This book had been circulating all of my social media for weeks, and I admit that was one of the main reasons why I was so interesting in reading this title, and now I can totally understand the hype because this book was such a fluffy and adorable romance story and I really enjoyed it.

I have to say that probably the main reason why I didn’t love this book as much as everyone else was because I was in reading slump by the time I read this novel, and because of that I didn’t give it 5 stars. However, that didn’t keel me from enjoying the storyline or finding it cute and amazing.

I really enjoyed the cast of characters that was in this novel. Though there were times I wasn’t as engaged with them, I still think they were such incredible individuals. I adored the dynamics between the two protagonists and how their relationship evolved as the story progressed. Their interactions didn’t feel forced, and I think the relationship’s development was so well done and angsty at times.

The book was also such fast paced. I still think it was a bit too long and there were some things that could have been edited out, because there were times where I was a bit bored (again, I don’t know if me being in a reading slump had something to do with that), but apart from that, there were times where I was laughing out loud because these characters were simply hilarious.

Overall, I think this was such a refreshing and fast paced story, with incredible, funny and complex characters and I was pretty surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

A fun sweet enemies to lovers read with a twist- the love affair is between the First Son and the Prince of Wales. This is written with a light hand and with a positive world view in which diversity is celebrated. You'll like the characters, the dialogue is a hoot at times and the plot pops along. I'm a bit too ahem mature for this but I did enjoy it. I do not recommend as YA but it's a really nice read. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston a four-star read that will make you blush. I will be honest and admit I had to go back to this one as I started it and gave up, but picked it up after a friend had raved about it, I’m glad I picked it back up as I got more out of it the second time around. This is a book of discovery with witty one liner’s that will make you chuckle, but most of all its about romance and love and enjoying what life give you, despite what you face and what people tell you how you should be.

Pros: This book was sweet and sexy. I loved the touch of innocence even though they were grown men. It was so much fun to see the interaction between the two characters. Alex's family is amazing. I loved every single person. I liked how they weren't perfect and that their mom knew that she was a mother before she's a president. And their dad, man I love Oscar's character. He's such a cool dude. Noraa is such a cool best friend and ex-girlfriend. Like yo, I need a friend like her. My favorite part of this book were the text messages and emails, they were so funny to read.

Cons: Just my own preference, I think I'd enjoy this book a lot more if it was in first person pov. And another thing that bothered me was the amount of sexy times. I kinda felt like it was over done after a couple of times and I would just find myself skimming them. Don't get me wrong, some of them just felt like fillers.

This was delightful, fun, and witty. It's unusual for me to read series, but I hope this becomes one because I want to know what happens next!

DNF @ 10%

This book so far has been a huge turnoff for me for multiple reasons. But I'll go with this one - I am 10% in, and I feel like I have been reading FOREVER! And nothing has happened. I feel like two thirds of the first 10% could have been edited out, and I just don't want to invest any more time in this book.

I believe this is going to be my favorite book of the year. I can’t believe how much I loved these characters and their story. It was well written and I was so invested in what was going to happen to the characters. I read it twice because it was such a great book!

Welcome to this book review !
Disclaimer : I received an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review.

So, this is the type of story you didn't know you needed until you had it !
Everything was so sweet and funny, I couldn't help but laugh out loud during those funny, witty and great moments the author managed to make. Sometimes, with stories containing LGBT character, I go in with a grain of salt, they (the authors) sometimes make mistakes or make the character feel stereotypical in some ways. This was not the case, the story was vibrant the characters felt like real people and the "usual" struggles or depiction of these characters weren't present. It felt like meeting a friend after a long time away and them telling you what you missed since you last talked.
I loved how it wasn't insta love, the fact that they annoyed each other and slowly came to tolerate and then love each other due to discovering more about one another despite how they first viewed one another made the story even better.
Henry was such a sweetheart, you truly could feel how much he struggled to meet the expectations of living in his parents shadow while trying to find himself, he is so kind and such a romantic. It was nice to get to see though his armour he created to protect himself.
Alex, is a show of strength he appears to have it all figured out, but is also trying to make sense of what his place in this world is. I loved the Mexican representation and how he was a bisexual character who fully assumed who he was, accepted himself and faced the world head on.
The best part of this book was seeing them unfold the layers they had both created around themselves, composed of armours and emotions and the facade they put on for the world to protect themselves, and ultimately find each other.
Aside from the main characters, the side characters are superbly well constructed, they don't feel like a background and the topics (racism, sexuality,responsibility and ethics) discussed though this work are amazingly addressed in a way that felt like a natural developpement to the story.
I can't wait to get my final copy in my hands and re-read it over and over.
This has truly become one of my favourite book,
I RECOMMEND TO PICK THIS UP AS SOON AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN !!!!
5/5 stars

Several of the workshops featured at this past weekend's "Let Your Imagination Take Flight" conference, hosted by my home chapter of Romance Writers of America, focused on "getting unstuck" and fighting writers' block. And I shared many conversations with fellow writers talking about the feeling that something is missing when we sit down to write these days, suggesting that this is an issue for many American romance authors at this particular point in history. Several colleagues pointed not to the prevalence of unpleasant weather currently plaguing America's northeast, but instead to the country's current political situation as the most likely reason why they are experiencing stress, lack of inspiration, and just plain burnout at the thought of writing about happily ever afters. It can be hard to imagine a more progressive future when you feel mired in an ever-expanding swamp of lies, constantly having to justify and defend the values, and the people, you hold dear.


Which was why it was such a joy to sit down post-conference and read Casey McQuiston's joyful but politically pointed romance comedy debut, Red, White, & Royal Blue. McQuiston originally came up with the hook-y premise for this book—the son of the American president falls for the youngest of England's royal princes—in early 2016, before the surprise of that fall's Presidential election. After said election, McQuiston herself felt blocked: "Suddenly what was supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek parallel universe needed to be escapist, trauma-soothing, alternate-but-realistic reality. Not a perfect world—one still believably fucked up, just a little better, a little more optimistic. I wasn't sure I was up to the task" (Acknowledgements).

I for one am amazingly grateful that McQuiston managed not to give up on this story. For rather than reading as a "tongue-in-cheek parallel universe," the love story of presidential son Alex Claremont-Diaz and Prince Henry of Wales served for me as a glorious vision of a more hopeful, progressive, and utterly achievable political future.

What does said future look like? It looks like a country willing to elect not only a female President, but a female amicably divorced from her first husband and happily married to her second. It looks like a country with two biracial first children (Mexican-American senator father, white President mother), who, with the "vaguely bisexual" granddaughter of the Vice President, serve as the country's most talked-about, and admired, twenty-somethings. It looks like a world in which the younger generation, comfortable both working and socializing in a multiracial, international, global world, serves as a model for their more cautious elders.

It also happens to look a lot like a classic enemies-to-lovers romance.

Staffers new to the White House are informed early on of three important things about FSOTUS Alex Claremont-Diaz: he lives at the White House, even though he's still in college (Georgetown is so close!); he often calls for coffee in the middle of the night while working on his college essays or his mother's reelection strategy; and he has a long-standing grudge against the youngest of Britain's royal princes.

A few years older than Alex, Prince Henry has always struck Alex as a dull stick-in-the-mud, undeserving of all the adulation and attention focused on him:

The tabloids—the world—decided to cast Alex as the American equivalent of Prince Henry from day one, since the White House Trio is the closest thing America has to royalty. It has never seemed fair. Alex's image is all charisma and genius and smirking wit, thoughtful interviews and the cover of GQ at eighteen; Henry's is placid smiles and gentle chivalry and generic charity appearances, a perfectly blank Prince Charming canvas. Henry's role, Alex thinks, is much easier to play.
Maybe it is technically a rivalry. Whatever. (Loc 149)

Which is why attending the wedding of Henry's older brother is filling Alex not with delight, but with snark. As he tells elder sister June, "You can't just call him my 'arch nemesis'... 'Arch nemesis' implies he's actually a rival to me on any level and not, you know, a stuck-up product of inbreeding who probably jerks off to photos of himself" (93). And so, to the surprise of no-one, Alex can't restrain himself from taunting his "arch nemesis" during the very proper wedding reception:

The most annoying thing of all is Alex knows Henry hates him too—he must, they're naturally mutual antagonists—but he refuses outright to act like it. Alex is intimately aware politics involves a lot of making nice with people you loathe, but he wishes that once, just once, Henry would act like an actual human and not some polished little wind-up toy sold in a palace gift shop. He's too perfect. Alex wants to poke it. (229)


Poking polite Henry, however, quickly escalates into "Cakegate" (you have to read it to appreciate it), an international breach of etiquette so dire that requires major diplomatic efforts (and major acting) to patch up. As his mother's aide sternly informs Alex,

"Both sides need to come out of this looking good, and the only way to do that is to make it look like your little slap-fight at the wedding was some homoerotic frat bro mishap, okay? So, you can hate the heir to the throne all you want, write mean poems about him in your diary, but the minute you see a camera, you act like the sun shines out of his dick, and you make it convincing" (311).

All Alex is convinced of is that a person who lists his hobbies as "polo" and "competitive yachting" has about as much personality as a cabbage. But with his mother facing a challenger criticizing her for her chilly relationship with her British counterpart, Alex gives in and heads to London for a whirlwind weekend visit with his "close personal friend" Prince Henry.

Alex prides himself on his ability to read others, and is convinced that he knows all he needs to about the stuffy, dull prince before he even gets off the plane. But during their tour through charity events, television interviews, and a false-alarm assassination attempt, "he keeps getting these little glimpses into things he never thought Henry was. A bit of a fighter, for one. Intelligent, interested in other people. It's honestly disconcerting" (623).

Even more disconcerting is the friendship the two develop via text message, and occasional in-person meetings, in the ensuing months. Because while Alex prides himself on his ability to read others, his ability to understand himself could use a bit more work. Especially when it comes to his own latent attraction to a not-quite-so-proper prince.

But can the son of the American president date a British prince in the middle of a re-election campaign? Especially if mom needs to win their home state of Texas in order to guarantee a repeat?


I've quoted so often from Red, White, & Royal Blue in the above review because so much of the pleasure in this rom com comes from McQuiston's distinctive, laugh-out-loud voice, told entirely from the point of view of its hyper intelligent but emotionally clueless main character. Though the story is told in the third person, it's also told in the present tense, which gives the narration both immediacy and a certain wry distance, both of which are perfectly suited to conveying Alex's character and charm. For example, after Alex sees a picture of Henry with a "mysterious blonde," the narrator tells us "Faintly, under it all, it occurs to him: This is all a very not-straight way to react to seeing your male frenemy kissing someone else in a magazine" (1655). Or the scene where Alex is trying to figure out whether he might not be as straight as he's always assumed by calling his former (male) best friend and asking, "This might sound weird. But, um. Back in high school, did we have, like, a thing? Did I miss that?" (5485).

No romance reader will want to miss McQuiston's glorious celebration of snark, sentiment, and the progressive political possibilities of a not quite straight royal romance.

And no writer could find a better cure for political-despair-induced writers' block than McQuiston's sparkling, effervescent romance.

Wow! This was such a joy to read. Henry and Alex were so cute! Really, the whole gang was just a hoot. I loved the love stories they quoted in their correspondence. I loved the political aspect of this book. The pins and needles of the election felt real. Because as much as this book has the cute, sweet HEA feel, the election really felt like it could go either way. I fought to stay in the moment and not read ahead for the outcome. Henry's plight with the crown and the queen hit me in the gut. I could feel the suffocation he must have been feeling.

This was an excellent first novel for this author. She did a fantastic job and I look forward to reading more of her work.

Exactly the kind of queer rom com I've been waiting my whole life for. Red, White & Royal Blue was a delight to read. Slightly fluffy and full of the best tropes that left you with that feel-good satisfying feeling. In fact, I liked it so much I finished it in one day! I do want to point out that there isn't anything inherently original about the story line, which doesn't go particularly deep. However, if you're looking for a lovely, quick read with a main cast of queer characters, I would recommend this book.

huge thank you to St.Martin's press for giving me an arc via net galley

This book! I loved it. It was just such as nice feel-good kind of story that was just all the right amounts of humor, heartwarming, and sexy stuff

To begin with, the idea was so original to me. You see a ton of love stories about princes but those stories are all mostly fantasy. It was so fun to see that whole royal romance used in a real-world setting. Then there was teh diverse cast of characters. it's not only nice to see so much representation fort teh LGBTQ+ and POC community. I'm going, to be honest with you seeing a book that has a mostly white cast with that one POC chatter was getting really boring. Finlay, I really like how it delves into politics and the careers in it. I'm not going to lie ii don't know much about in-depth politics, but that didn't matter because of the way the McQuiston wrote about everting explained to so well without dumbing things down.

New writer and a great book!

First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz had always disliked, he actually hated Prince Henry of England since forever because Alex thought he was stuck up and Prince Henry thought Alex was a prat. But when Alex and Henry get into an argument at Prince Phillip’s wedding and knock the cake over, they have to make nice and act like they are best friends which is a total opposite from their extreme dislike which changes over time but that’s in the story which the reader will get to enjoy.

I loved Red, White & Royal Blue especially when Casey McQuiston explained in the acknowledgements how she started the story and where she originally thought it would be a parallel universe story and it changed to alternate reality and the spark of joy.

I’m not fond of romance with a lot of political background but Casey McQuiston has taken romance and used a very light writing style to show the reader her hope for the future. I’m looking forward to her next book whenever she writes it.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Well, guess this just is what happens when you wait too long to read your ARCs so that all your friends have already read it and hyped it so much that you had too high expectations.

Or is it? I'm really not quite sure why this book didn't click with me as much as it seems to do with basically EVERYBODY else. It could've been a hype thing, yes. But I simply think me and this book just weren't supposed to connect and I don't think not having heard anything about it beforehand would've changed that.

Now don't get me wrong. I enjoyed this. For the most part it kept me interested and whenever I put it down, I never had to force myself to pick it back up, I just naturally wanted to continue.
But with everybody loving this book, I have decided to focus my review on the things that bothered me, to just add a new perspective! I'm not here to drag this book or the people who loved it because I totally see why they do!

First off, and this is definitely an issue that comes from expectations, I was disappointed that there was barely any "enemies" in this supposed "enemies to lovers" romance. I thought there was not enough explanation why these two didn't like each other and there really wasn't much of them disliking each other before they became friends. Especially with this whole book focusing so much on the relationship between the two, I think we definitely could've gotten more time for them to develop from enemies to friends.

While the idea of a romance between the First Son and a Royal Prince is an exciting one, I found myself not loving the concept pretty early on. Obviously I knew this book would focus a lot on the romance and usually I don't have issues with that at all but when it comes to two such important people in the world, especially with the countries that they're stemming from and what's going on in the world, I just felt like this was scraping the surface WAY TOO MUCH. Like the fact that Brexit was barely even mentioned?
And even with the issues that we dive in a little bit more because they're obviously center of this story, like being a queer person in such a high position, I still felt like it constantly only was a little glimpse into the actual issues.
And I get this, this is an alternate reality and there is so much going on in this world and the US and UK respectively, that there is no way to include it all and I'm glad that McQuiston didn't try to do that, but that's just where my issues with this concept was.

The same goes for how little we actually got of England and what it means to be a Prince. Obviously, as this is from Alex's perspective, it makes sense that we didn't get so much of Henry and his life and in a way, again, I'm glad that McQuiston didn't focus that much on it because I've experienced American authors being shit at research of European countries way too often so I fear things would've been butchered anyway, but it's just a little frustrating when there's so much going on in the UK in our timeline and you just don't really know how things are going in this AU.

Which brings me to my issues with the royal family in general. While the US can still talk about real life people like Obama and Biden, the UK has a completely made up royal family, which obviously makes sense cause as it is a family and not just random new people that get elected, it would've been weird to have Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles in this story and then just random children that don't actually exist but again, it kinda bothered me. Because in the US there's real life people that we already know but in the UK it's a whole bunch of made up people that we know nothing about.

And while I'm no expert on royalty, I did think that McQuiston got some things wrong. For example Henry is not in the immedaite succesion line. So it really doesn't matter much if he has children or not and at the end of the day, no one is required to have children in the royal family anyway. Now I get why the Queen would use it as an argument against him being gay but I don't really understand why it wasn't brought up by anybody else that he doesn't actually have any requirement to have an heir.
And while you might think I'm being nit-picky about these things, I am a big fan of people actually understanding the stuff they are writing novels about. Again, I'm no expert and not even from the UK but this is not even that hard to research. Don't just use European countries and culture as an accessory (case in point: no, Germans don't all were Lederhosen, especially not if they have a professional appointment with a royal talking about windmills)

I sadly also wasn't as connected to the relationship between Alex and Henry as I thought I would be. I loved their physical chemistry and this book was so god damn sexy! But even though I thought the way the feelings developed was absolutely lovely, this is kinda where the relationship lost me? I didn't care much for their lovey-dovey emails. WHICH IS SO WEIRD FOR ME TO SAY? Usually I love all that shit while everyone else is annoyed. So I don't know what happened here.
I will say that I loved so many of the side and minor characters. Seeing Alex's family, friends and staff and their bonds absolutely incredible. And the diversity was so seamless. There were so many queer people and people of colour. Alex himself is biracial (White and Mexican) and bisexual, Henry identifies as gay!

So overall, while this review might sound very negative, it is just because I feel like this is the fresh take I can offer about this book. I'm so happy with how well it is doing and hope people will continue to love it as much as they do but it just didn't get there for me!
Still enjoyable and absolutely worthwhile to me thanks to the characters.

There was so much to enjoy about this book. The characters were all so likeable and it was nice to think of the people in the White House and Kensington Palace as "real" people with problems like the rest of us, whether with romantic partners, trying to make parents proud, or just figuring out what to do with the rest of your life.

The romance between Henry and Alex was swoony at times. I love the support they received from their besties and family members (mostly). The dialogue was funny and sharp, the ending had me on the edge of my seat.

My only complaint is that I thought it was a little longer than it needed to be to pack the same punch.

Final thought: I really wish Ellen Claremont could really run in the 2020 election! She'd have my vote :)

This was a really cute, sweet and funny book. I enjoyed reading Alex and Henry's story and their back and forth banter. I also liked how it was interspersed with politics and hey, there was finally a woman president! I did have some trouble following all the dialogue. It didn't have a seamless flow to it and the scenes just seemed to quickly jump from one thing to another. I also found some of it a bit on the silly side for me but that is just my own personal preference. I loved the originality of the story and I'm so glad there are books like this one out there!

This is officially my favorite book of all time! I laughed, i cried. I felt so many different feelings i can’t even explain. If you wanted different results in 2016, this is for you. If you’ve struggled with questioning your sexuality, this is for you. If you’re a human with a pulse, this is for you. Can’t recommend highly enough!

2.5 stars. I'm in the minority here. There was so much political stuff going on, my mind would shut down. The romance seemed to get lost. I also was a bit confused in the beginning. There were several things I thought alluded to Alex being gay/bi that I thought he was already out. And he seemed way to intelligent to have "homosexual amnesia". All of a sudden he has recollections that were clearly M/M. There were abrupt scene changes that left me lost for a paragraph and while I thought the concept was a bit unique, I had a really hard time suspending reality. I think I would have had an easier time if Henry were prince of imaginary kingdom.

****4.5 stars****

Utterly adorable. My heart is full of love for these two. Unapologetic Alex meets reserved Henry. Their repartee killed me, and their correspondence were full of nuggets that made my historian heart sing.

The background is reminiscent of The West Wing, one of my favourite tv series which is an excellent political drama. The hustle and bustle of gearing up for re-election brought out the best and worst of their “situation,” making each side wary yet determined.

Good secondary characters made this even more memorable. What a debut for Casey McQuiston.

How do I love this book? Let me count the ways. I love the characters, I love the dialogue, I love the plot, I love the hopelessly romantic, sexy emails, I love the plot. I LOVED EVERYTHING. I feel such joy and delight finishing it. Absolutely wonderful and I am sure I will read it again.