By Rachel Abbott
If you binge romance novels, if you love realistic queer representation, or if you’ve ever fallen into a fugue state while scrolling through updates about the Royal Family, I’ve got excellent news—Casey McQuiston’s debut novel, Red, White & Royal Blue, will check each of those boxes for you, and it’s quickly becoming the hottest romance read of 2019.
This bitingly funny new adult book tells the story of Alex Claremont-Diaz, son of the first female president of the United States. When his mother is elected in 2016, Alex immediately resents the way tabloids compare him to the youngest of the British royalty, Prince Henry of Wales. In spite of their shared position as sons of world leaders, Alex is confident that he and Henry have absolutely nothing in common. However, when a very public altercation between the two becomes international news, Alex receives his most nightmarish FSOTUS assignment yet: fake a close friendship with Prince Henry until the media attention dies down.
Although he dreads the idea of a weekend with the prince, Alex soon discovers that there’s more to Henry than meets the public eye. Beneath his carefully crafted veneer is a sensitive man with a giant heart, dreaming of a better world. Hatred turns into respect, and the boys’ false friendship blossoms into something genuine—something that begins to feel an awful lot like love.
I’ll be honest—I’ll pick up just about any book with a queer protagonist or author. It doesn’t take much to convince me to support LGBTQ+ stories or to shove them into the hands of my friends. As a bookseller and avid reader, it’s what I do. Still, the pure joy that this book evoked was something special. And according to its Goodreads reviews, I’m not the only one who feels this way.
It’s difficult to pin down what exactly made this debut novel so dazzling. The hate-transformed-to-love romance was sexy. The snarky banter among the cast of millennial characters read as grounded and hilarious. The alternate universe of an America with a progressive female president provided a much-needed escape from the current news cycle. All of these elements worked in the book’s favor, but I think what I loved most of all was the messy but confident bisexual main character.
Alex Claremont-Diaz is the hard–headed, dashing, bisexual protagonist of my dreams. Namely, his journey through coming out as an adult felt deeply true to life. Bi and pansexual people, myself included, have a distinct disadvantage when it comes to figuring out their sexuality. It’s easy to bury any queer attraction when you can lean into the “straight” attraction that the world expects from you. As McQuiston wrote in an essay about her own bisexuality:
“You grow up thinking you’re straight. You like the gender that everyone says you’re supposed to, and so, you’re straight. You’re so sure you’re straight that you tell yourself all the time, yeah, that’s me, a straight person. Doing straight things. Definitely straight. No need to panic.”
Of course, Alex is not straight, neither is the author, and neither am I. Although his coming out isn’t without a fair amount of queer angst, he embraces the bisexual label fully. He wears his bi pride the same way he wears his Texan pride—larger than life and full of attitude. That sort of representation is a rare gift. Pair that representation with major rom-com vibes, and you’ve got the romance novel that queer southerners didn’t even know they were missing.
All in all, Red, White & Royal Blue is a five-star read. The ensemble is charming, the enemies-to-lovers plot is delightful, and the rollicking wit throughout keeps the pages turning.
McQuiston is on tour for the book this summer, stopping in Houston at the Freed-Montrose Library during Pride weekend on June 22. Tour dates and times can be found on here.
