Red, White and Royal Blue is the ultimate comfort book you have been searching for

Red, White and Royal Blue

By Casey McQuiston 

Genre: Romance, LGBTQ 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Summary:

A big-hearted romantic comedy in which the First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales after an incident of international proportions forces them to pretend to be best friends...

First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations.

The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince. Alex is busy enough handling his mother’s bloodthirsty opponents and his own political ambitions without an uptight royal slowing him down. But beneath Henry’s Prince Charming veneer, there’s a soft-hearted eccentric with a dry sense of humour and more than one ghost haunting him.

As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. And Henry throws everything into question for Alex, an impulsive, charming guy who thought he knew everything: What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?

Review:

Have you ever read a book thinking it might not be great and then it turns out to be the greatest book you have ever read? 

"History, huh? Bet we could make some." 

When I started reading RWRB, all I expected was a simple love story. What I did not know was that Casey McQuiston is a goddess who can make you feel so connected to simple ink on paper. This book was so much more than I ever expected it to be. It had humour, it has passion and it had love. To me, these characters felt more real than my sister. (Well not more, but equally.) I never expected myself to relate to these 2d characters, laugh with them, cry with them. 

And don't get me started on the dynamic between Alex and Henry. Their little fights, their excessive creative insults, and their cute romance. They are definitely my one true pairing. What's more than that, is when a book has many characters, sometimes unwantedly, personalities of two or more characters become similar. Alex, Bea, Nora, June, Henry and Percy: all six of them had different personalities which separated them from the others. 

"He called Henry the North Star once. That wasn’t bright enough." 

I'm so glad Nish let me borrow and read this book. I am going to buy my own copy of the book though because I know that I'll be rereading this book a lot. It has definitely gone to my favourite spot of books. If you haven't read this book by now, I definitely recommend reading it, no matter what your genre is. 

Favourite Scenes:

1. "There is no time to reallocate the turkeys.” 

Without missing a beat, he blurts out, “Bring them to the house.”

“Where? Are you hiding a turkey habitat up your ass, son? Where, in our historically protected house, am I going to put a couple of turkeys until I pardon them tomorrow?” 

“Put them in my room. I don’t care.”

She outright laughs. “No.” 

“How is it different from a hotel room? Put the turkeys in my room, Mom.” 

“I’m not putting the turkeys in your room.” 

“Put the turkeys in my room.” 

“No.” 

“Put them in my room, put them in my room, put them in my room—”

That night, as Alex stares into the cold, pitiless eyes of a prehistoric beast of prey, he has a few regrets.

THEY KNOW, he texts Henry. THEY KNOW I HAVE ROBBED THEM OF FIVE-STAR ACCOMMODATIONS TO SIT IN A CAGE IN MY ROOM, AND THE MINUTE I TURN MY BACK THEY ARE GOING TO FEAST ON MY FLESH.

2. What are we even defending here, Philip? What kind of legacy? What kind of family, that says, we’ll take the murder, we’ll take the raping and pillaging and the colonizing, we’ll scrub it up nice and neat in a museum, but oh no, you’re a bloody poof? That’s beyond our sense of decorum! I’ve bloody well had it. I’ve sat about long enough letting you and Gran and the weight of the damned world keep me pinned, and I’m finished. I don’t care. You can take your legacy and your decorum and you can shove it up your fucking arse, Philip. I’m done.

3. The truth is, Henry and I have been together since the beginning of this year. The truth is, as many of you have read, we have both struggled every day with what this means for our families, our countries, and our futures. The truth is, we have both had to make compromises that cost us sleep at night to afford us enough time to share our relationship with the world on our own terms.

We were not afforded that liberty.

But the truth is, also, simply this: love is indomitable. America has always believed this. And so, I am not ashamed to stand here today where presidents have stood and say that I love him, the same as Jack loved Jackie, the same as Lyndon loved Lady Bird. Every person who bears a legacy makes the choice of a partner with whom they will share it, whom the American people will “hold beside them in hearts and memories and history books. America: He is my choice.

4. Alex snatches a shirt and boxers at random from the floor, shoves them at Henry's chest, and points him towards the closet. "Get in there."

"Quite," he observes.

"Yes, we can unpack the ironic symbolism later. GO."