The Unlikely Heir

If you loved Red, White & Royal Blue and have trouble moving on from that, this is a nice follow up. Not as good as RWRB and a clear knock off (white prince, dark skinned prime minister although his heritage is never explained, a necklace of importance, the waterloo vase makes an appearance.)
I really liked it.

Completely ridiculous and highly entertaining contemporary M/M romance between England's Prime Minister and the unconventional next Prince of Wales. Callum Prescott is a regular American guy with a distant noble pedigree who is elevated to that lofty title when the senior members of the royal family are all arrested for taking illegal bribes. PM Oliver Hartwell strikes up a friendship with the sweet but clueless Callum, which leads to mutual pining and then a swoony, forbidden love affair. [b:Red, White & Royal Blue 41150487 Red, White & Royal Blue Casey McQuiston https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1566742512l/41150487.SY75.jpg 61657690] this ain't, but The Unlikely Heir is unabashedly sincere, and it isn't completely obvious how the HEA will be reached. Escaping into a world where politicians genuinely care about the people they serve and nobody bats an eyelash at the prospect of a queer future king was just what I needed during a stressful week.

I couldn't think of any better time to pick this up than now with the release of the movie for Red, White & Royal Blue. I do want to emphasise that while this was a fantastic read while I'm missing Alex and Henry, The Unlikely Heir holds its own and Callum and Oliver are both unique and special characters.

I could sit here and highlight the great tropes that are in this book in multiple paragraphs but instead, I'm going to focus on the characters.

Callum has always felt like an outsider looking in and has struggled with feeling misunderstood throughout his entire life. I truly resonated with his character and his development of learning to trust himself and stop listening to other people's perceptions of him. He had been burned by so many people before and struggled with letting others see him in all raw honesty due to fear of people leaving or seeing what he believed wasn't enough. I loved reading about his acceptance that he was free to be who he really is and that people loved him for him.

Oliver was a fantastic character, struggling with the weight of responsibility and never allowing himself to be happy as he believed that wasn't truly in the cards for him. I loved reading about his character development and self-acceptance.

This was so much fun to read and I am so glad I picked it up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Jax Calder for providing me with this ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.