RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE

 

SYNOPSIS

What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?

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

Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs 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 our true colors shine through?

Title: Red, white & royal blue

Author: Casey McQuiston

Publisher: St.Martin's Griffin

Publication date: May 14, 2019

REVIEW

RATING: ⭐⭐

🚨Unpopular Opinion 🚨 

I didn't like this book. Period. Please, don't hate me. I could blame it on being overhyped, but it could not be that cause previously to starting it after several friends recommended it when I asked for LGBTQIA stories I had never even read the synopsis.

I was expecting a cute romance and found a way too long novel about way too many issues, with politics playing such a big part. This alone made the story drag on for ages! I did not want to read about an election, I wanted to read about two guys falling in love overcoming all the obstacles their very public positions involved, but there were so many other things around that the romance kinda got lost for me. I also think it would have helped if we had seen Henry's perspective in some chapters. Some parts of the romance felt a bit forced and some others quite unbelievable (yes, even more unbelievable that the whole premise!).

I started listening to the audiobook version but had to change to the digital one halfway through, first, because I didn't seem to move forward at all, and second, because I really didn't like Henry's voice. The narrator's British accent seemed to come and go and some times instead of a 20 yo guy he sounded like a 70 yo man with a stick up his ass.

Although I didn't connect with it I can understand why so many people loved it. I loved the LGBTQIA representation, it made me laugh at some moments (the power point presentation 😂) and got me all teary some others, so it was not all bad.