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.

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.