Red, White & Royal Blue
What a fantastic and joyful book. I am normally stingy with my ratings, I've given 5 stars to very few books I've read. But this book is just perfect, particularly for me right now. It's well written, it's funny, it's sexy. And most of all it exists, this big ridiculous love story of two men. Just delightful.
I'm not sure I've ever read a romance novel before, at least not all the way through. I'm familiar with the stereotypes of the genre. And this book is a bit trope-ish. But it never reads as cliche. Instead the set pieces "enemy turned friend", "surprise kiss", "breakup and get back together", "steamy bad idea sex"... they may be well worn plot conceits but here they all feel fresh and new in the gay context. Also their familiarity reads as comfort. I was particularly happy to know going into the start of the novel that by the Romance Novel Pact everything was going to be OK in the end, the lovers were going to be together. So much gay writing is about the challenges of daily life in a homophobic society that it's nice to read some totally happy fantasy for once.
I even liked the absurd conceit of the novel, the romance between the son of the President of the USA and a British Prince. The author uses this structure really effectively, both to drive some increasingly wacky international scenarios and as the foil of what felt like a very real coming out drama and yet safely fictionalized in this frankly unbelievable story. I mean that in the best way, the book is a romance fantasy and the setting is part of making the fantasy work.
This is the author's first book and it's remarkably well written for that. Tight plot, excellent pacing. Lots of research details sprinkled in. And a fresh youthful prose that just feels real and of the moment, not trying too hard.
More books like this please!
Second read. I read this a second time, also saw the movie adaptation. It stands up even stronger on second read. The romance parts are so very good. This was the first gay romance novel I'd ever read and sadly it may have spoiled me for them since it's so remarkably well written. I think first time I was starstruck by all the romance stuff, and what a pleasure that was!
But this second time through I read it more as a political book. As the author says, after Trump's election in 2016 "what was supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek parallel universe needed to be escapist, trauma-soothing, alternate-but-realistic reality." (The book was written in 2016 and 2017 but not published until 2019). On second read this political story shines out. A lot of the general themes, the desire to be yourself and be free even in confining situations. And the specific thing of showing a competent Democrat woman President winning an election against a Trump standin. Also highly fictional and optimistic, a sort of political romance, but it's deft. And I think it elevates the basic personal romance story too.
The other thing I enjoyed on a second read is how fresh the prose still reads. The author has a lot of remarkably well turned phrases. I've published a bunch of Kindle highlights for the ones I marked as I was reading.
One central conflict in the story is "OMG I have to tell my parents I'm queer". I wonder / hope that in the coming years young readers will read this and think "why is this such a big deal? my classmate came out to us and xir parents when they were nine!" The closet will never go away but I hope fewer and fewer kids are growing up in it as we progress.
(I enjoyed the movie adaptation quite a bit, particularly because it was snappy and sexy. Cuts a lot from the book of course including a lot of the political story that I liked so much on second reading. Still very good, intend to watch it a second time.)