Book Review: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

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Synopsis:

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 humor 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? 

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My Review:

Thinking about history makes me wonder how I’ll fit into it one day, I guess. And you too. I kinda wish people still wrote like that. History, huh? Bet we could make some.

This book has featured so heavily on the bookish circle and I finally got around to reading it. I don’t tend to read a lot of romance books but this one I consumed in one sitting.

Alex is the First Son of the female President of the United States. Henry is a Prince of Wales. They start the novel as sworn enemies, but following an incident at Prince Philip’s wedding, they are forced to pretend to be best friends, and that becomes so much more. I lived for the banter and one-liners between these two; pure perfection.

What I also loved about this novel is how well fleshed out the side characters are. They are all as equally dynamic and diverse. We got to see some strong sibling relationships, supportive parents and great friendships. Each character’s flaws were shown in a way that there wasn’t judgement. You could see exactly why they acted/behaved a certain way. It was refreshing to read a novel, that accepted that people are flawed and didn’t judge them for it.

This book is quite heavy on politics, but I enjoyed it as I felt that it made the story more grounded. I liked that it shed light on what would happen in their respective countries if the news about them broke out and how it would affect them.

This is an amazing polished novel, that I didn’t expect to love as much as I did. The novel was just the kind of novel that I needed to read, and I can see why it’s so popular. I found myself both wanting to know how it ended and not wanting it to end. This is genuinely one of the best novels that I’ve read this year and I would highly recommend that everyone reads this.

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