Texts under the pretense of getting to know things a “best friend” should knowa lead to late-night phone calls, which lead to a romance Alex could have never anticipated.

It’s only supposed to be for the cameras, but quickly the two form an actual bond. In an attempt to do some damage control, their families and PR teams force Alex and Henry into a fake friendship. So, when Alex gets into a physical altercation with actual royalty, Prince Henry, whom he’s had a longstanding hatred for, the media goes crazy. Along with his sister June and their best friend Nora (the granddaughter of the Vice President), he is like the US equivalent of British royalty: everyone is watching what they’re doing. The book follows Alex, the First Son of the first female President of the United States. I instantly fell in love with Casey McQuiston’s writing, so it was only a matter of time before I picked it up again for a re-read. I first read Red, White & Royal Blue last year, and within the first few pages, it had already become my favorite book of all time. 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? Casey McQuiston’s Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn’t always diplomatic. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals.

And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse. There’s only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. Handsome, charismatic, genius―his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal.

Red white & royal blue casey mcquiston