I absolutely loved Red, White, and Royal Blue! It was so much funnier than I ever expected it to be. The romance was amazing and I loved how slow burning it was. Such well developed characters and a story line that hooked me from the very beginning. I look forward to more from Casey McQuiston in the future!

This has to be one of the best written gay love stories I’ve ever read!!
Alex and Henry’s characters were so well developed I feel like I actually know them.
AH. I just LOVED it!!!

You know those books that everyone keeps talking about, that fresh new voice, that cute cover that you read and just don't get why everyone else is enthusing about it? Well this isn't that book, I freaking loved it. That's not to say I didn't find some of the writing and formatting to be beyond frustrating but I just loved this book almost from start to finish.

It's your typical modern royal romance, with a twist. First its a m/m romance and second our non-royal protagonist Alex also happens to be the son of the US President (or FSOTUS). Alex is the half-Mexican son of the first female US President. He, his sister June and Nora, the grand-daughter of the Vice President, are known as "the White House Trio", lots of rumours in gossip rags, wild parties and random hook-ups - or so the press likes to think. In reality Alex has ambitions to enter politics himself and is almost weirdly obsessive about stuff.

Alex loathes and detests Prince Henry, younger grandson of the Queen of England, he thinks Henry is insipid, boring, self-absorbed, stuck-up and supercilious. But after a major incident at the wedding of Henry's older brother Alex and Henry are forced to have a fake friendship for the sake of the press. But as Alex and Henry are forced to spend time with each other Alex discovers his arhc-nemesis is actually very funny, quite shy and hiding a very big secret.

Think Gossip Girl meets The West Wing meet Madam Secretary meets The Royals. Think political shenanigans, romance, improbable antics, karaoke, private planes, secret service agents and lots of emails, texts and other forms of communications.

As I said at the start, this wasn't perfect. I found the writing style off-putting at first, sentences like:
Behind his bedroom door, he can sit and put Hall & Oates on the record player in the corner, and nobody hears him humming along like his dad to "Rich Girl"
the third party narrator mixed with the present tense feels 'off'. Also for the longest time I had no idea who anyone was, Alex and June were introduced and I had no idea who they were: were they the President and spouse, the 'hero' and his mother, I hadn't got a scooby. Also, and this may be a gripe about my ARC which is not present in the finished book, we changed scene and/or perspective and/or time from one paragraph to another without any warning or segue. But these are just niggles, what the book has is heart, a m/m romance which also has lots of politics, a royal romance where the royal doesn't sweep the commoner off their feet, a YA novel that has some challenging thoughts about family and politics and ambition.

I haven't come across Casey McQuiston's novels before but I will certainly scan for other books, this was just a revelation. Loved it. Shout out to Todd whose review here prompted me to request an ARC.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

5 Stars for the story idea, 1.5 Stars for the execution

The Bad:

Point of View:
The 3rd person present point of view is the most off-putting way of narrating this story. It reads like the action paragraph of a screenplay. It is monotone, unappealing, and distances the reader.

Alex:
Alex is an absolute ass. Arrogant, judgmental, elitist, completely self-centered. It’s like a Kardashian is residing at the White House. I found nothing likeable about him. Perhaps instead of focusing on his wedding cake disaster, his mother should be paying attention to his burgeoning alcohol problem. Seriously, he should be in full-on liver failure at this point.

The Supporting Cast:
June is quite possibly the most annoying, obnoxious, and pointless character I’ve ever read. I still don’t understand why she moved to D.C. to babysit Alex as she is no more responsible or mature than he is. She’s the #1 reason Henry should run screaming away from Alex.
Zahra. Completely unrealistic. She is far too inappropriate and unprofessional to hold the position she holds within the White House.

The Length:
I was growing tired of the story before I even hit the half-way point. There’s too much of Alex and Henry creating events as excuses to see one another and not enough advancement with the plot. It drags on and on. I didn’t think it would ever end. It was truly a struggle to finish it.

The Good:

Henry:
Poor in-the-closet Royal. I loved him. He was so trapped by his status and the hierarchy he was born into, and still so damaged by his father’s death and his mother’s withdrawal. I felt deep empathy for his situation. I wonder how much better the story would have been from his point of view?

Alex:
Yeah, I know he is also listed under The Bad, but after he finally pulls his head out of his ass and acknowledges his feelings for Henry, he becomes a much better character, even though his motivations for wanting to be a politician were never really believable to me.

Overall:
I thought the idea was unique and refreshing, even if the execution really wasn’t very good. I found all the campaigning and political parts to be very dull and by the last quarter, I was pretty much skimming anything related to those two aspects of the story. If you want a cute, sweet coming-out romance, this really isn’t it. There is a lot of back story and side story that, in my opinion, take away from the main plot and add a lot of unnecessary length to the book.

ARC provided by St. Martins Press in exchange for an honest review!

✰✰✰✰✰

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Do you feel forever about him?


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yall. i may have just found a new favorite of the year. possibly of all time. this book was so good. this book is a contemporary, alternate reality, romance book about the first son of the US and the prince of England. when i saw this synopsis, i literally died. i wanted this book so much. so i requested the ARC of it and the lovely people at st. Martins Press gave me a galley to review. and i read this so fast. i ate it all up because it was too good.

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He wants to set himself on fire, but he can’t afford for anyone to see him burn.
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ive got to say, for a lover of character driven plots, this book did not dissapoint. such a big part of why i loved this book so much is the characters. they were some of the most realistic, funniest, most sarcastic and all around amazing characters ive ever had the pleasure of reading about. again, this is a character driven book, so youd expect that. but usually my expectations arent met. but here they are and it was the best feeling in the world to read about characters as good as they were.
while i was annotating the book, i literally wrote down somewhere; this book has the perfect ratio of poetic and meme,whatever that means. RWRB was such a funny book which really took me by surprise. i went into this thinking this is gonna turn out to be some kind of jenny han, lara jean romance novel look-alike but instead i got this literal ode to generation z and i fucking loved that. oh i remember reading the first chapter and literally dying of laughter. i have never, ever, had a book that hooked me in so damn fast.
give yourself away sometimes, sweetheart. there’s so much of you.
the key to my heart is comedy with a good dash of romance. and boiii.... this book was literally the key to my heart. have i mentioned how ggod it is? how cute it is? how much i love it?? do i need to anymore?? how many times will i have to tell you till you go and get yourself this book?
i mentioned how this book is a character-driven book, so i wanted to talk about my favorite character who is also the main character, alex!

i wanted to talk to yall about one of the reasons why i loved this book so much; the representation. look--im one of those girls that loves when there is representation in YA books. so when i realized early on how much representation is in this book, i loved it even more. there's LGBTQA+ rep, latino rep, POC rep, ADHD rep, honestly the list goes on and on.


these characters were so loveable, and funny and sarcastic. one thing that really stood out to me was the nicknames they gave each other. they were such small details but they made everything so much funnier.


some of my favorites were;


-HRH Prince dickhead
-his royal highness prince Henry of whatever
-first son of off-brand England
-huge raging headache prince Henry of who cares
-horrible revolting heir
-first son of questionable late-night emails
-his royal horniness
-first son of cheese shopping and blowjobs
-irl chaos demon
-iconic gay landmark
-first son of founding father sacrilege
-haplessly romantic heretic prince Henry the utterly daft
-hopeless romantic little shit

I can easily why many are raving about this book. It's a modern fairy tale - cute, sexy, and posh. A dream novel where everything is made possible and good. But it isn't for me. It's just too surreal (in a very unconvincing way). It tried to be deep in some places, but it didn't work, especially when it dragged in the middle.

(Full review and links to follow a month before publication date.)

Okay. Where to start.

I really really wanted to love Red, White & Royal Blue more than I did. And I did enjoy a lot of things about it, but there were other parts that I didn't love so much. I'll start with what I didn't like as much and then share what I really enjoyed.

I didn't love all the politics. I didn't realize when I picked this one up that we would follow so much of Alex's mom's campaign trail, but we did. It felt like it overwhelmed a lot of the story and it wasn't all that interesting to me to read. I don't love politics much in real life (though I do try to stay up to date) but I didn't really love being so involved in these fictional politics. I felt we could have skipped a lot of the political stuff and focused even more on the romance.

At the beginning of the book, it feels like it's going to be a really fun hate to love romance. And that is what it is at first, at least for about 10-20% of the book. They basically hate each other and then their making out (which was fine) but I did wish that the hate to love tension had lasted a little bit longer.

It also felt like the main characters were a lot younger than they actually were. It read like a YA novel where the protagonist is 16 instead of in his early twenties.

What I did enjoy:

The dialogue/banter. It was hilarious and so much fun to read. This kept me going through some of the political parts that I didn't really care for. But I loved the snarky conversations and it was just done really well.

I also liked how Alex goes through his own coming out during the book. He has this huge realization that he's Bi and he has to figure out what that means for him and his relationship. I thought this book had great queer rep.

I also really enjoyed the relationship, at least most of the time. I loved how sweet Henry was and how much he knew what/who he wanted and how he was willing to give up everything in order to have that love.

This book wasn't my favorite, but it did have some good parts. I will say I liked the first 30% best, as the last half of the book did get more political. But all in all, it was a fun read and while I wished there hadn't been as much politics, it was still fun.

Huge thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book to read. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

Alex is the First Son of the United States and Henry is the Prince of Wales. Alex hates Henry to the point of obsession. Until he doesn't. The two embark on a whirlwind romance that is pure cotton candy fluff.

This book is a pop culture fest. The characters constantly make references to popular movie franchises like Star Wars and use popular internet language. They talk in text chats, emails and use gifs to convey their emotions! Readers need to be fluent in internet to understand all of the character reactions.

The first two thirds of the novel is very much about the love story between Henry and Alex. It's refreshing to read such a mutually loving and respecting M/M relationship that doesn't end in angst or death. Mcquiston celebrates in their love, and while there are hiccups along the way for our characters, their strong connection to one another is never lost.

The book has a slight "time bomb" energy by setting it against the backdrop of the year leading up to the President, Alex's mother releection campagin. The last third of the book deals with the last few weeks before election night so the stakes are raised dramatically for our pair of lovers. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Alex step into a political stratigist role and develop his passions a little more.

This book focuses on the role society/family places you in vs the role that you want. Alex and Henry are both high profile young twenty somethings who did not choose to be in their roles. In this sense, their relationship is a way to reclaim their own agency and autonamy.


Like any good chocolate bar, this book is sweet, layered and packs a nice crunch

There's a lot to love in this story about two boys across the pond from each other. It's an enemies to lovers with a very realistic politic twist. Red, White, & Royal Blue is sweet, full of action and love letters and political drama!

Alex is the first son. He's very driven but also singularly focused and kind of alone. He does have his sister and her friend, but until he's forced into fixing the mess with Henry, his world is closed off. Henry seems stuffy on the outside, but on the inside he's so nerdy and adorable. I could read about these two all day, the banter and lovely words are just perfect.

At times the flow was a little wonky- jumping from one event to a future one without any break in paragraph or way to warn me, the texts were hard to tell apart, plus present tense third person takes a bit of adjusting to get used to. Though these bugged me, it didn't take away from a unique and swoony love story.

I have a lot feelings about this absolutely freaking wonderful book. I had seen people saying it was going to be their favourite read of 2019 and I was like oh come on guys, it's Feb/March. BUT I can safely say, I'm within that group too now. Also, if this book even seems slightly up your alley, I would 10/10 recommend it and truly believes all the hype it has received in the last few months. I can't wait for May!

I honestly have nothing negative to say about this book. I loved the plot, the pacing, the characters. Just loved absolute everything oh my gosh. My favourite tropes all in one book had me the happiest person on the planet. I never wanted this book to end. I honestly already want to re-read this. I cannot wait for May so I can get my hands on a physical copy of this so I can cry over Alex and Henry all over again.

This book revolves around the lives of Alex, the Son of the female President, who is bisexual and half-Mexican (the diversity rep - I freaking love it!) and Henry, the Prince of Wales, who is gay, but no one knows. Beginning the book as enemies, being forced to fake a friendship, slowly becoming frenemies, actually becoming friends to being like 'oh heck I love this boy'. When I first heard about this book, I was concerned that the pacing of Alex and Henry's forever changing relationship would either be way too quick or way too slow, yet McQuiston provided us with the most perfectly paced relationship that felt so very real.

Although these two guys are the main characters and I love them greatly, I also adore pretty much most of the other characters, with the most honourable mentions go to June, Nora and Ellen. June is Alex's sister who is known for wanting to constantly protect Alex and would rather protect her brother than go and reach for her true goals. However, I do think that at some point she does reach for her own goals as she slowly becomes aware of Alex becoming more independent and not as much of a classic 21 year old male. Nora is Alex's ex-girlfriend, now best friend and I loved the dynamic of Nora within this book with Alex, June and also Ellen. I may have been reading into it a bit deeper (who knows) but I did feel like there was something there potentially better June and Nora and it made me so freaking happy. I loved the interactions of the White House trio and whenever there were scenes with all three of them, I was often in tears from laughing so much. Now Ellen, the female President, what a woman! There are no words to describe how much I love Ellen's character. I love the obvious dynamic change of her character from being President to also being June and Alex's mum. The powerpoint presentations she did when she would have a meeting with Alex regarding Henry or just anything in life was probably one of my highlights of the book.

I will admit I'm not the best with politics, but I'm definitely better than what I was a few years ago, so I was a bit apprehensive when I found out that this was based around a lot of politics. I can safely say, there isn't anything that is majorly political that isn't understandable from having a basic knowledge. I also don't think it's overdone throughout the book either. I also loved the insight to the running of a campaign from the opposite side from what I'm used to seeing within the news.

Although, this is a longer contemporary, and definitely more NA than YA (I will fight people on this fyi), it is so VERY easy to just get hook on this book and end up reading a good chunk of it without even realising how much they read. I often read 20-30% in sittings because I never wanted to put it down.

Thank you very much to St. Martin's Press for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I think I’m going to do this review a bit differently. I wanted to love this book cuz most everyone else has, but while it was definitely cute, I only liked it in the end.

Things I liked:

- <b>friendship and sibling relationship between Henry and Bea, and Alex, June, and Nora.</b> There is so much love and support between them and I love that we see healthy exes with Alex and Nora, where they’re still best friends even after having dated.

- <b>the politics.</b> This May be weird, but I found it an interesting topic and there’s a lot of historical events and elements that come up. There is definitely a strong sense of hope for future politics.

- <b>the romance.</b> Enemies to friends to lovers! I love the antagonism and banter between Henry and Alex and seeing them grow closer through text, email, and phone calls. I enjoyed the mixed-format for seeing their relationship develop.

Things I didn’t like:

- <b>the outing.</b> I have seen this book described as like fluffy sweet rom-com goodness, but I feel like any time queer characters/folks are forced out of the closet, aren’t allowed to control their narrative and the time line, it loses its right to the fluff classification. And like it wasn’t a small outing narrative - it was a big deal because these characters are both public figures in a political landscape and their personal emails were leaked, as well as photos taken without their consent. This all made me deeply uncomfortable - and I’m not even someone who’s been outed so I can’t imagine how that part of the story may harm some readers.

- <b>the amount of alcohol consumption.</b> This May just be on me and my own personal feelings, but there is a LOT of drinking and partying in this book. Even the incident that forces Henry and Alex to fake friendship involved Alex being drunk. And there’s even scenes where both Alex and Henry turn to alcohol when they’re dealing with emotional fall-outs or big events. Everyone is above legal drinking age, though there are mentions of underage drinking, but I still felt like a quarter of the book at least involved them consuming alcohol and/or having a massive party.

- I don’t know how to classify this, but there were points I felt the story could’ve been wrapped up but instead there had to be a new event, a new drama. I do like the way the book concluded with election night and the final scene was super sweet, but it’s almost too many plots happening at once? Maybe just being nitpicky

- <b>there is no Prince of England.</b> I’m hoping this will be fixed in the final publication, but there are several instances where Henry is called Prince of England rather than Wales, and especially coming from President wasn’t the best look.

Overall, this story is indeed cute and fun and has great banter between enemies-turned-friends-turned-lovers but, especially MCs being outed, really did end up taking away from final enjoyment of this story.

I NEED MORE STARS. ALL. THE. STARS.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is as good as it gets. Seriously. The writing is GORGEOUS. All of characters are richly portrayed with depth and suuuuch life. The plot is tight and yet doesn’t overwhelm the love story. Speaking of the love story...can we get 10 more books with these two?! I just want to keep living in their space. Forever.

It doesn’t happen often but occasionally a book comes along and just carves out a little space for itself in your heart where it can burrow in and live forever. This is just such a book. I feel so very lucky it found me. It brought me hope, a lot of laughs and a side of tears (some were even happy tears!).

This is the kind of book that I rejoice in having read and will reread over and over.

If you are reading this trying to decide if you should pick it up I cannot express to you enough the joy it will bring you. Honestly? I’m a little jealous that you are getting to experience it for the first time. 😘

ARC provided by the lovely publisher and netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Oh. Boy. Come to MAMA.

I finished this book the other night and it left me in such a book hangover that it's taken me a few days to gather myself long enough to write this up. We're talking Harry Potter Level book hangover here folks. I was left listless on the couch staring off into the distance with that sort of ache in your chest because- these characters became your friends and your family. In the few days it took me to read this book this world became my home. It's not often I stumble on books like this.

First I want to say I received a free e-galley of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. As soon as I loaded it onto my Kindle (which is- I'm not embarrassed to admit as much full of fanfic as it is full of regular books) I was hooked. Casey McQuiston writes with the kind of pithy wit that has always drawn me to shows like Gilmore Girls or the West Wing and if you love that sort of verbal repartee you'll love how the characters speak to each other. She gives us real fleshed out characters that you want to bring home and make your own friends, and a diverse and multifaceted cast of voices.

The drama was at times both realistic enough to understand the characters choices, and absurd enough to take me out of my day to day life. Two things that are essentially in a perfect book to unwind at the end of a day. Sexual identity isn't treated with kid gloves its explored with real nuance to intersectionality and and and individual personality. Also the author actually uses the B word that so many other creators are afraid to say and speak. Which means we get a lead character who (spoiler alert) loudly proclaims himself as bisexual.

Honestly there were too many things about this book that I loved and I could wax poetic about it for hours with you all and I know you all love me, but there's no reason to make you suffer that much. Instead I will leave you with a list of (hopefully) spoiler free things I loved about this book:
Again. Bisexual main character.
Who is a mixed race latino man.
Whose mother is the president of the UNITED STATES.
She's amazing. 12/10. Would vote Claremont 2020.
Diverse group of friends who are all amazingly smart, and many whom are queer.
You know that feeling you get when you watch a really good West Wing episode?
Or read a Rainbow Rowell novel (I'm looking at you Carry On)
Thats this book in a nutshell.
This book makes me feel so SEEN.
GOD I hope they turn this into a movie.
ok you caught me now I'm just waxing poetic again.

I'll leave you with this. The author stated that she started this book at the end of 2016 and that feeling ripples throughout the book. There is a hope and optimism that bleeds through it that we are BETTER than this. That we can do MORE, fight harder, be in this for the right reasons. As we look towards 2020 we need more of that kind of attitude to fight back against everything that's happening in our country. And by gum this little LGBTQ rom com is gonna lead the way for me.

A highly imaginative, incredibly humorous and fun read--but also containing a lot of heart. The book itself was satisfyingly long (in my opinion!) although I'll admit a few times the plotline did seem to wander a bit before it found its footing again.

This is one I will purchase for keeps!

I am not sure there was a way for Casey McQuiston to write a more enjoyable book. I had so so so much fun reading this book. It was a perfect blend of hilarity, romance, politics, and pop culture.

“June, I’m the son of the President of the United States. Prince Henry is a figurehead of the British Empire. You can’t just call him my ‘arch nemesis,’” Alex says. He chews thoughtfully and adds, “‘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.”

Our main character, Alex Claremont-Diaz, is the younger son of the President of the United States Ellen Claremont, a white Texan Democrat, and Oscar Diaz, a Mexican-American Democratic Senator for California. He is on the path to be the youngest congressman elected and clearly has the political pedigree preparing him. He is wonderfully relatable to my grudge-holding self (“Awesome, fuckin’ love doing things out of spite,” he says without a hint of sarcasm) and feels deeply real. We are thrown into his world and meet his two best friends: his sister June, a complete blessing to the world in my humble opinion, is a young professional trying to shirk some of the First Family connection to be seen as her own person, and Nora, his ex-girlfriend who is an irreverent genius who is the daughter of the VP.
This book is straight up hilarious. I was laughing out loud on basically every page, even the pages that made me cry. My other contender for an opening quote was:
“Listen,” Alex tells her, “royal weddings are trash, the princes that have royal weddings are trash, the imperialism that allows princes to exist at all is trash. It’s trash turtles all the way down.”
“Is this your TED Talk?” June asks. “You do realize America is a genocidal empire too, right?”
“Yes, June, but at least we have the decency not to keep a monarchy around,”
I adored the sense of humor in this book. It punches up, it is sarcastic, you will certainly cackle at least twelve times while reading this book. I was constantly delighted by how funny this book is.
Clearly, this is a romance, and oh my god, I was invested so hardcore in this romance. Casey McQuiston wrote this wonderful over-the-top situation enemies-to-friends-to-lovers romance perfectly. I felt deep heartache, butterflies, and joy that was basically transcendent. The heightened situation only serves to make the reader that much more emotionally invested. You will fall in love with Alex as a human then fall in love with Henry with him as the book goes on.
Henry is a wonderfully interesting layered love-interest, also he is literally Prince Charming. You get to know him gradually. The reader knows how Henry is feeling before Alex in the most delightful masterful way, McQuiston really really does this romance justice.
She also does the politics of this novel justice. My qualifications: BA in Political Science (trying to acquire admission to a graduate program soon) and a life of PoliSci nerddom. And You truly believe that this political landscape could be real with some slight changes to real life. Alex makes all the correct PoliSci nerd kid jokes and references, is obsessed with Nate Silver, RBG, and finds the vandalization of Mitch McConnell name plant to read "Bitch McConnell" exactly as funny as that truly is. She does an amazing job balancing a fictional world with modern day politics, and choose to incorporate a lot of actual nonsense of today's world in similar ways to how they present in reality but is not doing an exact one-to-one here. It is a little bit of a political fairytale at times, but all good romances are a little bit of fairytale and there is clearly a love story between Alex and his county in this book.
I was specifically impressed by the way McQuiston handled the South, and specifically Texas. There is a deeply moving passage about Alex's relationship with Texas (there actually might be to or three of these) that brought me completely to tears. She really shows the way politics tend to give up on certain places or people then when those places and people don't show up for them they act as if that is justification for their past behavior. This alone would have made this book incredibly special.
I also loved the pop culture references. They were done so deftly and really enriched the world. I did at times wonder exactly when this book's timeline separated from realities and you get an answer but are mostly too swept up in the world to give it a ton of thought. Hamilton, 538, The West Wing, Harry Potter, tons of other things that I am sure I am forgetting. It was delightful. And so so many literary references. I cannot wait to go back through and catalog what I want to read based on characters recommendations.
I was specifically moved by the relationship between Alexa and Rafael Luna, an openly gay Independent senator from Colorado. I don't want to give anything about this relationship away, because watching it unfold is a wonderful experience, but I was constantly involved with this relationship.
Alex had fascinating interesting relationships with so many people. His relationships with his parents, his sister, Nora, his high school friend Liam, his mother's staffers, and of course Henry. I cannot gush enough about how perfectly romantic this book is. I am bananas excited for the wlw romance the author is currently working on. I am so excited to be swept away in one of her books again.

I will be posting this review on my Tumblr and blog in the month before the book is released.

Henry and Alex represent everything a swooning reader wants in a prince and a first son. The beauty of this tale is the struggle to ignore a lifetime's acceptance of what is expected of a leader or a leader's family. The boys realize that their hearts belong to one another, but, like many other love stories belonging to royalty, the match must be approved. Henry and Alex's struggle is brought to another level because not only is nationality and birthright an issue, sexuality is the frontrunner.

McQuiston did a good job of making the tale realistic--how the boys would need to hide their relationship from the public to remain in good standing. Even in 2019, we want to believe that our acceptance of others has progressed, but when push comes to shove, age-old prejudices seem to creep up. The level of criticism and acceptance seemed realistic, and we're always rooting for equality.

As much as I loved the message, the plot seemed to drag a bit. I didn't fly through this New Adult novel like I expected to. Also, like I mentioned, I loved the message, but some of the romantic scenes were too graphic to allow me, as a teacher, to recommend this book to younger high schoolers.

This book is hilarious, thoughtful and devastatingly heartfelt. I just really really enjoyed reading this! I've been struggling to focus on books lately, but I stayed up very late reading this -- and also possibly sprained a rib from laughing so much. But perfect banter and adorable romance...what really took me was how heartfelt the book was, the characters were. It's a story about being brave enough to admit you are worth fighting for, for wanting things, and for chasing after those things. And that hit me in all sorts of emotional ways.

Basically the president's son and the prince of England have an unofficial rivalry...which leads to a crush and a surprise-attack kiss and the very smack-in-the-face realisation that they've loved each other for a long long time. UGH IT WAS ADORABLE. It was also a lot of sex, which reminded me why I stick to YA mostly. But I just loved how the romance was handled. There's angst yes, but their main issues was them vs the world...instead of angsty do-you-love-me-do-you-not which I am Not Fond Of. So thank you for that. Also I just ship these two idiots. Alex is 21 and doesn't even know he's bi and Henry is 23 and living so deeply undercover because the British Crown is not allowed to be gay, that he believes he doesn't even deserve to be happy. I just...these two.

Also it was refreshing to read about Alex still figuring out his sexuality. His crisis was hilarious and endearing and relatable. He's so brash and 10/10 to the moment where he stands in front of the palace swearing at Henry to come talk to him. Alex is an explosion, a mess, a heartfelt and emotional fire. Henry is stillness and smooth smiles and he's like a shot bullet, unchangeable, when he gets going.

And a moment for June and Nora....an absolute power due (Alex's sister and best friend respectively). They were the best, intelligent and clever and perfectly loveable (also I desperately need them to have a spin-off book and fall in love).

Unfortunately the politics part left me confused and slightly disorientated, so those scenes were my least favourites. I have no idea how the USA works sometimes.

And look, it's definitely a sweet book with lots of fluffy scenes. Which I loved. (Although I could never relax, I always thought they'd get busted.) But it also touches on so many deeper topics: closeted queerness and actually how damaging that is to you, it explores what it is to be bi, it talks about oppression for women (specifically in politics) and for POC (Alex and June are biracial Mexican). And books always rob my heartbeat when they are about people who will fight for each other and their love. I turned into a sap in my old age, i shall not apologise.

from the author's note:
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.

Succeeded 1000%. I'm crying and my heart is so full.

This review contains spoilers.

When I first read the summary for this book, my initial thought was, "Oh, that sounds really cute, I'd love to read it!". I expected it to be a cute, happy, escapist fantasy, but I also honestly kind of expected it to be forgettable with the influx of gay YA/NA novels as of late.
It was definitely not forgettable.

I've been interested in politics for well over a decade, and I followed the 2016 election more closely than half of my poli sci friends. I mean, I was wearing Hillary Clinton t-shirts when I was living abroad, and talking to my European friends about the American political system, the candidates, and also the state of gay rights in the U.S. compared to Germany, where I was living. (And, like Alex, I just sort of thought I was a compassionate ally and good person for being super invested in gay rights - and now, like Alex, I look back on it and wonder how I ever thought I was straight).
I expected Red, White & Royal Blue to treat American politics as a backdrop to the romance – a convenient plot device to push Alex and Henry together. It did not. Instead, it delved into some aspects of American policy that I really didn't anticipate – but adored. I loved the focus on policy and international relations, and I honestly texted my friend telling her she had to read it when it name dropped Nate Silver (because who does that?)
I also loved the references to Star Wars and Harry Potter throughout, although that is sort of genre-typical. Although I do wonder if Alex at the end of the book is still as sure that Henry is such a Hufflepuff as he was when they start texting.
One thing this novel gets down better than I think any other YA or NA novel I've read is how it feels to realise you're not straight as an actual young adult. I was, as I said earlier, under the firm belief I was straight in 2016, and a lot of pinnacle moments in American (and European) LGBT history (including Obergefell and the Pulse shooting) felt monumental and personal in a way I didn't know how to relate to – until I realised I was bi and it all clicked into place. (Alex also having all LGBT friends and never questioning if there's a deeper reason for that is very... on the nose and I love it)
Very few novels have bi protagonists, and I honestly didn't anticipate this one being one of them. Of those that have bi protagonists, it seems to be something they've known forever, or at least since puberty. That's definitely how it is for some people, but I didn't realise how badly I needed a novel that had the main character realising he was bi during the course of the novel. And he's bi. He says it several times in the novel, in public, and never pretends to be anything else once he realises (or, well, once he comes out).
(and honestly? everything Alex says about Henry and Nora and Pez and everyone else is just... very relatable).
As someone who followed the 2016 election from the very first announcements to the bitter end, the words "private email server" set off a red flag, and I very nearly called out of work to see how it ended (instead, I decided to go to sleep at 2am). Seeing those words, and then seeing their emails back and forth, knowing that those emails would undoubtedly go public, was its own form of torture.
It came across a bit preachy and over the top at points, but that, like the Star Wars and Harry Potter references, is typical with books aimed at similar age groups, so I really didn't mind that very much. (And as an openly bisexual woman who has been out for several years, it's not really something I needed, but I can see how others might need that sort of reassurance – and how I would have needed it when I was younger).
Although Red, White & Royal Blue takes place in a significantly more optimistic and progressive version of our world (with a progressive Democratic president having won in 2016, and a lot of the damage done since... not done, as well as a progressive princess poised to take the throne in England), there's still a significant measure of homophobia (both internalised on Alex's part - though he does work through that quickly - and external) and heteronormativity. McQuiston portrays this as the negative things they are, but it is not a totally utopian society.

Off the top of my head, some favourite moments were: Henry talking to Claudette in the hospital, Alex continuously "how did I ever think I was straight?", Henry's dog being named after David Bowie (and saying calling him "Bowie" would have been a "bit on the nose"), Alex just generally being a smart-ass who never shuts up (also relatable, on a personal level), Henry not knowing what grinding is at the NYE party, Alex realising he's bi (and in love with Henry), Henry remembering the Olympics, name-dropping Nate Silver and Ronan Farrow.

Literally, the only complaint I have is the idea that Delaware would have an Independent senator, like it's not a solid blue state with elected Democratic officials for all of my living memory. Come on. I know Carper isn't the most progressive, but he's a Democrat and he votes with the party. There's a limit to suspension of disbelief, and for me, apparently, it's "Independent senator from Delaware".

This was such a fun read. The characters are so interesting to read about, and I really liked the setting, we have the son of a US president and a Prince from the UK. The pacing of the book was perfect, and the only thing I wanted was to spend more time with all of the characters because they were all so amazing together. The ending was also perfect. Overall this was such a wonderful quick read.

Charming & delightful aren’t strong enough words to describe what a joy this book is to read. It is laugh out loud funny and romantic and hopeful in a way that feels so vital and necessary right now. One of my favorite reads of 2019 so far.