Red, White & Royal Blue

Book: Red, White & Royal Blue
Author: Casey McQuiston

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.

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. What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you? -Goodreads

Review: If you are looking for a super cutesy, cheesy, romance (with a dash of spice) this may be the book for you. I unfortunately made the mistake of reading this during the most stressful, divisive, US election in recent years when I was actively trying to avoid politics. So reading a romance that contained politics was just bad timing on my part (in my defense I had been on the waitlist for this book for awhile and it just happened to come available as I was avoiding social media for the nonstop political memes, ads, etc). 

Alex Claremont, the main character, is an acquired taste. I honesty could not stand him in the beginning of the book but I grew to like him and his snark by the end. His love interest, Prince Henry, was a quiet man without much personality (compared to Alex) but I think they did 'work' together. I kept finding myself getting caught up on non-important details like "Alex is from Austin, why aren't they eating or referencing the Sat Lick or Chuy's?" 

Overall, not my favorite romance but perhaps as mentioned above, this was just poor timing on my part. I think McQuiston has some talent and I'll look for more books by this author. 

Grade: 2.5/5