it flowed really well. The character's personalities feel real, the dialogue and the way they talked felt real, and the relationship that blooms feels real.

Oh, I just LOVE this book. I've been looking forward to reading Red, White & Royal Blue for AGES now, and isn't it wonderful when something that you've been excited for comes through? Gosh!

Henry and Alex were the perfect characters for me - friends to lovers with such lovely elements of pining and miscommunication! They, and the book as a whole, definitely has qualities of fanfiction to it, but hear me out, that is not a complaint or a negative. The reason I love fanfic is the pay off, and the characterisation and the joy that comes from exploring more about characters you love. For Casey McQuiston to have pulled off that feeling with OCs is fantastic.

I had a few minor niggles on things like timezones, but that's more an editing thing - there was one point where it read as though Alex took off from DC on Saturday morning and arrived in the UK Saturday afternoon, which is obviously impossible - and there were times when I got a bit confused about the back and forth of them visiting each other because it was SO fast paced. I was tired even reading it!

I loved the supporting characters, especially June, Nora and Pez (and honestly I would read the HECK out of a book about the three of them) and I thought the sheer amount of representation should be applauded. As a Brit I didn't think I would be as moved by the US politics scenes as I was, but like I said - after connecting with the characters through 400 pages, the ending just feels like pay off.

And those emails? GOOD LORD SO ROMANTIC AND SEXY??? I was swooning, and honestly it was like the author new the way to my heart with those Hamilton/Laurens references because you know what? HARD SAME.

WOULD AND PROBABLY WILL READ AGAIN!!!

Such a lovely,sweet and unique story.I don't remember the last time I read a M/M that make me so happy!I adored this story from the beginning!

"I never thought I'd be standing here faced with a choice I can't make, because I never.. I never imagined you would love me back."

The storyline was refreshing the dialogues and the emails between Henry and Alex was fun and smart!The feelings are so strong and everything feels intense between these two.It was heatwarming and sweet the romance between Henry and Alex!

If you like friends to lovers this is perfect!It also has amazing characters and the secondary are also perfect!I fell hard in love with Alex and Henry and I wish we had more!