LGBTQ / Romance

Red, White & Royal Blue

Author: Casey McQuiston

Average Rating:   3.5 / 5

Trigger Warnings:

Alex Claremont-Diaz is as close to an American prince as you can get. The son of the first female president, his looks and charm don’t hurt either. Together with his sister and the Veep’s granddaughter, he is one third of the highly publicized and scrutinized White House Trio. A marketing dream for reaching the younger demographic, they are highly utilized by President Ellen Claremont. However, being closely followed by the press can sometimes backfire – for example, leaked photos of a confrontation with Alex’s well established nemesis, Prince Henry of England. What had been an elegant royal wedding is now a messy scandal that is threatening American/British relations. The powers-that-be demand that the two do some damage control. Namely, staging a friendship for the press. 

As it turns out, faking a friendship is more complicated than Alex expected. There is more to Henry than what is found in the tabloids. Soon Alex finds himself drawn into a secret relationship with the Prince, the ramifications of which are more than just potential heartbreak. The fall out will affect both countries and could cost President Claremont her reelection campaign. 

How do you know when a new relationship is worth the risk? How do you maximize your potential to do good? And, most of all, how will you affect history?

Corinna : 3/5

This was my first experience with a contemporary romance book where the focus was two guys. I wasn’t sure what to think at first, because I generally don’t like contemporary romance as a whole. There were moments of softness and tenderness between Alex and Henry, but overall it felt a little too insta-romance and not realistic, however I think this is always my struggle with the genre.

While I generally agree with the political opinions in the book, it did feel a little too idealistic. The whole tension of the book relies on the fear of negative consequences, but those consequences never come. I feel the author tried to solve too many political issues in one book. She tried to tackle racism, homophobia, equality, and international relationships, and threw in a side of gay romance. I think the book could have been so much better without trying to accomplish all of these targets. If it had just focused on the romance and relationship between Alex and Henry, I think I would have liked it a lot more. I really wanted to like this one, as the potential is there, but it fell short of the mark for me.

Lydia : 4/5

A delightfully funny and light read with a whole lot of spicy moments! This book was the start of a new genre for me, LGBTQ+ Romance, so I didn’t really know what to expect. 

Alex and Henry are so adorably cute together it almost makes you sick but the author wrote their parts so well that I had nothing but good things to say at the end. Another bonus with the characterization was that the supporting characters were interesting and added something to the book rather than being randomly placed.

While I personally was not bothered by the fact that these characters are political figures, I know it might not be a lot of readers’ ‘cup of tea’. If accuracy in how political figures should be portrayed is very important to you, then you will not like this book. However, if you’re looking for something sincere, light hearted and overall adorable you will leave this book with a smile and perhaps with some tears streaming down your face. 

I congratulate and applaud Casey McQuiston for writing characters in their 20’s and for doing it very well. There are very few authors that are able to get across the angst, the confusion and the strong emotions that come with your 20’s but I felt that she captured this perfectly. 

Megan : 4/5

If you want a happy, feel-good book, I would recommend this one! While it’s a romance novel, I wasn’t rolling my eyes every second paragraph, and actually enjoyed the story. I think what did it for me was that it wasn’t your typical romance. Instead of girl-meets-boy, it was boy-meets-boy and I was rooting for them the whole time. It was easy to get sucked up in their whirlwind romance and their fear of being discovered. I wish we could’ve gotten some of Henry’s perspective on some of the situations they found themselves in. His personality is so different from Alex’s. Then again, that could just be because I’m more into British royalty than American politics.

The secondary characters were fantastic! While they were all good, Zahra was probably my favourite because of her attitude towards Alex. Always annoyed and irritated until someone decided to mess with him and then she went out of her way to make sure he was ok. It also made my heart happy at the family member’s acceptance of Alex being bisexual and then them trying to support him the best way they knew how.

For my rating, there are two reasons why I’m not giving this book a five. One is the American politics aspect. I don’t know or understand (nor care to know) the workings of the system, so when someone was discussing the Senate or the election, I zoned out and skimmed. Thankfully there wasn’t too much of that, but enough to comment on in my review. The second reason was the language. There’s a lot of swearing in here and I found that at times, it detracted from the dialogue, which was otherwise witty and quite good.

McQuiston did a wonderful job with this book, and I’m so happy she decided to continue writing it when the 2016 election did not go the way many people wanted.

Sharaya : 3/5 

Ugh.  I’m sorry guys, I just don’t like modern romances. Romance has never been my go-to genre, but it should at least have swords or corsets or something. However, I can understand why this book was so popular. It’s always fun to see the handsome Prince fall for someone he isn’t supposed to love. I had expected it to be written from both of their perspectives, but Alex is the only narrator. I wish we could have had more insight into Henry’s story, especially considering the increased familial expectations that he is under as a Prince of England. I was frustrated with Alex at times because he seemed to not even acknowledge those extra barriers that Henry was facing.  I understand that he was in the love bubble, but he’s also supposed to be the political strategist, and yet he seemed pretty clueless. I also believe that McQuiston could have done a better job of highlighting both of their conflicting private and public personas. It felt like we only got to know them behind-the-scenes and their public images were continually described but never seen. This kept me from feeling like I fully understood the two characters and their struggles.

I wasn’t impressed with the secondary or tertiary characters. Other than their core gang of friends, it seemed that most characters spoke with the same voice, the same swearing, the same sarcasm, etc. There was nothing to distinguish them. And while I am definitely not an expert on American politics, some of the decisions that Alex’s mom made didn’t make sense at all and seemed like they were sure to blow back on her when the truth of her son’s sexuality was made public as you know it eventually would.

However, acknowledging that Romance isn’t my genre, I’m probably being pretty nitpicky. I will say that the story was engaging and I was rooting for these two to finally get together. It’s a cute, fast and light read, which you should consider.  You know… if that’s your thing.

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