Red, White & Royal Blue: A Novel

How am I even meant to begin to document my love for this book? 5 starts doesn't seem like enough. If I could give it 10, I would. The book follows the story of Alex, First Son of The United States, and his relationship with Henry, Prince of Wales. It got moments that'll make you laugh, like properly belly laugh, and others that will bring a tear to your eyes. Others that will make your heart feel warm and fuzzy and loved. This book is filled with romance and some pop-culture references and is just all around great fun. But above all that, the story and the way it's written really touched me. Alex's journey of figuring out he's bisexual and coming to terms with that and finding an outpouring of love and support from his his family and carving out his shipper group of friends really resonated with me - it was beautiful some. And the romantic relationship between him and Henry? It killed me how cute it was. You really, truly felt like you were witnessing 2 people in soil crushing, all consuming love with each other and it just got me! And can we just take a moment to talk about the representation? We've got bipoc characters, bisexual characters, gay characters, a pansexual character and a transgender character! We love to see it. 100/10, 5-star read. Honestly, my favourite read so far of this year. I loved the way book ended, so warm and full of hope. But, I could also happily read more from this universe! If you're love queer romances, this book is a must read!

T/W: grief, loss, addiction, some mentions of past sexual abuse, racism, homophobia, public outing- Potentially there is more but these are the ones I picked out, please always look at reviews for any triggers! Just from the end of chapter one, I knew this was going to be a five star read for me. The humour in this book is outstanding, and really makes moments that could be considered "cheesy", not cheesy. So, a lot of negative reviews I saw were about the "jabs" made towards Brits. Mate, I'm a Brit and I was cackling throughout, it ain't that deep, calm down. Also Alex and Henry are literal goals in this book how can you hate them? The politics in this story admittedly go over my head at times, but that's due to me not being knowledgeable in that area, but reading a second time definitely helped get my head around them. But they are a much needed element to this story and it really added a sense of reality into it. Honestly, if the book plot and romance wasn't the first thing obvious about this book, I would be screaming "MAKE THEM GAY YOU COWARDS" by the end of chapter 2. I thoroughly enjoyed Henry and Alex's conversations, they are just simply cute and hilarious because the banter throughout this book is on point and top notch! The author has totally encapsulated the way young people talk to one another. The messy bisexual and chaotic gay vibe of this book had me living. Page 111. The entire quite on that page about sexuality, and how it's so confusing when your younger, because you just feel that the way your feeling is normal, is hella on point! I really resonated to it so much and I loved reading how I too felt, in a book. I love how accepting parts of this book is, it makes you feel so happy at times about the acceptance, the love and progression towards equality, and for me it was a nice reality to escape into. Literal thought throughout this book was "Holy Smutoly", make more New Adult books please! Yo, these gay monarch references have me living! I learnt a lot after reading this book about James the first (or thirst appropriately) and George Villiers. Being outed before you are ready is the most shattering thing to happen. It knocks the wind from under your feet and shatters the very love and confidence you had managed to scrape together for yourself, during the realization of your sexuality and/or gender identity. Figuring out who you are is one the hardest things you'll ever do, telling people is the second. If you don't have that environment and love and support either, it's truly soul crushing. I liked how this book focuses on many parental figures idea of acceptance is to ignore it's existence or deny all plausibility of the confession. Overall, I loved this book, I felt represented in this book and you should read this book! 5 stars!

I started reading this in July and was set to finish it before the end of the month but then my fur baby passed away and I’ll hold my hands up and say reading was not my top priority for a good week. So, I put RW&RB down at around the 40% mark to focus on my well-being and processing what had happened. Now up until that point I was absolutely loving this read and powering through it. I started the read on the evening July 27th and by bedtime on the 28th I was already at page 174 which is super quick for me to be getting through a book, especially around work. Red, White and Royal Blue is essentially what it says on the tin, like with most romance books you always know what you’re getting from the cover and the synopsis. In relation to the plot as a whole I wasn’t super surprised by the way things go down. Books like this are all about the feel good factor, the humour, the love overcoming obstacles and a good dollop of drama. And RW&RB does not disappoint on those factors! The writing style is super easy to read and very difficult not to enjoy. The humour is well presented, and I found myself chuckling/laughing throughout the read. I found when I picked this book back up August 3rd that the writing style really helped me during those sad moments in my real life, it eased some of the pain and put a little smile back on my face. If you’re going through a tough time and need a light easy read with some humour in it then this is a book to consider. What I will say about the writing is that Casey is not afraid of some naughty language, if you aren’t a fan of swearing and some sexual references maybe look to avoid this book cause our Texas MC Alex, has a bit of dirty mouth of him. Like I’ve said the plot is as you’d expect from a typical romance, the only difference is that the lover are two young men which I adored. I really love seeing LGBTQ+ representation in books because they should have the same stories and adventures written about them as straight people too. And because the book uses the frequently seen Prince Charming, like an actual Prince, it is refreshing to see this sort of plot with two male characters. I did find it quite odd that the entire British Royal family is completely fictional, apart from Henry who is quite obviously based on Prince Harry. Prince Harry if he had been gay. And that the references to previous US Presidents were actually historically correct. Like it really bugged me out for a bit. Why not either fictionalise both the Royal Family and the previous President? Or use the real Royal Family with reference to real previous presidents? I understood from references to previous Presidents and their family held a significant value in relation to the context they were spoken about and as the overall vibe of the book is that it’s written more for an American audience I could see why the author may have kept the US History aspect. The characters are fun and quirky. Alex the MC I can see some readers struggling to build a connection with him as he is quite obnoxious, but his journey of self-discovery does feel genuine and realistic for his character. Casey also wrote him so that you can see his underlying insecurities which is what makes the more obnoxious behaviour makes sense and makes Alex feel more real, but you need to read a chunk of the book to get there. Prince Henry is what everyone would expect of a Royal Prince in his behaviour and mannerism. As we get to know more of him I really like the way he was developed as a character throughout. I also really enjoyed all the side characters and how they added to the story, they all had a purpose and weren’t just in the story for convenience. Overall, I super enjoyed reading this book considering the circumstance I read the last 60% through. It proved to be a really good distraction from my own sadness. It’s a funny entertaining read. If you want a really easy read, where you kind of know what to expect that you’ll find enjoyable and make you laugh here it is. If you’re having a tough time and want a distraction this book is a go too.

Tof boek, snel en goed geleverd

Ho comprato questo libro per i disegni e il capitolo in più ( nonostante avessi già il libro) E non ne sono rimasta delusa, anzi è meraviglioso!!! Disegni bellissimi, e il capitolo extra è stratosferico!! Questo libro mi ha fatto amare ancora di più questa storia.

Book came in a good quality

Well this book was kind of everything and I loved every second. I had heard so much about this from other reviewers and I was so excited when I was approved for the eARC. This book was absolutely adorable and definitely was worth all the hype I had been seeing about it! Red, White, & Royal Blue is about Alex, who is the First Son of the United States of America. He was thrust into the spotlight after his mother became President, and basically become like American royalty. It's no secret that Alex really does not get along with royalty, Prince Henry, but they soon get mixed into an international scandal at Prince Phillip's wedding. They are forced to become "friends" and participate in photo ops and spend time together to help save face for both of their families. However, they soon figure out that maybe all the animosity between them was really something more all along. Okay, first things first. I've seen this being labelled as a young adult contemporary book on some websites, but this is definitely not. It is a new adult romance at the very least. There are a lot of steamy scenes and fade to black moments, nothing too descriptive, but more than what you would see in a typical YA contemporary book. With that out of the way, I loved basically everything about this book. I thought the plot was amazingly well paced, I never found myself bored or hoping that the plot would just get going. I was entertained the entire time, and even though it does follow the typical romance formula, the author did some intersting things in the story that made it feel fresh and fun. I also really enjoyed the political elements of this story. We got to see the President and Alex trying to navigate this whole romance and its ramifications during the election year, and see Henry struggle on his end with what this relationship would mean for the "Royal Image". I thought all of that was super intersting and gave the book a deeper level of story telling. This book was also extremely diverse! We have bisexual and gay characters, a transgendered character, and lots of POC rep. And the cherry on top is that these labels did not define the characters! They were part of who they were, and yes their sexuality and race was important to the plot, but it was not their only defining characteristics in the book, and every character was developed beautifully. We also had a female president and tons of strong female characters in positions of power. Speaking of characters, Alex was hilarious. He is outspoken, brash, but still so unfailingly loyal to those he loves, that it made it hard to not love him. Henry was Alex's perfect foil. He was calm, quiet, and more subdued, but so passionate about topics and people he loved. The way they came together and worked through the tough times was really beautiful, and the really are a new OTP of mine. Nora and June were equally amazing. I loved seeing them grow individually and really learn what it as they wanted to do with their lives. Seriously, I loved all the characters, I can't think of a major character who was flat or not talked about enough. I felt connected to them all and enjoyed reading about their character arcs. Basically the TDLR is that I loved this book.

Gran historia.