Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

My review

4/5 stars

Same-sex couplings haven't been a big feature in my reading history thus far, not on purpose, but just because they've never really crossed my path before. If this one was anything to go by, I should probably search out some more.

The reason I was drawn to this one was the way it featured a version of the Royal Family - I love a good novel based on the Royal Family. There were a lot of great similarities to real life included in this book, they helped the family to feel real and relatable.

I found the story itself very easy to get into, and the sheer nature of the story meant it felt very non-judgemental. I was a particular fan of the openness with which all of the characters approached their life choices - there was no pressure, no sense of right or wrong, just a curiosity about what worked best for them.

I really enjoyed the romance between the main characters, and their individual character foibles made them both endearing and charming in their own right - seeing them together just enhanced how much I bought into their lives. My only quibble with their relationship is that the writing felt too heavily focused on sex, I would have liked to see more of their every-day chats and experiences on the page.

I also felt that the end was a little rushed compared to the slower pace throughout the rest of the book. The slower pace worked because it felt exploratory and dramatic - matching the plot perfectly - so the suddenness with which everything got resolved caught me off guard a little.

Brilliant book overall, well worth a read.

Book blurb

Alex Claremont-Diaz is handsome, charismatic, a genius--pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House ever since his mother first became President of the United States. There’s only one problem. When the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an altercation between Alex and Prince Henry, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.

Heads of family and state devise a plan for damage control: stage a truce. But what begins as a fake, Instagrammable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon they are hurtling into a secret romance that could derail the presidential campaign and upend two nations.

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You can buy the book here now. It was published by Macmillan.

For more on the author, you can check out her website, follow her on Instagram, or head to her Goodreads page.