“Oh my God, this is like all those romantic comedies where the girl hires a male escort to pretend to be her wedding date and then falls in love with him for real.”
In a word: Read the thing! This book was an absolute goddamn delight and I loved every second of it. It’s well-paced, the characters are amazing, the writing is beautiful, and the romance is wonderful (actually, the relationships in general in this book are great). Alex and Henry, son of the US president and a prince of England respectively, are two young men from worlds both different and similar, and they seemingly can’t stand each other. They first met years ago when they were still teenagers, and Henry made a horrible first impression that Alex has never really gotten over. Things come to a head at Henry’s older brother’s wedding when they both cause a public scene and have to pretend to be friends to repair their image and not cause an international scandal. It seems like a good idea all around, until the two of them accidentally fall in love with each other and risk causing an even bigger scandal. This is very much enemies-to-friends-to-lovers secret relationship shenanigans set against a political background of English royal tradition and presidential re-election. There’s a lot going on here. The core of the story is the strength and power of love, which is always great. Alex and Henry as the leads are both engaging and compelling (though the book is only told through Alex’s third-person POV so I do wish we’d gotten more of Henry’s inner-workings), and I absolutely loved the pair of them and their giant feelings. I also loved their journeys as characters, which went beyond romance and relationships since they are both high up in their respective country’s governments. The extended cast is also wonderful, the relationships varied and complex, and I loved a lot of the side characters as well. The story wouldn’t be the same without them. This book was a complete ride from start to finish, with the romance and the political intrigue and young adult shenanigans (the main characters are all in their 20s) and secret rendezvous, and I never wanted it to end. Totally recommend this book!
The Summary: (from Goodreads) What happens when America’s First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?
When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius—his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There’s only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.
Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through? Casey McQuiston’s Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn’t always diplomatic.
[available for purchase at Amazon.ca, Book Depository, Chapters, and Barnes & Noble]
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