Red, White & Royal Blue

by Casey McQuiston

[dragononabook]

There are books that you put down and think 'well that was a good read', and there are books once you finally accept that it is over, you immediately start again because they are so, so good. This was emphatically the latter.

At first glance, Red, White & Royal Blue is very trope heavy. A prince and the First Son falling in love, enemies to lovers, pretend friendship, this book has it all. But rather than everything being extremely cliché, McQuinston has played into the tropes in exactly the way they should be used, and in a way that I wish there could be more of in published fiction. Instead of the story relying on these themes to carry it, it builds on them; the same can be said about the various other themes in the book.

When I first picked up this book, I thought it would last me a few days. I ended up finishing about 12 hours after receiving it. The writing was so compelling, and it felt like a breeze to read. I marked some of my favourite parts of the book, and by the end there were so many sticky tabs that you could very easily pet the top of my copy. I am not ashamed to say I found myself laughing so hard I had to stop reading for several minutes. The voice of the story (closed 3rd person) was funny in all the right places, and perfectly suited to the plot and Alex, the main character.

Speaking of characters, I loved the entire main cast. Every single one of them. Alex, while he could definitely be a bit of an asshole, is sharp as a whip, so ambitious, and really cares so much. Henry was my favourite as soon as he mentioned Bake Off, but he's such a well rounded character. Both of these characters were so well written, and with so much love too. June definitely acted like a big sister, and even though it was a relatively minor part of the plot as a whole, I appreciated her ambitions in journalism and the issues of being the daughter of the President.

This book is a romance, and there's no doubt about that, but the relationship between Henry and Alex was so organic. The banter between them when they were just friends was adorable and hilarious, and accomplished the biggest goal of a romance: making the reader ship the characters. Honestly, there's no way they could have been any more perfect for each other. Excuse me while I go listen to Your Song on repeat now.

I won't go into details so as not to spoil, but the plot kept me on the edge of my seat (bed), especially in the climax of the moment. The twists were not completely unexpected, instead they made previous events make so much more sense in exactly the way twists should. I was invested in the storyline and the possible outcomes; it was perfectly paced and exellently plotted, and I wouldn't have it any other way (I'm sensing a theme here, probably due to how perfect this book it)

I have so much more to say about this, but I'd be here for hours and I'd much rather let people see how good this book is for themselves, because me detailing everything I loved would mean me basically retelling the whole thing but with analysis.

TL;DR: I love this book so much, and I think anyone who is even remotely interested in in should go read it immediately. There is one flaw to this book, in my opinion, and that is that I want more even though there is none.