Red, White & Royal Blue

I liked this book. It got a bit repetitive and boring towards the end but other than that, a great book! Liked the characters and the concept!

I don't really enjoy politics but It wasn't /that/ overwhelming. Loved the personalities, especially Diaz family. Had a wonderful time reading I couldn't go a chapter without laughing.

Would recommend

lost interesr half way through and just skimmed through to the end

3.5

3.5 stars

This book was definitely lighter than most of what I have been reading lately and it was a great palate cleanser. I found it to be extremely adorable and funnier than I was expecting.

Alex Claremont-Diaz is a First Son. Prince Henry is..well he's a prince. Neither one can't seemingly stand the other one. But after a very messy mishap at a royal wedding they both have to play nice because before American/British relations go down the drain. Now they have to act like they are the best of friends...and maybe under all of that they find out more then they ever expected.

I will say the middle of the book dragged for me a little bit. Not enough to make me stop reading but overall I thought this was a cute and fresh love story.

3.5 stars rounded up to a 4

Fairly lighthearted read, and a fair bit cringe as you would expect from most romance novels. Just ignore how unrealistic it is (son of the president and the Prince of England running around without security guards) and it's ok.

I already know that this is going to become one of my comfort reads. I am completely enamoured by this book. 
It is happy and  hopeful and exactly what I needed. 
The way I loved ALL the characters??? Except for the asshole ones, of course. It was funny and clichéd in the best way. 
The romance made me swoon at multiple intervals and have I mentioned how amazing this cast of characters is??? Everyone from the main characters to the side characters rock.
We have so much representation??? MY HEART IS SOARINGGGG. 
HE POLITICAL ESCAPISM HEALED MY HEART BTW & FILLED IT WITH HOPE 😭
All the relationships in this book were so precious??? 
I don't know how to put into words my love for this book & everything that it did. JUST FUCKING READ IT. 

I already know that this is going to become one of my comfort reads. I am completely enamoured by this book.??
It is happy and?? hopeful and exactly what I needed.??
The way I loved ALL the characters??? Except for the asshole ones, of course. It was funny and clich??d in the best way.??
The romance made me swoon at multiple intervals and have I mentioned how amazing this cast of characters is??? Everyone from the main characters to the side characters rock.
We have so much representation??? MY HEART IS SOARINGGGG.??
HE POLITICAL ESCAPISM HEALED MY HEART BTW & FILLED IT WITH HOPE ????
All the relationships in this book were so precious?????
I don't know how to put into words my love for this book & everything that it did. JUST FUCKING READ IT.??

So when is the movie coming out?

This was such a warm, feel-good fuzzy book. Esp when reading more about the inception of the book. Casey McQuiston started working on this transatlantic queer romance in 2016. Despite the orange man election situation, she continued to work on this. You can see her motivation, values and intentions reflected through the characters. It's one of the best YA fiction I have read in a long time. The characters are diverse, offering inclusivity but also showing the bigotry that exists in the real world. The key villain who stays off-screen throughout the book feels a bit caricaturish but honestly, it's not about them. It's about Alex and Henry and boy do you grow to adore Henry through Alex's POV.
Overall, this book is a nice parallel universe with a woman POTUS going onto a second term, biracial hero and his adorable British prince. I thought it was like glorified fanfiction but it's not. It's amazing. :) (not that fanfics are bad but you get it)

reread: August 2021
I absolutely still adored this book :)

first read: June 2019
If I could give this book a billion stars I would. Everything about this book was beyond amazing. From the LGBT representation and even the identity struggle that was there to there and the Mexican representation. 
Also, this showed a real woman president who was flawed and imperfect but got things done. 

Not to mention the obvious part of the romance! The romance was the most adorable thing I've ever read and they are my freaking OTP forever and always. Alex is literally a political genius and Henry is a sweet poet and together they make the most splendid union. 

Showing the turmoil being gay can create when you are a royal was really raw and I loved it. And I love a freaking good hate to love. 

All of the side characters were fleshed out and just absolute perfection and the family love in here was the best. 

This book was all I could have hoped for and more! This is my favorite book of the year. No doubt in my mind

I love this book. Genuinely and with all of my heart, I do. This book means so much to me. This book took me through so many emotions and that's a rare thing for me to experience nevermind multiple times during one book. I giggled, I cried, I felt pride, longing, anticipation, and desire. The writing is beautiful, the characters are fleshed out and realised, the plot is great, the anticipation of the end almost sent me over the edge. I devoured this book in two nights, both nights staying up past midnight as the hours melted away. I didn't really read this book more than I fell into its world.

If you're on the fence (like I was for a long time) about this book, give it a shot. It took me several tries to get into it as I'm not typically a romance fan. However halfway through this book I realised I hadn't been reading my type of romance. I want real romance, steamy exchanges, and tension that is wrapped up in the good plot and realised characters. This book ticked all those boxes and many more.

This is my first enemies-to-lovers book and I think I chose a great one to begin with.

Very sweet story and an excellent pallet cleanser if you are suffering from a heavy book hangover.
The story and characters are fun, engaging, and heartwarming.
I felt a bit old for this story. I think 16 year old me probably would have gotten the biggest kick out of it but it's a fun read outside of that age anyway.
I was also amused at the political shade towards recent events in the US and the UK.
Nice, feel-good read. Can recommend.

I'M IN LOVE WITH BOTH ALEX AND HENRY!!! THEY'RE THE CUTEST!! This is literally the best book I've read this summer and will probably be the funnest book I'll read this year!

❤️ "That, just for a moment, I can hold my breath and be with you again, in a dream, in a thousand rooms, nowhere at all."

This book totally lived up to the hype. It was funny, heart warming, heart breaking and deliciously romantic. Casey McQuiston has a way with words, and the story she wrote is going to mean a lot to so many readers. There is so much pure and joyful love between Alex and Henry🥺 I'm not a hopeless romantic, but I swooned when I read the love letters😍 my favourite read of June, for sure!

Shout out to the translater by the way! Most of the time I feel like something is lost in translation, like the little jokes or powerful statements. But in this case, the translater nailed it👍🏼

Another quote I chose for this review is not from the story itself, but from the acknowledgements. It was the perfect last sentence for this book. I translated it from Dutch, so maybe it's not completely correct, but it's a strong message all the same:

✳️"Keep on fighting, keep writing history and look after one another."✳️

4.5/5
This book was hilarious at times and had me laughing, definitely worth all the weird looks from my family.

rating- 4.5/5

definitely made it to my favourites:) The book just progressively gets better and better, and i thought it was really great to start off with.
Casey McQuiston's writing is really unique and is equal parts of ‘easy to devour' and ‘heart wrenchingly beautiful'. My favourite part of the book is definitely the banter between Alex and Henry. The banter is extremely well written, to the point where their conversations made me laugh out loud (the turkey bit- bahah).
“I'm having my entire life haunted by a deranged American Neanderthal and a pair of turkeys apparently”- henry to alex “The phrase ‘see attached bibliography' is the single sexiest thing you have ever written to me.”― henry to alexThe development of Henry and Alex's relationship is also gradual and doesn't jump to an immediate love interest. especially how, despite being in a relationship and knowing that they both love each other, they both struggle to be open about that: to the point where Henry believes that Alex doesn't love him back and will leave. (slowburn? for a standalone?) although this does have other complex factors like keeping their relationship secret as well as the fact that they're both important people and have not come out yet, involved.

PREMISE
Alex Claremont Diaz, the first son of the United states has always hated the prince of England, Henry Wales. To him, no matter what he does, he will always be compared to him. It doesn't help that he's half mexican and the son of the first female president of America (people really are stupid). When a mishap at the royal wedding brings his dynamic with Henry into the papers, he's forced to stage a friendship with the seemingly proud and uptight prince to maintain international relations.
“You are”, he says, “the absolute worst idea I've ever had.”-alex to henry
CHARACTERS
The characters have so much life in them and are presented in such a quirky, fun and endearing manner, that you can't help but like them. And when i say that, i mean ALL characters. every. single. character. had a story to tell. Most often, side characters are brushed off, only included into the story for conflicts or to help the main character with a redemption arc. (which doesn't sit right with me, since more often than not, my favourite characters are not? the main characters?) And, although the story focuses on Alex and henry's relationship; Nora, June and Ellen's stories really reach the readers because of the way they were written. Zahra, Amy and Cash also end up being an integral part of the story despite their small amount of page time. (might i add, Zahra is such a badass and i absolutely love her personality. -referring back to where i say, my favourite characters are not the main characters) But, obviously i love the main characters as well. Henry is just adorable and i personally think, Alex is literary perfection. He's bold, passionate and straightforward (also a such a nerd sighs) in a way i can never get tired of reading.

a few of my favourite parts of the book//
first off, the book touches the topic of grief beautifully. Bea talking about henry's grief is something that really helped me understand the profound hurt and despair in people's lives due to the loss of a loved one.
secondly, despite being humorous and quick witted in theme, the book doesn't fail to bring across the theme of society's view on gay relationships and marriage. The underlying hurt and sadness due to people's inability to accept their relationship can be felt throughout.
“Thinking about history makes me wonder how I'll fit into it one day, I guess.”- alex to henry, in their mails Lastly, the small bits of information given to us along the way, really sets the book apart and helps greatly with character development. For instance, henry went from seeming stubborn to being absolutely lovable and a literary genius. This doesn't happen suddenly but gradually with the smallest details, like alex calling henry for the first time only to find him watching the Great British bake off, to finding out his dog is named david after david bowie. {it's the tiniest details:)}

a few setbacks//
this is me trying to be critical since i'm an extremely lenient reviewer and can't stop rating books with 5 stars,
-I personally think the book would have been so much better in first person since i love reading things from a character's point of view. The third person did put me off a little bit, but the emails and texts definitely added a personal touch that saved the third person from ruining it for me.
-I did talk about how the book did a great job at giving equal preference to all the characters and it did, except for one character : Pez. Honestly, in the beginning and how he was introduced did seem like he would be an important part of the story, but it almost felt like the author forgot to talk about Pez after a point. His character had immense potential and did almost seem like a literary equivalent of June and Nora for Henry, but then after a point, he just disappears? (lazy writing?)
(didn't stop me from giving it a 4.5 star review though, just saying)

Overall, i loved the book and i think it is exceptional for contemporary romance to be both impactful as well as endearing and beautiful. The book does a great job at delivering a heartfelt romance while also having an overview of politics and addressing current problems in the world.

I loved it. I don't think there's anything I could say that hasn't already been said. It's 5:30am and I couldn't put this book down till I finished it. I just really loved it (and obviously, I cried)

Note: I actually DNFed this book my first try reading it. But I'm so glad I decided to pick it up again.

Like the plot and the characters. But it just goes in and on and on; everything is so slow and sometimes feels forced. Also the POV can get really confused and it's easy to lose track of who's doing what. (206)

While in general I don't love books about MLM (men-loving-men) written by people who are not MLM themselves, I did think this was delightful and very cute. I've seen criticism that we didn't need a political queer romance right now, but I think that's a little... overblown.

Ok I totally shed a tear at the end of this book. I think I might need a shelf “shed-a-tear” inside GoodReads.

I totally adored Alex and Henry history. It was the perfect blend between sweet, stressful and endearing (ok, I bite all my nails in the last 50 pages). It's really hard to express how good this story was, and how good it made me feel especially in times like ours. It was the perfect balance of optimism and realism, giving us a plausible future and something to hope for that was credible. I just really loved this whole book, and if you're looking for something to make you smile, get tears in your eyes, laugh out loud (god I can't get over the turkey episode), just run for this!

Loved it, insert Gaga gif here. Also I recommend reading the acknowledgements if you normally don't! The first two paragraphs were incredible.

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! This was just SO moving and beautiful!!! The writing was FANTASTIC and Humorous!!! The Importance of books like this, with such Beautifully written queer rep, is Phenomenal, especially the fact that this is an Extremely popular book!!! I am Not ok and I am going to be thinking about this for Days!!!

The maximum amount of cheese at times and there were scenes I skipped in their entirety but all in all a rather charming story about love and politics.

I wasn't prepared to like this as much as I did! I don't normally read romances, especially YA romances, but it was for a reading challenge and they're supposed to challenge us, right?

But I found myself unable to put the book down, especially once their relationship came to light and things picked up. I wished that I was reading a true story and not just a wishful thinking, maybe someday in the future book.

I LOVED THIS BOOK !!! NOT ME CRYING OVER A FICTIONAL FEMALE PRESIDENT & HER FICTIONAL BISEXUAL SON I-