"Straight people, he thinks, probably don't spend this much time convincing themselves that they're straight."

I read this last year and never got around to rating it—so, here we go.

Listen, I get it. This book is tropey. It’s a little reminiscent of an alternate universe fix-it fic on AO3. But that’s what makes it so damn good.

I flew threw this book. Only to immediately go back and re-read my favorite parts. I’ve seen people say it was distinctly unfunny but I was laughing the whole way through. Maybe my humor just sucks, I don’t know.

This story was incredibly and surprisingly tender. I truly felt that both Alex and Henry were very relatable for their own reasons. And I found their love story to be so rewarding and deserved at the end. ( )

Enjoyed the story so much. The movie was amazing they missed some few important details but it was really good. ( )

I want to live in the universe where most of what happens in this book is what actually happened in 2016! ( )

the premise made me wonder if i’d like it, but this became my comfort book so quickly. truly an incredible book. it felt like reading a warm hug and somehow i walked away from it feeling a little patriotic. alex just has that effect on me i guess. waving my little american flag from underneath the mountain of blankets i used for reading companions. spoilers in the last paragraph!

the plot was so well-developed and set up a fantastic amount of foreshadowing that i picked up on but dismissed and realized later that i shouldn’t have. plot twists that were somehow shocking but believable, and not too high stakes that the resolution felt rushed or underwhelming.

the characters are so endearing, and alex is such a fun narrator. i love that we get a range of different dynamics and we don’t lose that to the relationship between alex and henry. i wish we had gotten more pez, though! i wanted to see more of him and june together. and i loved that it acknowledges the complexities of voting populations amidst what felt like a very idealistic political world even despite it all, and i loved the touch of the texas binder. it managed to keep the plot feeling grounded even with everything happening around us. also the letters, my god. i’ve read and reread their letters over and over again. i love this book so much. i’ve read it like three times because i keep going back to reread scenes whenever i think about them and it just gets out of control. ( )

3 stars

Well, I finally read it. A few years late to the party, but here I am. Watched the film the other day, it was better than I expected so I figured that I would give the book a go. (Hate to say it, but the movie may be better than the book)

Convenience stores often sell chocolate covered mini-doughnuts. Why I like them is beyond me. The bread is crumbly, they upset my sugar balance, and the frosting tastes strongly of plastic. Red, White and Royal Blue follows the same basic principles for me. I can't think about the plasticky doughnuts too much or they will make my stomach turn, nor can I take Red, White and Royal Blue as anything other than a fairy tale due to its absurdity. Still it was somewhat enjoyable to read, and it perhaps the first proper romance book I have read to the end. By the standards that I normally rate books, this wasn't a very good one. The prose was terribly clunky, the characters rather flat (excluding Henry and Alex of course), and the heavy and vapid political commentary was obnoxious (I may have cursorily skimmed those pages). Yet despite these failings, it was a good comfort/junk food book that did a decent job maintaining my interest as compared to other romance books.

Generally, romance standards must be pretty bad if this is one of the better ones. Might read a sequel if one is ever made and I'm in the mood for it. ( )