Red, White & Royal Blue in Pick-a-Shelf

Nov 15, 2020 emily rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-physical, queers-and-queer-relationships, 2023, alternate-history-or-universe, the-movie-is-pretty-good-actually, romance, non-white-protagonist, 2020, delightful-popcorn, cozy-comfort-reads

CBR Bingo #15: Queer Lives

this is such a sweet and fun book. really cemented for me that the thing the movie did wrong was cut June and Bea's parts, the bunch of them becoming a crew of besties is one of my favorite parts. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 09, 2021 Sabrina rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, social-commentary, romance, politics, political-commentary, read-in-2020, family-relationships, 52booksin52weeks2021, 100-books-in-2021, lgbtq-literature

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey Mcquiston

Honestly, I didn't expect to like this book quite as much as I did because it's not my typical read, but I had heard such good things about it, so I gave it a go. It's a pretty quick read, and I found myself laughing, cringing, and getting a bit misty-eyed at times.

Alex Diaz-Claremont is he First Son of the United States. He is son to President Ellen Claremont, who is white and was elected as the first female President of the U.S. in 2016. He is also Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey Mcquiston

Honestly, I didn't expect to like this book quite as much as I did because it's not my typical read, but I had heard such good things about it, so I gave it a go. It's a pretty quick read, and I found myself laughing, cringing, and getting a bit misty-eyed at times.

Alex Diaz-Claremont is he First Son of the United States. He is son to President Ellen Claremont, who is white and was elected as the first female President of the U.S. in 2016. He is also the son of Oscar Diaz, a hispanic Senator from California. Alex is obessed with politics, and is one of the golden "White House Trio" that also consists of his sister, June, and the Vice President's granddaughter, Nora. The three are, much like the Kennedy children, the U.S. version of royalty.

Perhaps this is why Alex, who is around the same age, has long been compared to Prince Henry, the second son in line to the British throne. Alex has long festered a resentment toward Prince Henry, who appears to also loathe Alex as well.

After a diaster at the royal wedding of Prince Philip, Henry's younger brother, in which Alex and Henry managed to destroy a wedding cake, the tabloids explode with drama regarding their rivalry.

To make the peace and to enact damage control, Alex's mother annd his handlers along with Prince Henry's handlers stage a truce between the two that is to be played out in arranged meetings at public events from which photos of the two as pals can be staged for social media.

Soon, however, this fake friendship begins to grow as Alex sees between Henry's very British "stiff upper lip" exertior, and a romance between the two blossoms. Their romance, however, must be kept secret, because a prince, even one second-in-line at the moment, to the crown, has a duty to country that doesn't allow him to be day, and Alex's mother, Ellen, is a President in the midst of a re-election campaign. So, Alex and Henry's secret could destroy all of this.

McQuiston's novel does a fantastic job really of exploring the complexity of identity--sexualy, personal, public. The characters are complex and the text does a really good job of exploring navigating relationships in the public eye, particularly relationships that may not necessarily be seen as acceptable ones.

Yes, the relationship development that drives the plot and connects these two families seems a bit outrageous, but it's well thought out, and this is just really a fun read. I found myself really rooting for Alex and Henry throughout the novel, but also enjoying and cheering many of the more minor characters throughout the text.

This was really a great read for entertainment value alone.
...more

1 like · Like · see review