Book Review: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Independence Day is a strange one this year. It’s hard to celebrate “independence” when our rights are being stripped away day by day. (I’m talking about the overturn of Roe v. Wade in case that’s not clear.)

I looked through my backlog of books I need to review (have I mentioned how behind I am?!) to see if there was an Independence Day-related book I could review and post today. I do love a theme! There are some serious non-fiction books about voting rights and race issues in this country that I’ve read recently but I decided to go with a more light-hearted choice because it’s enough already. Enjoy!

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Release Date: May 14, 2019
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius―his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There’s only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.

Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations.

The President’s son does not get along with his contemporary across the pond, Prince Henry. When they accidentally get into a little scuffle in the public eye, their teams decide that the best damage control would be for them to appear to be BFFs in public. You can probably guess what happens from there. Of course, they must keep their budding romance secret. It could be bad for both their families if word gets out.

I’ll say right off the bat that if you want to enjoy this book, you must recognize it for what it is – a rom-com not wholly based in reality. It definitely simplifies the way American politics works and from what I understand it gets the succession line to the throne in England and other Royal facts wrong too. But this book is supposed to be fun, not a political science textbook, so I let all that go.

I loved the chemistry between Alex and Henry. They write emails back and forth to each other that were really funny. Especially Henry’s droll humor. He is the epitome of charming. And when they are together, it got pretty steamy. Reading about two young men being open and vulnerable with each other just made me feel good. This is the first book I’ve read by Casey McQuiston – I’ll definitely be reading more.

PS: I just learned that Red, White & Royal Blue is being made into a movie!  Check out this link to see pics of the actors they cast as Alex and Henry. Holy smokes – so hot! It will air on Amazon Prime, release date TBD. Yay!