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!

God, I loved this so much. Alex and Henry have a big piece of my heart from now on! This book was just so beautiful and romantic and it made me feel All the emotions ever. I loved all of the characters, which is unusual for me! (except the queen but that’s expected). This is my favourite read of 2019 so far and I cannot wait until I can buy it and pester all my friends to read it!! I didn’t want it to end but I thought the ending was beautiful anyway. This is the book we deserve

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Five Royally Fabulous, Romantic, Swooning Stars.

“Thinking about history makes me wonder how I’ll fit into it one day, I guess. And you too. I kinda wish people still wrote like that. History, huh? Bet we could make some.”

In the book acknowledgments, Casey McQuiston wrote that she came up with the idea for this book in early 2016. However, after November of that year, she gave up on writing it for months. McQuiston wrote, "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-still one believably f***ed up, just a little better, a little more optimistic...What I hoped to do, and what I hope I have done with this book by the time you've finished it, my dear reader: to be the spark of joy and hope you needed."

I can say, without a doubt, that this book was the spark of joy and hope I needed. We are only in May, but I wouldn't be surprised if this doesn't end up being my favorite book of the year. I felt happiness and warmth radiating through me as I read it and my cheeks hurt from smiling. It was beautiful, funny and perfect. I've been trying all week to write a review that would do it justice.

"Red, White & Royal Blue," is the story of Alex and Henry. Alex is the son of the President of the United States. Henry is the Prince of Wales. They've had a long standing grudge against the other for years. When their bickering boils over at a Royal Wedding, it leads to an international news story that embarrasses both countries. Seeking to do damage control, the PR Team for both men force the two together for a media filled weekend in England to play it off that they are actually the best of friends.

Thrust together, Alex and Henry find out they maybe don't hate each other and a tentative friendship begins. When Alex returns to the U.S., he keeps in touch with Henry through texts, emails and eventually phone calls. Eventually, Alex is surprised to find his talks with Henry being the highlight of his day. He doesn't dig too deeply into these thoughts until Henry visits the White House, and everything suddenly changes.

I don't want to spoil the plot because I want readers to discover it and fall in love like I did. I suppose if we have to shove books into genres, this is a romance. And it is romantic in a very toe curling way. Yet there's so much more to it, so many more layers. So even if you don't typically read Romance, give this a try. Perhaps it will spark some joy and hope.

“You are", he says, "the absolute worst idea I've ever had.” -Henry

“That's the choice. I love him, with all that, because of all that. On purpose. I love him on purpose.” -Alex

ARC generously provided through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

My review will be posted on my book club's blog: Librarian Wannabes on May 5, 2019. A shorter version will be posted on Goodreads also on May 5, 2019.

The cover of this book caught my attention when I was browsing titles on NetGalley. Red, White, and Royal Blue; even the title was intriguing. After having read the description, I wanted in. Casey McQuiston’s debut novel did not disappoint me. This was a charming YA romance that gave so much more than just the giddiness of a new relationship. This deals with the way a relationship develops, from friendship to love. It’s about LGBTQ relationships and how our political leaders can influence and help improve rights for LGBTQ people around the world. It’s about politics and politicians and what we hope they can be and what we pray they aren’t.
This takes place in an alternate reality where a divorced woman becomes President of the United States. Casey states that this started out as an escape for her after the 2016 election and morphed into an amazing story of romance, politics, hope, and relationships. Meet Alex Claremont-Diaz, FSOTUS or First Son of the United States if you don’t know. Alex lives a life most of us only imagine. Yes, there are demands and pressures that come with being part of the First Family, but there are also perks, like throwing a New Year’s Eve party at the White House for you, your friends, fellow celebrities, young royals, etc.
Speaking of young royals, the youngest heir to the English throne, His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales, is a persistent thorn in Alex’s side. There is just something about his smug, arrogant, coy, handsome face that really rubs Alex the wrong way. And after a couple of drinks, Alex is REALLY irritated just watching Henry schmooze his way around the room at the royal wedding. But, it was certainly not ALEX’s fault that Henry fell into the wedding cake… a cake that was reported to have cost $75,000. Regardless of whose fault it was, the consequences are beyond tedious. Because now Alex and Henry are forced to pretend they are actually best friends, whose horsing around caused the whole “cake-gate” episode and Alex is grinding his teeth just trying to get through it all.
What’s confusing is how suddenly Henry isn’t as dull and stuck-up as Alex thought he was. And maybe he’s actually got a sense of humor. And now, when Henry sends Alex a text it kind of helps him get through his day filled with meetings and classes and pouring over policy. Now, Alex kind of counts down the minutes until Henry sends him a message.
You’ll want to read this book, you SHOULD read this book. People are all alike. Even if you aren’t LGBTQ, you’ve experienced a crush, a relationship, maybe you’ve experienced love. And that is a shared experience we can all relate to. This is a book about self-discovery and acceptance and all the good things you want to see in a good book.

This is by far one of the best books I have read in a very long time. I really enjoyed how much this book felt like a Hug. I was rooting for both guys straight from the beginning! I loved all the diversity representation in this and all the pop culture references as well. I can't wait to own my own physical copy of this so I can reread anytime I need a pick me up. I will definitely be getting more from this author.

"Thinking about history makes me wonder how I’ll fit into it one day, I guess. And you too. I kinda wish people still wrote like that. History, huh? Bet we could make some."

There are so many things I could say about Red, White & Royal Blue. I could talk about the spot on American political commentary cleverly juxtaposed with the rigid tradition of the British monarchy. I could talk about how reading this book in 2019 with Donald Trump as president provides a sense of hope and a glimpse of what our world could one day look like. I could talk about the feeling of seeing myself in Alex, a boy who has grown up so deeply rooted in heteronormativity, he has trouble recognizing and reconciling the the same sex feelings he develops at a young age. I could talk about the way McQuiston captures the essence of a moment better than anyone I’ve ever read and how her descriptions are a completely tactile experience. Or the way she put into words the exact shape of the grief I felt when I lost my grandmother at a young age. I could talk about the romance between Henry and Alex, one that is at once tender, sweet, passionate, real, hilarious, sexy, and wonderful in every way. I could talk about this book forever, and likely will because it is my new all time favorite.

Red, White & Royal Blue made me laugh out loud hysterically and read whole portions out to my very patient wife. It made me cry in small bursts which eventually turned into ugly sobbing. I cannot remember the last time I read a book I related to so completely. It is full of treasures large and small–rich family dynamics, beautifully complicated yet unconditional friendships, whip smart dialogue, steamy and relatable love scenes–it is everything. McQuiston is ridiculously smart and it shows in every brilliant detail. I want to pick her brain and be her best friend. I want her to write a thousand more books so I can read each and every one. If you read one book in 2019, please make it this one. My unending gratitude to Casey McQuiston, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Such a cute and amazing book, trust me just read it. (when it comes out in 2 weeks !!) It did have that insta love aspect a bit but there have been worse instances on that happening before, at least it felt genuine and real.

A sweet love story between the son of America’s first woman president and the prince of England. If only the 2016 election had a similar result.

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.