Alex and Henry’s story was just magnificent. Funny and sweet, with a love story you can’t help rooting for. Enemies to lovers done perfectly right.

This was such a joy! I'd expected the political/royal setup to be more of a backdrop to the love story, but Alex's mother's presidential campaign is actually a major part of the plot and is told with nuance and a clear depth of knowledge. (It was also really nice being in a world with a female democrat president for a while, instead of... *gestures vaguely in direction of White House* that). The chemistry between Alex and Henry is brilliant, and I also loved how it illustrates so well how it's possible for some people - such as Alex - to reach their 20s or later without realising that they're not straight. That was really well done.
Being British, I did wish the UK side of the story had been a little more in-depth. It acknowledges issues with the monarchy and the UK's horrific colonial past, which is so important, but some of the characters veered a wee bit too far into Stereotypical Posh English Villain territory for my liking and there wasn't much sense that Henry felt much care or responsibility towards his country in the way that Alex so deeply does for his. Then again, as Alex is the main character it's understandable that it focuses more on the American aspects. Overall a really great book, and one I'd definitely read again.

I really loved this book! The romance was absolutely swoon worthy and it had exactly the tropes I love. The characters felt real and fleshed out and I loved all the side characters as well. This book has awesome diversity and I highly recommend it to any romance fan. I had a few issues however preventing it from being a favourite. The pacing near the end was a little slow (the main romance is wrapped up by 3/4ths and the last 1/4th is the wrapping up of everything else) and so I got a little bored. I also had issues (maybe an ARC problem) with the spacing out of time in the middle of chapters. Sometimes the scene would end and another would begin but I wouldn’t realize at first because it all happens in a new paragraph instead of a page break.

Overall loved it though!

This book was a pure joy to read-- after only a few chapters I started texting my friends telling them to pre-order their copy. McQuinston builds an alternate universe where old problems still exist, but people are a just a little bit kinder and more open minded. I basically started re-reading as soon as I finished just so I could experience it all again.

I don't think I could have loved this book more!! I love enemies to lovers stories and this one was just perfection. It was so funny, romantic, sweet, heartwarming, relatable and oh so sexy. You could not help but instantly fall in love with and root for Alex and Henry. I felt every single emotion reading this book and I just could not get enough of it. I can already tell without a doubt that this is going to be one of my favorites of 2019 and a book that I will return to many times. It just made my heart so happy. Thank you so much to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

This was my review on goodreads:
“YAAAAASSSSSS!
This was my #1 most anticipated of the year. So when I got an e-arc via Netgalley I was so excited.
I’ve spoken to the author, Casey, over Twitter a few times and they’re so nice and just a cool person!
With all those things combined, going into this book I was nervous it wouldn’t meet my expectations. Good news, it did! I loved it!
Henry and Alex have such great banter back and forth. They both playfully make fun of each other while also quoting some of the most influential queer writers of the past centuries. I am so happy the story wasn’t just about the love story, though it was the majority of the plot, there were other smaller plots that helped the story move along.
It was a solid 5/5
I will definitely buy a finished copy. Thanks so much again to netgalley for the arc. I really appreciate it :)”

"<I>Do either of y'all know what a viscount is? I've met, like, five of them, and I keep smiling politely as if I know what it means when they say it. Alex, you took comparative international government relational things. Whatever. What are they?</I>"
"<b>I think it's that thing when a vampire creates an army of crazed sex waifs and starts his own ruling body.</b>"

I can't even tell you how happy I am that this book was everything I wanted it to be -- and a million things more.

"<I>Oh my god, this is like all those romantic comedies where the girl hires a male escort to pretend to be her wedding date and then falls in love with him for real.</I>"
"<b>That is <I>not at all</I> what this is like.</b>"

RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE is the happiness and sweetness we deserve; not just right now (though maybe especially right now?) but in general. This is one of those rare gems of a story where there isn't a single character to dislike. Where there is representation in so many fabulous forms. Where there is silliness and drama and charm and swoons and just enough angst to make you <b>hurt</b> and the best kind of ending -- the one that makes you cry and cheer and cry some more and hug your kindle to your chest. The kind of ending you'll relive because you know, absolutely, one hundred percent, that you'll be reading this book over and over again.

"<I>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.</I>"

Royals, politics, biracial rep, bisexual rep, grief, addiction, anxiety.. McQuiston somehow spins it all into a delightful tale that will make you laugh and shed tears and wish you could be friends with the characters within the pages.

"<I>Wait, are you watching videos of Justin Trudeau speaking French again?</I>"
"<b>That's not a thing I do!</b>"

This is pure fun and totally heartwarming, with tons of real world tongue-in-cheek dialogue (that, hey, it's nice to laugh about, all things considered), and I'm counting down the days until release when I can shove it in everyone's face.

"<I>I don't think this election is going to hinge on an email server.</I>"
"<b>You sure about that?</b>"
"<I>Listen, maybe if [he] had more time to sow those seeds of doubt, but I don't think we're there. Maybe it it were 2016.</I>" <-- probably too soon but <b>h o n e s t l y</b>.

Highly highly recommend.

First, let me say thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press / Griffin for the advanced reader’s copy of Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston in exchange for my honest review.

I have had my eye on this novel for a while. Maybe because of the gorgeous cover (I won’t lie!), but when I read the premise, I was stopped dead in my tracks. It is absolutely genius, and here is my summary of it:

Alex Claremont-Diaz is the First Son of the United States, hellbent on becoming the accomplished politician that his mother, the first female POTUS, has shown him he can be – it’s in his blood! The only thing standing in his way is the feud he has with his English equivalent, Prince Henry of Wales. After a paparazzi-captured incident at a royal wedding, Alex and Henry must actively mend the relations between the two of them, at least in the public eye, which leads to perfectly scheduled overseas visits and photo ops. Fake laughs turn into real ones, friends turn into best friends, and soon Henry and Alex confront what’s really been between them all along: an all-consuming romance. But with Henry in the royal spotlight and President Claremont’s re-election on the horizon, they decide to keep it under wraps. Political twists, romantic turns, and a realistic exploration of sexuality in the public spotlight showcases the courage it takes to stand up and be truly, authentically, yourself.

Do you see what I mean? This plot is ICONIC. I think if Casey McQuiston sloppily wrote around this plot, I would have still eaten it up. But she doesn’t. Instead, her writing is clever and quick in her debut novel. The pop culture (and political) references are spot on and always serve the plot. This novel is for anyone that woke up on November 9, 2016 with a pit in their stomach, is #StillWithHer, and wonders what could have been….and loves some good drama. There are a few references to the 2016 election where you can almost feel the characters turn and wink at you.

You can tell the absolute passion in which Casey McQuiston wrote this novel, because her personality (I’m assuming here) is injected all over the place. I bet she loves Dolly Parton, I bet she thinks Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars movie, and I bet she is compiling her own book of letters depicting historical queer love to rival that of Love Letters of Great Men. I love when contemporary fiction authors do that, especially in their debut novels, because you can tell how much this book was their baby.

Speaking of, my favorite bits of writing were the emails between Henry and Alex. I find in a lot of contemporary romance novels, text/emails/letters between the two characters leads into the author confusing their voices for the sake of highlights and quote-ables in the text. This was not the case. The contrast of Henry and Alex’s voices in their dialogue that comes through consistently in their emails and really solidified their characters for me. Their skills, passions, and personalities were clear to me from start to finish.

While the love story is what made me pick up this novel, the characters are what have me wanting a sequel/spin-off/epilogue/adaptation/more. The White House Trio consists of Alex, his sister June, who is an aspiring journalist (and the glue that holds the whole family together), and the Veep’s granddaughter, Nora, who is a data mining goddess. There are strong-ass women all over the place, LGBTQIA+ representation everywhere you look, but I especially loved Zahra, the deputy chief of staff, who has an unparalleled dedication to her job and country.

And President Ellen Claremont....I love how she didn’t have to sacrifice any of her femininity and motherly instinct for power. Ya know, the way the patriarchy thinks we need to!! She has my vote!

If you are like me, a straight woman who has not read much LGBTQIA+ literature, but wants to, but still not sure if it’s for you…let me tell you this: I have been reading romance novels this whole month of February. There have been characters so much like me in appearance, sexuality, personality…but only Red, White & Royal Blue brought tears to my eyes in its closing scenes, thinking of my own partner in life, and holding the words in my heart right with Alex: Never tell me the odds.

DNFing this book about a third of the way through it (it’s 432 pages long so that’s not nothing).

This is nominally a Romance/New Adult debut novel (out in May). It’s been floating around on my radar for months now so I requested an ARC when it came up on NetGalley. It already has a hugely positive group of reviews already, so why did I dislike this so much?

I was trying to figure that out myself as I dragged myself through the first few chapter. Was it confusing or was I just zoning out? Well, both. There’s no sense of time passing so I found the narrative difficult to follow, but also the author seems to be trying to avoid exposition by…leaving important details about the characters out completely until 10, 15, 25% through the book. Not important to the plot just important (or should be important) to the characters – things like Alex’s mom remarried (this is dropped 15% in) and his bff Nora isn’t just hanging around the White House for fun, she’s the VEEP’s granddaughter (25%).

But those were narrative stumbles I would have gotten over if I otherwise was into the characters or (crucially) the romance. Unfortunately, nope. The real reason I hated reading this so much? Alex is a boring dough ball of nothing. He spends all his time protesting too much about Henry, calling Henry boring, but Alex? You have literally nothing going for you either. He has the same sitcom-zinger wit as the other characters, so no interesting narrative voice. He’s in college, I guess, but this is brought up only once or twice*, he does political legwork for his mom, which is mostly off screen. He is supposedly biracial but (and I would welcome pointers to reviews by POC ), that doesn’t seem to actually contribute to his experiences on the page at all (he tells us it made things hard for him but there is no evidence of that – it felt very token diverse to me). None of the factoids that make up his character actually translate to understandable motivations on the page.

And since both characters were about as interesting to me as cardboard cutouts, the “romance”, such as it was, never pulled me in either. The whole thing was like reading a 200k royalty AU fanfiction from 2009, except less fun.

I could go on. I actually started writing up the plot of the book I would rather have read, which if not a better book was at least one I would have enjoyed more (point 1 – Prince Henry should’ve been out) but at that point we’re way past a book review.

Apparently a lot of people like this book. I kind of get it. I think 10 or 15 years ago, I would have liked it too. But sadly time has moved on and so have I, and thanks, I hate it.

*an aside: the “white house trio” characters are all nominally in their 20s but felt VERY teenager to me. Is this because I, an old, can no longer tell the difference between 15 and 25? Perhaps. But also they all seemed to have really juvenile personalities and with June and Alex living at home for handwavey reasons I just couldn’t stop thinking about them as Teens.

This book was perfect. It had romance, self-discovery, family relationships, and even politics! It was a cozy read that I couldn't put down. The enemies to friends to lovers storyline was explored in a way that felt real and helped explore each characters' personality and development. This book is a must read!

4.25 stars.

I've waited ages to get this book in my hands. I'd have begged if I had to. Red, White & Royal Blue has to be one of the cutest books I've read in a very long time.

Casey wrote a book that made my heart very happy. Alex and Henry were the cutest people and of course an even more adorable couple. I loved everything about them and who wouldn't love to see something like this to happen in real life.

I loved the secondary couples too (especially Alex's family). They were the best. My only wish was that we got to read more of Alex & Henry together as a couple. We saw them with their family (which I'm not complaining about) but I'd have to more one on one with them - if that makes sense.

All in all, I'm a huge fan and I can't wait everyone to read this! It'll be worth the wait!

"Red, White & Royal Blue" is not the book you'd expect it to be. Yes, it's a sweet, funny MM romance book with a highly unlikely plot exactly as promised in the blurb, but that is absolutely not all that there is to it. There is also amazing, stellar writing, complex characters (minor ones included) and a gentle yet profound thoughtfulness that tops it all. I expected to laugh and go a little 'aaw' in a couple of cute scenes, and instead I almost cried. And, excuse me if I repeat myself, I think the credit for that goes all to Casey McQuiston's powerful writing. I will definitely check out her next novels.
However, there was one tiny thing which I found absurdly frustrating, namely the inexplicable and honestly weird reluctance to mention genitals. I would not shelve this book as a Young Adult proper, because the narrator is not even that subtle about sex, and this is the reason why it does sound weird that the narrator is too shy to mention genitals, even with a clinical term, while verbs such as "go down" and "fuck" appear normally (i.e. not ostentatiously, just when the context or the description requires them). Since it makes to sense to use euphemisms about one thing and being instead relaxedly explicit with the other, this somewhat felt like a lack of coherence in the writing.
For this reason and also because, as I mentioned, the premise is still almost too over-the-top, this read is not a full five stars for me, but nevertheless, if there is one book that can pull off a First Son-Prince of England romance, then it's this one. Four stars.

Ok, so clearly I'm in the minority when it comes to my opinion.

I feel like this book was trying way too hard to be a lot of things. It's going to be 432 pages and that's just necessary. It focused way too much on the politics, and not just that, it made a complete farce of the way the politics work.

If this book were PG, and slightly less openly gay, it would undoubtedly be turned into a Disney Channel movie, down to the unrealistically happy ending where we all pretend the world is made of rainbows and unicorn farts. And, honestly, I wouldn't mind that. I love happy endings. If the book had been only about romance, it would have been fine. But, the book insisted on shoving politics down my throat and the overidealized ending just seemed forced and so utterly predictable.

The world the book shows is what ours would look like through rose-colored glasses. It's a world where the female president of the United States is a white, Texan democrat. Where leaked personal emails have no impact on presidential elections. Where a royal prince believes empires are the literal devil, despite benefiting from the monarchy is every single way possible. Where First Son of the U.S. and the British Prince would go everywhere without anyone taking a picture. Also, that their affair wouldn't have any global consequences. Because honestly, in the end, it didn't. It made all the obstacles between the romance seem weak. The author put so much focus on the laughable politics that I couldn't help but roll my eyes. She tried to tackle racism, international relationships, homophobia, complicated family drama, equality, and just about every other social issue, while also trying to deliver a good romance.

People are gonna say, 'the book doesn't have to be realistic!' and I agree. It's just so insanely unbelievable that I was honestly annoyed by it. This was supposed to be a cute, romance, not a book about idealized political views. If it had been a romance novel, I would have liked it more, and honestly, not by much.

I liked some of the dialogue. I laughed sometimes. It was cute. But sometimes the characters felt off to me. Like they were trying so hard to be relatable and likable that they broke their established characteristics. Also, the very premise of the book is enemies to lovers. Slight Spoiler Alert: Alex and Henry are enemies for like the first two chapters, at most. Then they're friends.

In the end, this book just wasn't for me. there were too many subplots, too many social issues trying to become part of the main story. I went into this book expecting one thing. I got something else instead, and in the end, I think that's the real problem. If I'm honest, all the issue I mentioned are things that in a book I enjoyed, I might have overlooked. Sadly, this wasn't that book. Hopefully, you all have better luck with it and please be respectful of my opinion. My issue with the book has nothing to do with the LGBTQ+ aspect, it has to do with the overall execution.

**Links to the review will be posted closer to the date when the review is released on Goodreads, my blog, and online stores**

I absolutely adored this; a fantastic example of the New Adult genre we need to see more of! I gobbled it down in one day. It’s a super swoony trope-filled debut, absolute perfection!

I will be including this in illumicrate’s monthly newsletter for May

An amazing m/m romance involving royalty! In this current world of following Megan Markle's every move, this book will be sure to be a hit amongst the romance readers in my library.

I loved this book SO much. It was SO good, one of the BEST love stories I have ever read. The writing in this book is absolutely incredible on so many levels. The witty banter in person and by text between Alex and Henry is priceless and hilarious. The emails they exchange are so sweet and touching and full of insight and love. The quotes they include about love are just amazingly touching. The author obviously did so much research about the Royal family and the history of the royals as well as the history of love. The political climate in this book is one I WISH we had in the US right now instead of what we actually have!!! I can dream right??? I love the US created in this book, at least the politics of this fictional US at least. It is amazing!! On to the story: Alex is the son of the current first women president, and he is half Mexican. His dad is a senator from California (his parents are divorced). Henry is a prince of England, an heir to the throne. They have basically hated each other from the day they met when they were like 12. They have a brief conversation at Henry's brother's wedding which causes an incident and they have to make nice and pretend to be friends after to soothe things over. They become friends and eventually fall in love. They are so freaking sweet together it is adorable. I finished this book last night and have been thinking about it ever since. So many parts of this story are memorable for being so sweet, so we’ll-worded and so freaking hilarious, that I will always want to reread it. Poor Henry, trapped in the stiff stuck-up Royal crowd, expected to get married and produce heirs, is gay. Alex encourages him to think outside the box and hope for a different better life, the one he really wants. They are so so cute together. The other characters in the book add so much to the story as well, Alex's sister June and his best friend Nora are so fun and interesting and Henry's sister and brother and best friend Pez are hilarious as well. The White House staff are awesome so funny and spot on in their reactions to their charges, the security guards too. I love the politics in this book so much. The writing is amazing, smooth, thoughtful, flowing, funny and just the best. I love this book so much and I can not wait for another book from this author. She is obviously brilliant!!!! Thanks to NG for the ARC! This is a book I will read over and over again! LOVED IT! SO MUCH!!!!! The ending is absolutely breathtaking. Every word in this book is so perfectly chosen and just exquisite. Here is one of my very favorite parts that I have already read like 50 times, in three day:

“Jesus, could you stop being an obtuse fucking asshole for, like, twenty seconds?”
“So glad you flew here to insult me—”
“I fucking love you, okay?” Alex half yells, finally, irreversibly. Henry goes very still against the mantelpiece. Alex watches him swallow, watches the muscle that keeps twitching in his jaw, and feels like he might shake out of his skin. “Fuck, I swear. You don’t make it fucking easy. But I’m in love with you.”
A small click cuts the silence: Henry has taken his signet ring off and set it down on the mantel. He holds his naked hand to his chest, kneading the palm, the flickering light from the fire painting his face in dramatic shadows. “Do you have any idea what that means?”

I loved this! It's funny and clever and gives hope.
..............,..........................................................................................................

Once I started reading this fantastic novel, I couldn't stop. The plot is dynamic, diverse and desperately needed in a reality where escapism is as important and necessary as ever. The characters are so instantly lovable, you root for them immediately-- it feels like the enormity of what their relationship means for their political spheres is brought down to earth and made plausible. McQuiston's writing is engrossing and effortless in its subtlety; our characters and their world are fully developed and as an audience, we're emotionally invested. Her creativity in building this world-- not just the who and the what, but how she does it, the language she uses in describing people and places, sets her apart. I devoured this story and finished it wanting more, and so will anyone who picks it up. This is the queer novel we've been waiting for, and McQuiston delivers without a doub

Author Casey McQuiston did exactly what she hoped to do with Red, White & Royal Blue... she created a parallel universe in which readers can escape, heal election trauma, and exist, albeit briefly, in an alternate reality. She also managed to create loveable, complex and dynamic characters. This is my first true “I laughed, I cried” read of 2019. All the cliches used for the best works of fiction apply here. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks for the #ARC in exchange for an honest review St. Martin’s Griffin and NetGalley!

#NetGalley #StMartinsPress #LGBT #LGBTQ #Claremont2020 #HistoryHUH #AlexandHarry #FSOTUS #RealeasesJune2019

I loved the book. I loved how it was .like a soothing balm on reality and I adored the characters. Full review to come closer to release date but it’s super amazing.