Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuinston

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

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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Oh my goodness, this book was so good and so real. With the political climate we have going on and the fact that I actually read this book during the election, I am shooketh. If you couldn’t tell by any of my previous posts, I am 100% pro equality, rights, LGBT+ ally, POC representation, etc. and this book had it all. It was so crazy reading this book, almost like a stepping into a parallel world that is also the same?

This was an incredible coming of age story for both Alex and Henry. Alex is the son of the first female president and Henry is a prince in the English monarchy. Both have certain expectations and societal pressures to essentially not be who they truly are. Alex is a bit of a know it all punk, but I honestly love him! His family is separated, but he is still involved with both parents, and I loved to see that. Henry is shy and sweet and really only has his sister in terms of familial support. I just wanted to reach through the book and strangle his family sometimes.

The messages throughout the book and in depth discussion of people’s prejudices, homophobia, predatory behaviors, and honestly, just being awful and ignorant are so relevant. Despite being fiction, it is riddled with facts It has a great historical accuracy to it. It still completely baffles me that people think less of others because of the color of their skin or whom they love.

Obviously, I cannot recommend this book enough. As soon as I finished it, I messaged my sister and I was like you have to read this book now! This book is available on Kindle Unlimited.