Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

“Sometimes you just jump and hope it’s not a cliff.”

– Casey McQuiston

Specifics:

Book: Red, White and Royal Blue

Author: Casey McQuiston

Published: 14th May’2019

Genre: Fiction, Romance novel, LGBT literature

LGBTQIA literature: Yes

Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin

Cover design: Colleen Reinhart

Pages: 422

My rating: 4/5

Blurb:

What happens when America first son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?

When his mother became president of the United States, 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 an actual Prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving and Alex / Henry altercation, U.S. / British relations take a turn for the worse.

Heads of family and state and other handlers device a plan for damage control: Stage a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, instagrammable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, then either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly un-stuffy Henry that could derail the presidential campaign and upend two nations. It raises 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 are true colours shine through?

“But the truth is, also, simply this: love is indomitable.”

– Casey McQuiston

Dedication:

For the wierdos and the dreamers.

“You are”, he says, “the absolute worst idea I’ve ever had”

– Casey McQuiston

Review:

‘History huh? I bet we could make some!’

This is the single dialogue that can sell the book. I probably will remember this forever. This and many other line which will grow on you, like they did on me.

The book is medium paced, long chaptered with fairly good writing. The story is presented to us from Alex’s point of view who initially came across as annoying but as the story progresses, I absolutely fell in love with him and all the other characters.

The name of the book is so apt. It suddenly hit me in the end and that flooded me with happiness.

Just as the blurb says, this is an enemy to lovers trope but also so much more. We learn about politics, we learn about anxiety, we learn about family and friendships. It’s like a whole package decorated with love.

The relationships that the protagonists share with other characters are also well depicted and relatable. The book felt real. Most of the characters have a witty side to them, so expect laughs and sometimes hysterical ones.

Towards the middle, I felt like it did go on a plateau if not a dip down the ‘interesting line’. I think we have the long chapters to blame for that and the initial stage of their alleged relationship felt very repetitive. I was so close to dnf’ing the book. I wouldn’t have finished it if I wasn’t hosting a read-along for the said book!

But it came back really good. The last few chapters especially were irresistible.

The love that Henry and Alex share is to die for. I really want to get out of the ‘ I am happily single phase’ and find something that they share.

The best part of the book, according to me is how much the other characters shine. Each of them had a very good description and even though we see more of the two protagonists, the author managed to show us enough of them to expect spin offs.

The insights into the royal family and the White House were good too. They made the story feel real and not a work of fiction. I love their email exchanges. I am a sucker for emails and every time I saw emails coming my way in the story, I was excited and the author did not disappoint me there.

It’s an enjoyable read but because of the annoyingly long chapters and the failure to captivate my interest towards the middle, I rate it 4/5.

Spoiler alert

The moments that Alex and Henry shared during their journey were so precious. The way Henry tagged along to Texas and had a beautiful BBQ picnic, the way Alex was shown the part of Buckingham palace that Henry was so connected to, the ups and downs they went through and the love that triumphed. Beautiful! Magical! Breath-taking!

When Raphael Luna ditched them to join Richards, I really felt that Oscar was behind this and he knew it. I thought that he was betraying his family. I should have given him the benefit of the doubt though. Turns out they worked only for the best of Ellen Claremont.

I liked both their mothers. Even with their misplaced priorities, they loved their kids and would bring down the world to protect their hearts.

The siblings were gems. If not for them, their already hard journey would have become impossible and the White House trip or the super six were such a bright addition to the story. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

June’s speeches that Alex and Ellen recite during their respective times are so heart-warming. They win the election and somehow tears escaped my eyes too.

The way people all over the world come to support these two lovebirds moved me. The drawings made, the t-shirts sold and the rally’s conducted surely helped them be together.

I really wouldn’t wish anyone to be outed by an anonymous source for any sorts of gains though. It is hard as it is with these choices to make. Giving them time and space to present their true selves in their own way is a very important thing that shouldn’t be robbed off of them. But Richards did pay the price by losing the election and hopefully is in the fiction-worlds biggest jail.

“Someone else’s choice doesn’t change who you are”

– Casey McQuiston

Coming to the characters:

Alex Claremont-Diaz: Has anyone ever started working their way up the political superiority from the moment they set foot on Earth? Because that is Alex, ever so sure of what he wants but unaware of his own orientation in the beginning. He hates Henry, due to a lot of reasons but it is sort of obvious that it might just be an irresistible attraction that’s making him behave so. I think that out of all the characters, Alex loves the hardest. I adore him for always caring for Henry and I adore his parents for being ever so supportive of his choices. Shout out to his mother for never letting Alex feel like he’s a burden to the campaign and only making sure that if he is going for it, he is a thousand percent sure.

HRH Prince Henry of Wales: The tom-boy who turned out to be a poet in disguise, Henry has a lot on his shoulders. He lost his father to pancreatic cancer when he was young and his mother went into a ‘not-so-active’ mode. He tries his best to not deter from his royal duties of which he considers his sexuality to be one. Once he falls in love with Alex, in a very hard ‘I hurt my head in the process’ kinda way. There is no going back. He fights and he wins. Love him for his courage and his emails. Can he email me, please?

June Claremont-Diaz: The smart ass with a goal to take over journalism with her words is probably the world’s most protective and loving sister. You can always find her with a bunch of magazines and newspapers in her hands. She doesn’t waste a second to step up and take a bullet for her brother when his relationship with Henry leaks into the tabloids. I really wish to find out more about how things went with her and Pez, may be a spin off would do us some good. She did get a book deal so, I guess that settles some part of her life.

Princess Beatrice: ‘The Powder Princess’, who has been the only calming point in Henry’s life since their father’s death. She goes out of her way to support Henry and makes sure her mom comes to senses once they need her to back them up. She also always protects him from Philip being a bully and somehow ensures he realizes what he’s doing and tries to correct himself too.

Nora: My second favourite character who exhuberates Determination, zeal and has the best things to say, always. I love her witty side. She’s clever and you can find her running numbers on everything and somehow making sense of it. When she went MIA for two days I was really scared but she comes back with research to bring Richards down for outing her best friend and I want my friends to go and take inspiration from her and I will to because no one, not a single soul can come after my friends and get away with it.

Zahra: Hands-down! My favourite character from the book! She’s the most sarcastic person in the lot with a lot of tough love to spread. She’s engaged to Shaan and the way she handles situations makes her stand out to me. When she said (cover your eyes, kids), ‘I’ll staple your dick to the inside of your legs if it keeps it in your fucking pants’, I lost it. I have stored it in my ‘must have memory’ part of my brain and will use it at any given occasion.

“That’s the choice. I love him, with all that, because of all that. On purpose. I love him on purpose.”

– Casey McQuiston

What I liked about it:

– LGBTQIA plus literature
– Beautiful love story (the one that makes you want to end your singledom, if that’s a word)
– It’s definitely a page-turning in the end
– Brave, Real and independent characters
– It is a sort of an inspiration to the youth to learn about politics
– Has strong friendships and family relations
– Very spiteful and funny dialogues (that I’ll definitely use in real life)
– The side characters shine
– Emails are the main form of communication.

Cons:

– felt a little repetitive in the middle
– The interest won’t be constant, it starts off okay then dips down and then goes up real quick
– a bit predictive
– annoyingly long chapters

“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.”

– Casey McQuiston