Red, White & Royal Blue: A Novel by Casey McQuiston

Quarantine Reading

Kindle edition

I read about this book in Real Simple Magazine, I think. It's been on my "to read" list for at least a year. I finally requested it from the library via OverDrive - shout out to eBooks and Kindle!  I started it on June 15 and finished on June 21.

Though I read the description when I first put this on my "to read" list, I didn't entirely remember what it was about when I started reading it. Let me tell you - this book is really fresh, funny, and I really loved it.

It's a love story, coming out story, and political book all in one. This book tells the story of the first family of the United States. The president is female (YAHOO!) and divorced and has two adult-ish kids - Alex and June. Alex's arch nemesis is one of the Princes of England, Henry. Through a turn of events, these two men who hate each other have to become besties to quell a potential PR nightmare of their causing. Their fake friendship evolves into a real friendship and an entirely new actual PR nightmare to deal with.

One of the several things that made me laugh out loud while reading this book is the "nickname" Alex gave Henry in his phone - HRH Royal Dickhead 💩.  I was laughing so much at that.

If you like a love story, have an open mind, I think you'll love this book. It's fresh, it's modern, it's funny, it's sad, it's engaging, and I definitely stayed up too late at night reading this. I just couldn't put it down.  Now I'm left with the "what's next" desire for a sequel.

Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan

Quarantine Reading

Finished #2 in this series and immediately moved on to Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan. I started this on June 1 and finished it on June 11.

Again, no movie (yet) so used the images from movie #1 in my mind as I read this book. Also again, I like learning the "what's next" for all of the characters from the prior book.  And, again, I kept thinking that this was so much more over the top, so much "more," so much "excess," so much "money," so much "disfunction" with most of these characters.

Don't get me wrong, I really liked this book, it was very entertaining, engaging, a page turner, and I definitely stayed up too late reading at night. Unlike Hamilton, which I'm still "reading" (yes, I'm using quotes around reading because that book is still by my nightstand, it's been in progress for at least 2 years now, it still pains me to read it, it's still boring, and I still want to finish it) and literally puts me to sleep in 5 or fewer pages, the Crazy Rich series is so entertaining, even if I'm super tired, I stay awake to read. It's the polar opposite of Hamilton in many ways: Kwan's books are light, funny, engaging, easy to read and understand. Chernow's Hamilton, is not those things.

If you liked the other two books in this series, I'm certain you'll like this one.