A review by annakh16
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

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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