Published by: St. Martin Griffin
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary, MM, Romance
Rating:
When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius—his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.
Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through?
I love him, with all that, because of
all that. On purpose. I love him on purpose.
If the Lord of Over-the-topchester and the Duchess of Over-hypedshire had a child, it would be Red, White and Royal Blue.
Before I am publically flogged at the city square for blasphemy, hear me out.
Red… wasn’t a bad book. It was, above all else, a very optimistic and positive take on the revelation of a romantic relationship between two prominent and powerful men in today’s society. It was very hopeful and sweet and cute and rainbows and glitter and as pink as its cover.
I couldn’t relate much to the characters which was of course to be expected. No matter how down to earth and humble the FSOTUS and the Prince of England were, and they were not, they are still the FSOTUS and the Prince of England. Their lives are outwardly to us and I am assuming ours is to them. So yeah, I don’t really care about extravagant parties and royal weddings that cost a developing country’s GDP. Thanks but no.
HENRY & ALEX
I thought they were both really sweet and their courtship very romantic and lovey-dovey, almost fairy tale-ish. I truly believe that Alex loved Henry (I had no doubt about Henry, he was obsessed with Alex) even though I’d rather he mulled it over a bit more seeing how impulsive he was. I liked their banter and their sense of humor, Henry’s “rigidness” balancing out Alex’s almost clownish behaviour.
The emails they sent to each other could have been dialled down a notch; rich beyond measure, 20 something year old guys can’t recite so many literary quotes. They can’t recite any actually. Nice touch, but silly after a while.
I have to admit, I was a bit lukewarm about Alex throughout the book. I didn’t believe he was as “real” as advertised, definitely not a Texas country boy and I wouldn’t be surprised if down the line he broke Henry’s heart. It’s not that he was a bad guy, not at all. Like I said in a previous review: it’s the Westernised upbringing: entitled to everything, go get it, you can do it! While that is a great sentiment and I applaud it, it has a self centered undertone to it, a “if don’t like, dispose and get another one” kind of feel. I was pleasantly surprised to see that McQuiston did maintain that difference in attitudes between American and English whether inadvertently or not. Henry was always more composed and put more thought into everything he did and said, not because he was supposed to be the stiff heir to the throne, but because as Europeans we are all programmed to think and behave this way, from royalty to low class. Some of you might think that I am exaggerating or that I am simply wrong. I am telling you though, I wasn’t aware these cultural differences even existed until I migrated from Europe to Australia, so I am speaking from personal experience.
Seeing that Red…was told exclusively from Alex’s POV in present tense, it was even harder for me to go along and understand the way his or his family acted. That is why I wasn’t particularly fond of the back and forth emails, they kinda took away all the intimacy and didn’t give them the chance to interact with and learn more in depth stuff about each other.
As far as NA MM romantic relationships go this one was OK, but I have seen way better (ahem Mark Cooper versus America)
POLITICS
Always being on top of what’s happening in the world and constantly educating myself, I have formed my own political views and I will surely not be swayed by a NA romance novel of all things. Apart from it praising Nazis and sexual predators, I don’t mind reading others' political opinions and views. McQuiston is obviously very influenced by the 2016 US election as she mentioned in her acknowledgments, and is taking a very clear stance against a fictional Republican candidate who is apparently very vile. I wasn’t at all surprised at that, as I wouldn’t be surprised if the same was said for a Democrat candidate. I am old and cynical enough to not have any trust in politicians no matter how great they may seem. I don’t begrudge McQuiston’s political stance at all, this is a work of fiction after all.
However, I agree that her characters were one dimensional, Richards was the dark, evil villain and Ellen was the gallant, self-sacrificing hero, which is utterly unrealistic and an obvious lie. I don’t believe for a second that she wouldn’t throw a massive fit when her son’s scandal came out that close to elections or that she wouldn't try to twist it to her benefit, there is simply too much at stake. But again, over-romanticised, super wishful work of fiction.
I would have mad respect for McQuiston if she made Henry and Alex denounce their positions and live their lives peacefully away from the public eye. But I guess giving up Burberry button downs and Gucci bomber jackets was too much to ask.
OTHER CHARACTERS
The rest of the characters were way over the top and I didn’t like any of them :/ Sad, but true. Luna’s story was too convenient and I didn’t like McQuiston springing sexual harassment on me, too much on the nose.
Was Red… over ambitious? Yes.
Was it pretentious? Definitely.
Was it way too long? For sure.
Despite all that, I’d still recommend it to all the wide-eyed, day dreaming teens out there who haven’t got their hopes totally crushed by the system yet. This is definitely for them.
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