Title: Red, White & Royal Blue Author: Casey McQuiston Genre: Young Adult, LGBTQ Pages: 432 Rating: ★★★★/.5 Synopsis: "A big-hearted romantic comedy in which First Son Alex falls in love with Prince Henry of Wales after an incident of international proportions forces them to pretend to be best friends... First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations. The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince. Alex is busy enough handling his mother’s bloodthirsty opponents and his own political ambitions without an uptight royal slowing him down. But beneath Henry’s Prince Charming veneer, there’s a soft-hearted eccentric with a dry sense of humor and more than one ghost haunting him. As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. And Henry throws everything into question for Alex, an impulsive, charming guy who thought he knew everything: What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?" When I saw this book on my twitter timeline, I thought it was one more fanfiction coming to life in physical form and with the special feature of it being LGBTQ. I mean, the pink cover, the witty title, and the dreamy premise? I was down for it at first sight. However, the whole story took me by surprise. In the narrative, we follow Alexander Gabriel Claremont-Diaz, the first son of the USA, and Henry George Edward James Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor, the prince of the UK as they (surprise surprise) fall deeply in love with each other. Honestly, I was hoping it would be something between The Princess Diaries (by Meg Cabot) and Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (by Becky Albertalli) but boy was I wrong. Red, White and Royal Blue follow its own pattern and it's amazing to see it unraveling. The book tackles the enemies-to-friends-to-lovers trope which I'll admit has become quite common to the point of it being overused. Nonetheless, the author owns it. It is a cliche about royalty and the first family, but it's also a book about an LGBTQ couple, it's also a sweet and gentle love romance and it's also a beautiful ya novel. Thinking about history makes me wonder how I’ll fit into it one day, I guess. And you too. I kinda wish people still wrote like that. History, huh? Bet we could make some As seen on my twitter account, the reading left me breathless. And whether it was because of the funny parts or the emotional ones, I still don't know. I was craving for a nice and fluffy story to fit into my busy school schedule and instead, I got a rollercoaster of feelings. I rooted for the characters, clung to the plot and may have dropped a few happy tears in the ending. It's not my fault the book just left me so goddamn giddy and warm. As for the characters. Well, the author chose to focus mostly on the main characters, Alex and Henry, but that does not mean we didn't get to see glimpses of everyone else's lives. Of course, because of that (and also a little bit because of the genre), there isn't any major character development outside those two characters, but it's alright. Truly, I'm just glad that I got to meet Zahra and Nora. (If I could, I'd marry them both) I wish there'd be more backstory for some of them (specially Pez, because he's awesome) but I understand this is supposed to be Henry and Alex love story (I wouldn't oppose to a sequel, though). In any case, I thought the characters (mostly Alex, since he's the one we get to see the most) were quite believable and their actions, justifiable. But then again, the story is meant to be an easygoing one. Also, the book has so much representation and I can not stress that enough: it's brilliant. To be able to see a woman in the presidency, a fascinating African character and a bisexual genius through the eyes of a half-Mexican boy who's in love with a European prince was a beautiful experience and I'm grateful to Casey McQuiston for it. I wish (again) there'd be more of them to read. Being bisexual myself, Red, White & Royal Blue was important to me in ways I couldn't have figured in advance. It was a surprise to me (although, maybe it shouldn't have been) to be so represented and I loved it. (blogger's note: I mean because I'm a bisexual Latina wannabe president, not because of the whole genius/royal part that I obviously know nothing of). It's a chill book with a chill story. The main plot is, of course, the m/m romance and the consequences of it, like coming out to the whole world - since both of them are very public figures - and also coming out to their closest ones (not so easy either). I believe the author herself is also queer and that definitely brought more veracity and more delicacy even to the narrative. Like, gay history? Yes, please. Romantic queer quotes? Hell yeah. By the way, I'm unable to express how much I've enjoyed the fact that both main characters actually address the fact that their countries are not perfect and there's a lot of bigotry to fight, even though there's been a lot of progress too. Also, I'm not from Europe or the USA, so it was delightful to be able to follow through routines both royal and presidential. I can not vouch for the accuracy of the setting (I have no idea how much the author really knows about the White House or the Buckingham Palace) but it was fun to read about it anyway. Concerning the theme and the author, I think Casey McQuinston did a pretty great job on delivering a story that is both fun and heartfelt (with the bonus of it being queer). It's her first book ever and I can not wait to read more from her! At last, the book was a really nice surprise. I did not know I needed so much to read a story like this (cliche, yes, but with so much representation) until I finished Red, White and Royal Blue. I recommend it to everyone out there who grew up loving romcoms but never actually got to see themselves up in the silver screen. Please, feel free to stick around for more posts like this one. Follow the author's twitter and Instagram! Someone else’s choice doesn’t change who you are quick note: I feellike I should state that English is not my first language and although I've been careful with my writing, I'm sorry for any misspellings or grammar errors.
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