Synopsis: A big-hearted romantic comedy in which First Son Alex falls in love with Prince Henry of Wales after an incident of international proportions forces them to pretend to be best friends...
First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations.
The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince. Alex is busy enough handling his mother’s bloodthirsty opponents and his own political ambitions without an uptight royal slowing him down. But beneath Henry’s Prince Charming veneer, there’s a soft-hearted eccentric with a dry sense of humor and more than one ghost haunting him.
As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. And Henry throws everything into question for Alex, an impulsive, charming guy who thought he knew everything: What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?
Review: Red, White, and Royal Blue is the current darling that the book community loves. I get it. I do. I just deeply disliked Alex. He was unnecessarily abrasive and it felt very stereotypical of a “rude American.” There’s also a moment where he mentally drags Henry for having stables, but Alex is from...Texas…
No, everyone from Texas doesn’t have stables and horses, but it just seemed to be a weird thing for Alex to hate on Henry for. To be fair, a lot of Alex’s negative feelings towards Henry are unfounded. This is kind of addressed because Henry asks about it. The only thing we know for certain is that Henry was rude, once, to Alex. And Alex apparently blacklisted Henry for life. These things made it impossible for me to like Alex, which is great considering RW&RB is a story about Alex. I did LOVE June and Nora. They really carried me through this book, and I felt for June as she struggled with not wanting to be a part of politics even though the rest of her family is.
The overall romance was kind of cute? I liked seeing the banter between Alex and Henry, after they moved passed the “I hate you” part. I just never got very interested which is the real downside to this book. I don’t know if that’s because of my dislike of Alex, or if this just isn’t my kind of story, but something kept me from getting into it. I also don’t understand why RW&RB had to be about the FSOTUS when there weren’t that many discussions about politics. There were conversations about campaigning because Alex’s mom was up for re-election, but any conversations about politics felt very surface level. Granted, this was already a long book, as it’s over 400 pages, but I felt like politics should have had a heavier focus. Especially because Alex was very invested in politics and his mother’s campaign.
I think the current political atmosphere made this story more frustrating than entertaining. America has always been bad about Democrats believing that Republicans are these awful, heartless people and vice-versa. I think I would have enjoyed this story more if it was the son of a Republican falling in love with the son of a Democrat who are on opposite sides of the ballot because then there could have been more nuanced discussion about policies and what it means to be an American.
This was a cute story, but I didn’t think the political elements were handled very well.
3 howls
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