Reviews with content warning for Addiction - Royal Blue

Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

386 reviews

dandydoodle's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book was a lighthearted, quick read. It’s nice if you want something easy that you’re not super heavily invested in but draws you in enough to finish. It’s a fun little rom-com.

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annakh16's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

I‘m happy to say this (mostly) lives up to the hype.

To get the obvious point out of the way: the politics in this book were incredibly strange. Yesss I know it’s fiction, but for all the escapism, it just became absurd to have the FSOTUS and Prince of England talk about how they were oh-so-upset about the lack of reparations from imperialism and whatnot. And

everyone accepting their romance super quickly. And then obviously a happy ending, for them, and the presidency, and the monarchy! Happy days!

A romance novel isn’t perhaps the perfect place for an in-depth analysis of these systems, but I do wish it would’ve been more realistic/critical.

The rivals-to-lovers bit at the beginning also felt a bit superimposed. It didn’t really fit their general character how much they supposedly disliked each other

(I know this was because of hidden feelings - but it still seemed a bit silly to me).

Those things aside: this book was very funny (partly because of the absurdity, but also genuinely funny) at the same time as sweet. I loved all of their email exchanges, some beautiful lines in there. I also appreciated Bea‘s chat with Alex about what grief feels like - beautifully written.

This was terribly sappy in a good way and I surprised myself by how invested I was. Would recommend as a feel-good book.

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gabi_715's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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marleen02's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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hey_al's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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fierygecko's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book made me laugh and cry more than I expected it would. The characters are lovable and very real. The relationships they have with each other feel equally as real. The book starts off as a hilarious slice-of-life and very quickly becomes an emotional romantic rollercoaster with a healthy side of red-string-on-a-corkboard politics. Both moods of the story are fantastic. The only thing I didn’t love about this book was how long the chapters were; rarely was I able to read an entire chapter in one sitting. But the story flows well enough that it doesn’t really matter. I honestly just had a really great time reading this book. I went in with no expectations and before I was finished I knew it was getting five stars. Even just for Alex’s incredibly judgy metaphors about European politics and Henry’s equally creative clapbacks about American government in the first few chapters.

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mrs_gale's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

A really nice story.
Characters are well developed and I liked them all even though they aren't all perfect or good.
Reminds me alot of Heart stopper in terms of the slow start to the romance and the texts and emails.
Some of the references date this book which is a shame, but I really enjoyed reading about the relationships and the drama.

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