Red, White and Royal Blue

SYNOPSIS:

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.

REVIEW

(5 STARS):

Have I just read the best romance ever? Yes, I have — and this is the opinion of someone who used to be obsessed with Nicholas Sparks.

This book has it all: LGBTQIA+ characters, spicy sex scenes, brilliant humour and a lot of that posh vibe that exists when the English monarchy is involved. You know what I mean, don't you?

As someone who usually hates the enemies to lovers trope, I wasn't expecting to love this book. I think that's the main reason I put off reading it (the other being that I always end up hating hyped books). So you can imagine how surprised I felt when I realised 'Red, White and Royal Blue' became one of my favourite books of 2021. Some bits were a bit cliché and predictable, yes, but overall, the narrative really managed to entertain me. The millennial jokes, the political backdrop, the jabs at America's politics... the author delighted me with her shrewdness and social satire. McQuiston succeeded in grabbing whole generations by the neck and giving them all a shake, pointing out our flaws as well as our accomplishments in such a way that you finish the book wanting to change the world and believing it is, indeed, possible to do so.

The whole parallelism between this book and the American - nay, the Western world - reality was brilliant and very much needed. How is it possible that we're in 2021 and America just elected its first female vice-president? That straight people still feel entitled to discuss LGBTQIA+ topics? That people are still voting for Trump even when you rub in their faces he's a criminal?

This book is a whole mood. I am now having an existential crisis. I'll be here in the corner waiting for the opportunity to successfully elect the first female president of my country, thank you.

Besides all I have said above, the other thing that blew my mind was the way McQuiston approached the sexual scenes. They were descriptive, but they also felt natural; they were intense, but also funny; cute, and yet empowering. I feel like this book has set new standards, not only for New Adult novels but also for graphic sex scenes. I felt like the McQuiston set a new bar that will be terribly hard for other authors to surpass (and even reach). For me, her book sets the line between Fifty Shades and chick-lit: the sex scenes are graphic but not too much. They make you blush and squeak but they don't make you uncomfortable (and I'm not censoring anyone who enjoys 50 Shades, I'm just saying it made ME uncomfortable). They're not too much. They're just hot, sexy and realistic. I loved it.

Did I manage to convince you to pick up this book right now (or to just listen to it on Scribd for free)?