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Highly Recommended: Author Casey McQuiston
This past January, having been entranced by André Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name and its sequel, Find Me, I was looking for some LGBTQ+ novels and I found Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, the story of the son of the first female U.S. president falling in love with the Prince of England. Aww, that sounds cute, I thought, and got it on my Kindle. And proceeded to fall in love. Or become obsessed, you might say. Or maybe I’d call it being inoculated against unhappiness, discouragement, and boredom, because for these last six months I have had an extra spark, a secret supply of joy, hope, and buoyancy that I can call up in any moment.
Out of all the things to love about it, at the core is this: It is perfect example of love taking you by surprise. Alex does not realize he’s bisexual. Plus, he thinks he hates Henry; he has built up a grudge against him over the years. Part of it is jealousy, resentment that as the heartthrob-eligible-bachelor first son of the U.S. he is compared with Henry, but Henry’s role is easier to play. Before the two get stuck spending time together, he is full of snarky comments like, “He’s about as compelling as a wet ball of yarn,” and “he has the personality of a cabbage!” So when circumstance forces them together for the sake of publicity, it is with great resentment on Alex’s part. And he clings tightly to his views, not shedding the…
