Red, White, & Royal Blue

Spoiler Disclaimer

Synopsis

As the son of the first female president of the United States, Alex Claremont-Diaz has been cast as the equivalent of American royalty. Everyone seems to love his handsome good-looks and charismatic charm and he's never been at a loss for dates. Because of a rude brush-off at their first meeting, Alex has a major beef with the equally attractive British royal, Prince Henry. When Alex is sent to represent the U.S. at the wedding of Henry's brother, he gets a little drunk and picks an argument with Henry that ends with the two of them creating an international incident by destroying the happy couple's $75,000 wedding cake. In an effort to quiet the tabloid news coverage of the event, their families and handlers insist upon them making nice for the media with a very public truce. What starts as a compulsory exercise for both of them, gradually turns into a deep friendship and eventually blossoms into a love for the ages. But beholden to the traditions of the crown, Henry feels he'll never be able to genuinely be himself, and if word of their love affair ever got out to the public, it could also completely derail Alex's mom's reelection campaign that he's worked so hard on.

Review

Red, White, & Royal Blue is Casey McQuiston's debut novel, a male/male, cotemporary rom-com that basically exists in a parallel universe with a different royal family and a different American political landscape. Alex is the son of the first female president of the United States and about the closest thing to royalty America has, while Henry is an actual British prince. When Alex met Henry for the first time a few years earlier, the encounter annoyed him so much, he decided that the handsome prince was his sworn enemy. Now as the president's son, Alex has been roped into attending Henry's older brother's wedding, during which Alex provokes an argument with Henry that ends in an international incident when they accidentally topple the happy couple's $75,000 wedding cake. To smooth over relations between the two countries, Alex's mom insists that he make several public appearances with Henry in which they'll play it off as them actually being good friends who had simply had a misunderstanding. Alex is determined to hate Henry, but the more time they spend together, the more he starts to discover that they have some things in common and he begrudgingly begins to like his nemesis. A tentative friendship starts to form and after an impulsive kiss shared at a New Year's Eve fundraiser that rocks Alex's world, he's even feeling attracted to Henry, something that's a bit confusing to him since he's only ever dated women. But before long Alex embraces his bisexual awakening with tons of late-night texts and phone calls and as many stolen moments together as he and Henry can manage with their respective busy schedules an ocean apart. Soon they're falling hard and fast for one another, but just as Alex is ready to declare his love, Henry pulls away, afraid that what they have will never fly with the royal family. And there's also the not small matter of how the public will receive the news and what it might mean for Alex's mom's reelection campaign if word gets out about their relationship.

The entire book is told from Alex's third-person POV. He's ethnically mixed with a white mom and Mexican immigrant dad. Both of his parents are heavily involved in American politics. His mom, as I've mentioned, is the first female president, while his dad is a congressman. Alex, himself, has ambitions to become the youngest person elected to Congress, but as the story progresses, he begins to question his plans for the future. Alex's first memory of Henry is from when he was a tween, seeing the prince's picture in one of his older sister's teen magazines. Ever since, he'd been a little intrigued, until he actually met Henry at the Olympics a few years earlier where the prince basically brushed him off in a rude way that has left Alex disliking him ever since. When the two have to play nice after their international incident, Alex isn't the least bit happy about it, but gradually he starts to change his mind about Henry. After their searing New Year's Eve kiss, Alex slowly comes to realize that his mild obsession with Henry's picture in the magazine and his youthful experimentation with a male friend were actually signs of a bisexuality that he's only now starting to embrace. He's unable to deny, though, that he can't stop thinking about Henry and can hardly wait for the times when they can see each other in person. Their sexual chemistry is off the charts, and Alex starts to wonder if Henry is his forever person. However, as much as he'd like to shout his love from the rooftops, he feels obligated to keep their relationship under wraps until after the election for his mom's sake.

Alex has a charismatic personality and isn't afraid to speak his mind, but at the same time he doesn't have many close friends. It's mainly just his sister, June, and the vice president's granddaughter, Nora, who constitute his friend pool. Despite his parents being divorced, he's very family-oriented, and his family are a great support system to him. He has a strong desire to leave the world a little better place, which is why he thinks he should follow his parents' footsteps and go into politics, but he also realizes that there might be other ways he can contribute, too. This is one of the areas where he and Henry make a strong connection. I love that even though he's only dated women in the past, he doesn't dismiss his growing attraction to Henry and pretty quickly embraces his bisexuality. I adored him for how supportive and protective he is of Henry when Henry is having a rough time, and how he can read the prince so well that it's like they've known each other forever. Alex is the perfect mix of alpha passion, confidence, and a desire to defend what's his and a gentler, sweeter, more romantic side that is mostly reserved for the love of his life.

We only get to know Prince Henry through Alex's eyes, but he's developed in such a way that I absolutely adored him. His parents were kind of rebels. His mother, Princess Catherine, who is heir to the throne, fell madly in love with his dad, an actor who played James Bond. Even though the queen forbade them to marry, the couple did anyway and had three children with Henry being the youngest. His father passed away shortly before he met Alex for the first time at the Olympics. Henry has known most of his life that he's gay, but the tradition behind the crown weighs heavily on his head. Knowing that he likely won't be accepted as a gay prince, he's mostly kept it to himself and struggled with it in secret. Only his sister, Bea, and best friend, Pez, know, and although his grandmother, the queen, seems to suspect, she's made it abundantly clear where she stands and it isn't with Henry. When Henry has to start spending time with Alex, he's crazy attracted to him, not only physically, but because Alex isn't afraid to challenge him in spite of his princely status. After the impulsive New Year's Eve kiss, Henry ghosts Alex, afraid of what he's thinking, but when he finds out that Alex very much liked it, a real relationship begins to take root. However, if the rest of Henry's family find out, he may not ever be able to see Alex again. Henry is really sweet, the shy, bookish introvert to Alex's outgoing nature. I could really relate to him, because he loves reading, writing, and history as much as I do. He also very much wants to make a difference in the world, so I appreciated his philanthropic work. He can sometimes become a bit brooding and moody when he gets too much in his head, but Alex is usually there to be a pick-me-up and help him sort things out. I just really loved Henry and was totally rooting for him to get out from under his grandmother's controlling thumb.

This book had a number of elements, which in the hands of a lesser author, could have been major detractors for me as a reader. First of all, it's written in third-person, present-tense, which is a style so rare that I can probably count on one hand the number of books I've read that were written in this way and it's not a style I've cared for much in the past. A part of me thinks that if readers were only going to be given one character's POV, it might have been better if written in first-person, but I'll admit that the further I read, the less of an issue it became for me. The author also has a tendency to sometimes drift into omniscient narration, which I'm not really fond of either. The story has a strong enemies-to-lovers trope, one that I've never really had a great deal of enthusiasm for, but here is comes off as utterly charming and endearing. With them each having their respective responsibilities and living on opposite sides of an ocean, Alex and Henry can sometimes be apart for weeks at a time, but it helped a lot that they call, text, and email frequently, and the author speeds up time by jumping ahead to their next in-person meeting so it doesn't seem quite so long. I'm typically a fan of steamy romances with plenty of sexy details, where here, the love scenes are more sensual with less of an explicit nature, but somehow they still managed to pack a major punch. Lastly I found it slightly bothersome that Henry is the Prince of Wales, which is a courtesy title usually conferred upon the oldest male who's first in line to inherit the throne, so by rights this would have been his brother, Philip's title, not Henry's. I know this is a fictional royal family, but accuracy is still important to me. However, not even this little factual misstep could seem to dampen my enthusiasm for Alex and Henry and their story, nor ultimately did any of the other things I cited.

I genuinely ended up loving Red, White, & Royal Blue. It's now my favorite rom-com, as well as one of my favorite romances of all time in general, but you might be wondering why since it had so many potential strikes against it. First of all, Alex and Henry are adorable and absolutely perfect together. They really step up for each other and give their all to the relationship. I love that they're able to open up to each other in ways they often can't with others and how they intuit things about one another. I'm utterly crazy for how Alex essentially storms the castle to declare his love, as well as how Henry is willing to take on the entire royal establishment for the chance at a future with Alex. They love each other with pure joy and without boundaries, something that I don't always see in a romance. Their love scenes are full of passion, sensuality, and tenderness, leaving no question how these two men feel about each other. I'm pretty picky about rom-coms because oftentimes I feel like the author is trying too hard to be funny and the jokes fall flat. Even the better ones, will maybe get a few smiles or chuckles out of me, but I can't recall the last time one made me LOL. Yet that's exactly what this one did and quite a few times at that, proving that the author is very witty. At the same time, there were a few moments of angsty goodness toward the end that left my heart in my throat, but that just made what came next that much sweeter. There were times I could barely put this book down. I turned the final page happy that I'd had the chance to read Red, White, & Royal Blue, but also sad that it was over. I felt like I could spend forever with Alex and Henry, because they made my heart joyful and happy and were a healing balm to my soul. If the author ever decides to write a follow-up story for them, I'd be first in line to buy it. But I suppose I can console myself with the movie. Fingers crossed that it's as good as the book.

Visit

Casey McQuiston

Themes

Beta Heroes
Book Lovers
Tortured Heroes