Red, White, & Royal Blue

My Review (Spoiler Free)

Red, White, & Royal Blue has been receiving a tremendous amount of attention for the past year. Once I saw that it was available as an eBook through my library, I set aside some time to finally read and see what the hype was about. I am sorry to say that I was sorely disappointed. Casey McQuiston's book is jam packed with plot, but ultimately underdelivers. In Red, White, & Royal Blue, the main storyline revolves around a strained relationship between the son of the first female President of The United States of America and the youngest grandchild of the Queen of England. What begins as bitter resentment turns into a budding romance that has the potential to greatly affect the entire world. 

In the early part of the book, it is easy to buy into the necessary alternative versions of worlds in which the president's two children and the vice president's grandchild are all inseparable BFFs and also happen to be the same age as the grandchildren of the Queen of England. In stories centered on political and international relationships, there is a certain amount of required suspension of disbelief. Personally, my suspension of disbelief can only go so far, namely to the end of Chapter Four. From there, McQuiston shoves so much into this book that it is difficult for the reader to keep up with the many storylines and by the end, most of the storylines are either left unfinished, or finished in a way that leaves the reader unsatisfied.

Throughout the book, it felt as if McQuiston was warring with herself on whether she was writing and LGBTQ romance or a political drama. She spends time getting the reader to buy in to the alternative world, but then includes references and jabs to real life political figures (specifically, past presidents, especially Barack Obama, and Mitch McConnell), but completely ignoring real world contemporaries (Queen Elizabeth II is swapped for Queen Mary). Several times the writing feels lazy and was more reminiscent of a fanfiction writer than a published author. I also found the treatment of Alex's, the protagonist and First Son of the United States (FSOTUS), sexuality to be lacking. Alex considers himself to be straight until a specific moment with Prince Henry, then makes a realization that he is bisexual. He struggles with this information for all of about twenty pages and then everything is completely fine and there is no mention of his sexuality again, except to point out a few times that he is, in fact, bisexual. 

Overall, this book left a lot to be desired, especially given the amount of people that have fallen in love with this book. The writing was lazy, the pacing was way off, the storylines were sloppy, and the whole book felt directionless most of the time. Red, White, & Royal Blue fell into the trap of too many details, and would have been a much better book if it focused on the relationships and romance, instead of also trying to cover several other topics.