First Son of the United States Alex Claremont-Diaz has hated England’s Prince Henry for as long as he can remember. But when they’re forced to fake a friendship for some PR damage control, Alex realizes Henry isn’t the uptight jerk he thought, and that he might be in love with a royal.

Is it possible for every cell in your body to squeal with glee every second you’re reading a book? Yes, because that was my experience reading RED, WHITE AND ROYAL BLUE. This book is alternately hilarious and moving, playful and heart-wrenching. It’s also so, so gay.

Everything about this book is snappy and sharp. I kept trying to read whole pages out loud to my partner through tears of laughter. If you like Rainbow Rowell, Cat Sebastian or Samantha Irby, you need this book.

This book is also the closest I’ve ever seen to my own coming out experience in a book, despite Alex being a dude. People often don’t understand how you could not know you’re attracted to the same sex, and this book nails that sense of 20/20 hindsight and how you can completely misunderstand your own feelings simply because you were never taught how to recognize them.

Finally, I think this book also gets both the American politics and the British monarchy right, both in terms of mechanics and social influence. (McQuiston, I would love to see your alternate royal family tree! 🤓)

Oh my goodness, I LOVED this book! All of the characters were exciting and well written. I was smitten from the start. I loved how hopeful everything felt, even though often times politics feels hopeless. This book was extremely relevant and incredibly beautiful. This might be one of my favorite books of the year. I want sequels, ASAP.

Alright, so, Red, White and Royal Blue is getting more and more hype everyday and this massively contributed to my interest and excitement for this and I am so very glad and grateful that I had the chance to read it ahead of its release date because this book absolutely rocks. And I want to shout to the world how unbelievably amazing it is.

So, this book is one of the best books I’ve read. It is funny, sassy, fluffy, heart breaking and it is everything. I can promise you that you will laugh, smile, awe and cry while reading this debut - and you will love every minute of it all.

Alex and Henry’s story is an important one that will resonate with a lot of people - for LGBTQ+ reasons, for political reasons, and so much more. Those two characters are two of the most real and awesome ones I have ever had the chance to read about and I love them and want to see so much more of them. But you see, the thing with Red, White and Royal Blue, it’s that the MCs are not the only ones you end up rooting for - the side characters are as good and important. This whole cast of characters is filling my heart with joy and love.

I honestly don’t even know how to write this review - the only thing that matters and is important is that Casey McQuinston is an author that you need to look out for and who has officially joined my favourites list. And that her book is fabulous, superbly written and will leave you with a giant smile on your face and tears in your eyes.

Arc provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I loved the characters in this book and that it took on several social and political issues while still being a New Adult romance.
My only complaint is that the chapters felt long. I think the pacing of the book could have been better served by separating chapters when there were jumps in time.

I absolutely LOVED this book so HARD! Deserving of all the stars!! It had me all in my feels. I laughed, I cried and swooned like crazy!! This book was even better than I had hoped for and so much more!! So book hungover!

Arc provided for a honest review.

This book's friendships, romance, humor, and political drama made this one of the most addicting stories I've ready in a long time.

The character's were primarily in their early 20's and it worked so perfectly for the story being told. The six core character's were each extremely flushed out and had their own personal growth. It truly made you feel like you were also there part of this friend group and rooting for each of their goals.

As much as I adored this story, all of the events seemed to meld together due to the very long chapters. That plus the predictable ending brought my overall rating down to 4 stars. Don't let my small annoyances sway you though; Casey McQuiston has crafted such an entertaining and swoon-worthy debut novel that I urge you to pick up!

I adore this book and have been recommending it to everyone I can. I will be writing a much longer review on my blog later on.

Not what I thought, but it was really good read.
The play between the 2 different cultures, absolutely well done.

This is such a fun book. I loved the voice of Alex and his journey towards romance with Henry. I think this really captures 2019 in such a powerful but hopeful way. The whole idea that Alex's mom could have been president is so powerful for me right now. ;-)

One thing I think this book gets SO RIGHT are the voices of Alex and his friends and siblings as young people. This felt really fresh to me. The whole scene at the wedding where they knocked over the cake just made me gasp in horror.

If I had one complaint (and it's probably related to it being a debut), it feels like in a romance once thing I count is a rich look at the interior and emotional life of the character. And there are times I felt like I could have used more than I was getting. I could have used more feelings work, especially in the first half of the book where they are jetting around and hooking up. These are scenes that just happen, but there's not a whole lot of development of how they feel. But compared to how self-assured this was in so many other ways, I would say that I still greatly enjoyed this book and will be discussing it on an upcoming episode of Fated Mates.

“Take anything you want and know you deserve to have it.”

Thank you, St. Martin's Press for an advance copy.

I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS. I really didn't know what to expect going into this, I kind of had the impression that it was a cheesy Hallmark-esque kind of novel, something light, something simple, something quick. I was deeply mistaken. Is it an overused trope? Absolutely. 2 people hate each other, they realize they don't hate each other, they fall in love. Easy, right? Not really, here. McQuiston has taken this trope and built it into what is possibly one of THE best (if not THE best) love stories I think I've personally ever read. I sobbed at times...sobbed.

Alex, the Mexican-American son of two politicians, one being the first female president of the United States of America. Henry, the Prince of Wales who has been forced to live a stuffy existence, to always follow the rules and never make his own choices as they've mostly all been made for him. They're massively competitive, they tolerate each other, seemingly hate each other and definitely AREN'T in love...right? The characters here aren't the least bit 2 dimensional, even the background players I genuinely felt I knew because they're so incredibly fleshed out and so very real. This is a crazy, lovable, quirky cast of people that I honestly, at the end, did not want to let go of. I feel like I fell deeply in love with them all.

The book tackles quite a few different topics. We have the first female president of the United States and she is a strong, vigilant, confident and unapologetic woman. I felt like women played a very big part in this as we see several different female viewpoints from at least 4 different generations and 3 different races. All with their own opinions, all with their own stances on different issues whether they be positive or negative. Women have a major voice here. We get commentary on what it's like growing up Mexican-American and how you feel you have to fight so much harder for what you want simply because of the color of your skin. We also see how outdated and dangerous something like a monarchy can be, how old fashioned politics and monarch rule can be so damaging in a modern world. Homophobia...because, goddamnit, why CAN'T two grown men love each other no matter where or what they come from? Because, at the end of the day, without the sad existence of sheer and willful ignorance, this book couldn't have been written the way it was. It really is THAT simple. Just let people live. Ethics, drug addiction, predatory behavior...also things touched on here and very well, I might add.

The writing just jumps at you, you cannot stop reading once you start. So many stories feel so choppy and messy but this was SO well written and the narrative flow is on point. I loved the bits of historical references here concerning art and poetry and literature. I was unaware of the life that King James I lived...it's something I'm going to definitely read more into. The excerpts of letters from famous LGBTQ+ people of the past. Some of the prose are incredibly touching. AND it's hilarious at times...I genuinely laughed out loud throughout.

Every. Single. Thing. Was. Perfect. Even down to the love scenes. Yes...there are several and fuck...I need a minute. She writes gay sex in a way that felt beautiful, not filthy or smutty...but still really damn hot, girl.

I digress. Whew.

We get a world where Donald Trump is not mentioned even once. He never became president. We went from Barack Obama to our first badass female president. We get a world where women are equal and pursuing whatever the hell they want. Where a Mexican-American family is living in the White House. A world where it's seemingly easy to defy the Queen of England and overthrow centuries of tradition. Where two men can be together and love each other no matter who they are or what their "title" is.

Yes, it's a perfect book. Set in a very nearly perfect world. It may not always feel realistic either but it CAN be. And, given our current political climate, the monstrosity we have sitting in the White House, I think that's what we all need right now. We need to see what this world CAN be, what we can aspire to, the love and the equality we CAN accomplish.

Thank you, Casey McQuiston, for a beautiful and inspiring story. It gave me hope and I loved it more than words can say.

This is a tough one for me. I was SO excited for this book and wanted to love it so much. And for about the first half of the book I was ALL in, staying up reading until the wee hours of the morning a couple of nights in a row because I couldn't put it down. It was just so fun and cute! But unfortunately somewhere after that I just kind of lost interest.

There are pacing issues, for sure. At one point I looked down and honestly couldn't believe that I was only 30% of the way through because SO MUCH had already happened. And then the last thirty to fifty percent of the book really started to drag. I would have loved it if the earlier part of the story had been expanded because enemies to lovers is one of my faaaavorite tropes and it all just happened way too quickly.

If the majority of the story had been their shift from enemies to friends to lovers and a lot of the heavy-handed political stuff had been eliminated then this would be a totally different review. And now I'm getting upset because THAT book would have been so good! I want to read that book!

Another issue I had was with the voices of the characters. Or voice, really. They all sound like the same person. And all the dialogue is very sarcastic and snappy and "clever" and honestly just really cheesy and unrealistic and made me roll my eyes a lot. The writing in general just had a very wish fulfillment, fanfiction-y quality to it that got tiresome very quickly.

That said, the first half of the book is delightful and as I read I was thinking a five star rating for pure enjoyability. I'm sure this book will resonate with many readers, it's very timely and the escapism is probably just what a lot of people are looking for right now. I just wish it had lived up to my expectations a little more. I'm looking forward to the on-screen adaptation, I have a feeling this will work much better for me as a film.

I was really hyped for this book. A lot of people who I typically share pretty close reading tastes with loved the ARCs they read. I expected to love this book and fly through it. It took me the better part of 3 weeks to finish. My thoughts that aren't necessarily plot/character-related but more writing style/ARC formatting are this: 1) This book was way too long for me. I felt I was flying through it, but I really wasn't. It was just too long. 2) There was a lot of time jumps throughout the story that I didn't like. 3) I found the POV confusing at times and I feel like I didn't connect with the story as much because it was a little awkward. 4) I dislike how Alex's parents were referred to by their first names. I almost always forgot their names and had to reread passages to figure out who the random person was. 5) The ARC formatting was a little clunky and that may have made those time jumps seem worse.

The story itself...I just don't feel like I really cared about the characters or the love story or the election plot. My favorite character was probably Zahra. The romance was cringey at times...I mean a lot of the time. And I couldn't figure out if the physical romance was supposed to be explicit or "fade to black" and that was confusing too.

A prince and a President's son falling in love? SIGN ME UP. While this started strong for me—I enjoyed the writing style, the voices, the premise, the sass and everything at the start, I was heartbroken I fell out of it in the middle of. I felt like the author, as awesome as she is, got so invested in this story's world that she didn't know when or where to stop. I would have found it perfect had it finished resolving just one or two main conflicts, but whenever I sensed some sort of closure folding in, something else problematic arose. That got me to a point of tiredness and just "can we please just have a happily ever after now??" Also, I couldn't agree more with another reader that posted about how this would have worked best as a young adult fiction. But much respect to this body of work and to the author. A story always finds its way to its rightful reader!

I don't know how I could possibly write a review for this book. It wonderful, funny, and sexy. These characters were everything I didn't know I needed. Alex and Henry are unattainable dream goals. Their emails they kept sending to each other made my black withered heart pitter-patter and grow two sizes. And don't get me started on the sibling dynamics (almost started weeping).
This for sure is going to be a Top Book of 2019 for a lot of people and I'm glad it's bringing back the New Adult genre in the spotlight again. It's showing that NA is still awesome and will sell well.

SON OF A MOTHERFUCKING SHITHELLS THE HYPE IS REAL

Look folks, I'll be the first to admit that I'm trash for thinly masked parallel universe royalty fanfics (I still love The Royal We with all my crotchety heart), but I hesitantly tip-toed into this book because I was a little wary of 1) the hype and 2) the fact this is a m/m romance written by a woman.

But this is endearingly, utterly, devastatingly sweet.

It started off very clunky, with writing that was more tell than show and wandered indecisively between past and present tense, but then I got sucked into the characters and this world and holy hell

From the acknowledgments:

"I came up for the idea for this book on an I-10 off-ramp in early 2016, and I never imagined what it would turn out to be. I mean, at that point I couldn't imagine what 2016 itself would turn out to be...Suddenly what was supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek parallel universe needed to be an escapist, trauma-soothing, alternate-but-realistic reality."

This is a world that imagines—what if a woman won the presidency in 2016? What if she was a Texan Democrat? What if she was a divorcee with two grown biracial children? What if these children were first generation immigrants?

What if.

I know half of these reviews are going to be swooning over Alex and Henry and honestly? Fuck those two little shits (I'm channeling Zahra here btw). I'm happy for them and their love story, truly and honestly, but we knew it was going to end well. This is a romance novel.

I fell in love with the supporting cast.

Cash, who orchestrated Alex's and June's love lives with the flair of a cruise director, who wears a pink feather boa in a gay bar like whatevs.

Amy, a fucking Navy SEAL and trans woman and Secret Service agent and all around badass.

Shaan, with his hot ass and British-Indian perfectness.

Nora and June and Bea and Pez, two parts of the Unholy Trinity and four parts of the Sinister Six and all parts supporting and understanding.

Ellen and her powerpoint slide titles.

Rafael Luna and his Skittles and Five Guys addiction.

Oscar Diaz and the most perfect acceptance of his children ever.

And motherfucking Zahra, who is long-suffering, whip-smart intelligent and will literally rip the balls of someone and wear them as earrings to protect her friends—cough, I mean, totally not friends. And conned a massive fucking engagement ring out of her fiance like a the fucking boss she is.

So.

Why read this?

Well, if you like romance novels then sure this is a foregone conclusion and why have you read my review? It's a dumpster fire.

Read this if you are exhausted from the current political climate—this book will "be the spark of joy and hope you needed."

This is the alternate reality that could have been.

In this reality, something as monumentally ridiculous as private email servers is nothing more than a sub plot.

In this reality, love wins.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

Red, White & Royal Blue was a surprisingly sneaky read. When I first started reading it, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it to the end. It was a little slow at first and the ARC formatting didn't distinguish chapters until chapter NINE so I was a little discombobulated. But, I stuck it out because the more I got to know these guys and their sibs and friends, the more I really enjoyed them and then before I knew it, it was really really late, I had work the next morning and there was no way I was putting down my device until I finished reading it.

The unlikely relationship and how it all worked out + politics + a love story that is chockablock full of diversity and representation is TOTALLY my jam. So while the formatting and the initially slow exposition messed up my reading rhythm, I totally fell for this book, these characters, and would love to see even more of them all!

I freaking LOVED this book. I gave it a 5/5 stars! I found the characters to be wonderful, both the main characters as well as the side characters. The plot was also really interesting and I really liked how to author took this story. From having a woman/Latin representation as the President to the connection Alex has with his roots throughout the book and finally finding himself. I just really loved everything about this story.

Full review at https://booksensationlife.wordpress.com/2019/04/29/red-white-and-royal-blue/

This was was so charming! I loved this world where the US has a divorced female president with Mexican-American kids. The politics was all very interesting and the love story was perfectly full of desire and fun. Highly recommended!

I finished Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston last night and it was amazing!!! It was perhaps the most entertaining read I’ve had in a while. It was such a funny, witty, cute book, and exactly what I needed after my heart being torn to pieces by Next Year In Havana by Chanel Cleeton.
Red, White and Royal Blue is such a chaotic book that I couldn’t help but love it. The main Character, Alex, is a mess on a mess on a mess and I r e l a t e. He’s the kinda guy who you could hit up at 3 AM to break into the CIA building and he’d be like “sure lemme get my gloves and comfy shoes”. I adore him. The love interest, Prince Henry, is an absolute sweetheart. I would fight anyone for him. Even the Queen of England. (I mean, I’d fight her anyway because of the stuff she represents and has let slide and done but you know what I mean.) And Zahra? Legit, she could stomp all over my heart in front of me. I’d literally rip it out of my chest so she could stomp all over it in heels if she was having a bad day. And then I’d thank her. June and Nora are such cuties. Such absolute cuties like… christ I could just hug them so tight for as long as they want because they’re absolutely wonderful and deserve all the love. Also Shaan? What a man. What a cutie. I adore him. I just want to ruffle his hair.
The writing is so witty and cute and I loved it soooo much. I blew through the first 200 pages in a matter of hours. This is a gem of a book. The writing was perfect and sweet and funny and had me laughing my butt off every other page.
This book was also so relatable like holy crap?? The conversations and the interactions and Henry’s “PLEASE DO NOT” every time Alex even breathes in his direction is just beauty. Truly beauty. I love my sons so much😪
Anyway you should read this book, throw it at passerbys to read it, and tell your pets to read it, too. Make everyone’s day better by gifting them this fantastic book. Okay? Okay.
Rep.: Biracial main character, Alex, (Mexican and White) who is bisexual. Gay Love interest.
TW: Ableist language.

Politics and royalty are a wonderful combination. Love this story and the dynamic. Enjoyable, delightful read. Would read again! Easy read, finished in two days