Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Rating: 5 stars
Published: May 14th 2019
Goodreads Synopsis:
What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?I've been recommending everyone this book for the past month. It's so good.
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 and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through?
Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn't always diplomatic.
Also, it's set in an alternate timeline where we had competent world leaders! I wish we had that timeline.
Anyhow - After a faux du pas at a royal wedding, Alex, the President's son, and British Prince Henry must forge an unlikely friendship to show the tabloids/media that the US and UK are still allies. But this friendship slowly develops into something more, and so, Alex and Henry hide their blossoming romance from the press, as it could potential derail Alex's mother's reelection campaign.
This book had everything. I was in love with it from start to finish. Enemies to friends to lovers. Snarky main character. A well-rounded multifaceted cast. Diversity. Slow burn romance. Humor. It was all fantastic. I dog-eared so many passages.
The cast of characters was super well-developed, and they were just as hilarious and entertaining to watch in action as Alex and Henry were. Zahra's ability to keep everything under control, at her expense (poor girl!).
"New Year's?" Zahra repeats, eyes wide. "This has been going on for seven months? That's why you - Oh my God, I thought you were getting into international relations or something."
"I mean, technically -"
"If you finish that sentence, I'm gonna spend tonight in jail."
Alex winces. "Please don't tell Mom."
"Seriously?" she hisses. "You're literally putting your dick in the leader of a foreign state, who is a man, at the biggest political event before the election, in a hotel room full of reporters, in a city full of campaigners, in a race close enough to fucking hinge on some bullshit like this, like a manifestation of my fucking stress dreams, and you're asking me not to tell the president about it?" - p. 233
Alex's mother - what an amazing President. The first female President, with biracial children! There's also the dichotomy of President versus Mother, and I laughed during all these scenes.
The first slide says: SEXUAL EXPERIMENTATION WITH FOREIGN MONARCHS: A GRAY AREA. Alex wonders if it's too late to swan dive off the roof.
"Okay," she says when he sits down, in almost exactly the same tone he used on her earlier. "Before we start, I-I want to be clear, I love you and support you always. But this is, quite frankly, a logistical and ethical clusterfuck, so we need to make sure we have our ducks in a row. Okay?"
The next slide is titled: EXPLORING YOUR SEXUALITY IS HEALTHY, BUT DOES IT HAVE TO BE WITH THE PRINCE OF ENGLAND? She apologizes for not having time to come up with better titles. Alex actively wishes for the sweet release of death.
The one after is: FEDERAL FUNDING, TRAVEL EXPENSES, BOOTY CALLS, AND YOU. - p. 237
The White House trio - their exploits! Their fun behind the scenes! Henry's sister Bea, his best Pez - I loved all of their misadventures. Underneath all their secrecy and fun is the constant desire for normalcy. It made them so damn human, because they were scrutinized so heavily by the media. It reminds me of poor Meghan Markle.
I also can't say much about Rafael Luna because spoilers, but what a guy! What a great senator.
The romance is actually slow, slow burn. Steamy, passionate, Romeo-and-Juliet esque modern day love. There's sappy texts! The emails! Henry's got such a strong writing background and the love letters just SHINE. They're so poetic. And also filled with jibes at American politics - Ha!
Please do keep me in your - what is it American politicians say? - thoughts and prayers. - p. 295
Alex coping through humor also screams me. Very relatable. His flirting with Henry made me swoon and laugh.
"Are you quite finished?" Henry says, sounding strangled. "Can you perhaps stop putting your sodding life in danger now?"
"Aw, you do care," Alex says. "I'm learning all of your hidden depths today, sweetheart." - p. 48
"Have you really rung me at three o'clock in the morning to make me listen to a turkey?" - p. 76
He's also super insightful and his mind just analyzes everything to pieces. Beautiful pieces.
He thinks about roots, about first and second languages. What he wanted when he was a kid and what he wants now and where those things overlap. Maybe that place, the meeting of the two, is here somewhere, in the gentle insistence of the water around his legs, crude letters carved with an old pocket knife. The steady thrum of another person's pulse against his. - p. 260
Make this a movie! Make a sequel! Or a novella! I'd scream from the top of the world to tell everyone to read it!
No comments:
Post a Comment