Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuistonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
You know those books that everyone keeps talking about, that fresh new voice, that cute cover that you read and just don't get why everyone else is enthusing about it? Well this isn't that book, I freaking loved it. That's not to say I didn't find some of the writing and formatting to be beyond frustrating but I just loved this book almost from start to finish.
It's your typical modern royal romance, with a twist. First its a m/m romance and second our non-royal protagonist Alex also happens to be the son of the US President (or FSOTUS). Alex is the half-Mexican son of the first female US President. He, his sister June and Nora, the grand-daughter of the Vice President, are known as "the White House Trio", lots of rumours in gossip rags, wild parties and random hook-ups - or so the press likes to think. In reality Alex has ambitions to enter politics himself and is almost weirdly obsessive about stuff.
Alex loathes and detests Prince Henry, younger grandson of the Queen of England, he thinks Henry is insipid, boring, self-absorbed, stuck-up and supercilious. But after a major incident at the wedding of Henry's older brother Alex and Henry are forced to have a fake friendship for the sake of the press. But as Alex and Henry are forced to spend time with each other Alex discovers his arhc-nemesis is actually very funny, quite shy and hiding a very big secret.
Think Gossip Girl meets The West Wing meet Madam Secretary meets The Royals. Think political shenanigans, romance, improbable antics, karaoke, private planes, secret service agents and lots of emails, texts and other forms of communications.
As I said at the start, this wasn't perfect. I found the writing style off-putting at first, sentences like:
Behind his bedroom door, he can sit and put Hall & Oates on the record player in the corner, and nobody hears him humming along like his dad to "Rich Girl"the third party narrator mixed with the present tense feels 'off'. Also for the longest time I had no idea who anyone was, Alex and June were introduced and I had no idea who they were: were they the President and spouse, the 'hero' and his mother, I hadn't got a scooby. Also, and this may be a gripe about my ARC which is not present in the finished book, we changed scene and/or perspective and/or time from one paragraph to another without any warning or segue. But these are just niggles, what the book has is heart, a m/m romance which also has lots of politics, a royal romance where the royal doesn't sweep the commoner off their feet, a YA novel that has some challenging thoughts about family and politics and ambition.
I haven't come across Casey McQuiston's novels before but I will certainly scan for other books, this was just a revelation. Loved it. Shout out to Todd whose review here prompted me to request an ARC.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
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