Teodora 's Reviews > Red, White & Royal Blue

4.5/5 ⭐

Full review on my Blog: The Dacian She-Wolf 🐺
BONUS: At the end, there are 10 quotes proving that Zahra is the ultimate mood !!

I’d be so happy right now to actually have proper words to describe this beautiful mess that this book is but I rarely do have them so this review is going to be an equally hot mess. I’m actually having a doughnut while writing this so that should do.

Red, White & Royal Blue is not exactly my type of reading. I mean, I had doubts I’d possibly like this kind of fiction, and the synopsis didn’t quite help me in that area. But you guys (yeah, you, the ones who read it and fell in obsession with it) made me want to give it a try with your exuberance.

AND I BLOODY LOVED IT.

Really, after the first chapter I was like girl, keep reading, why the hell you stopped?

It made me feel excruciatingly giggly.



What made it super pleasant for me is the twist of the political reality – the United States actually has a female president, which is a determined lady from Texas and she has two amazing children who happen to be half Mexican. How cool is that though?

On the other hand, I found a bit of time and event inaccuracy in this that actually disturbs my OCD and keeps me awake at night.
At first, I thought the action was happening by the end of 2019 and then some mumbo-jumbo happens and we’re in the middle of 2020 somehow and no one but absolutely no one gives a shit about the fact that the 2020 Olympics are happening then.



Anyway, those are details that would probably be discussed by me with a shrink in a private session of why am I like this. Let me show you instead another positive thing about this book that I really loved.

These characters, man. These characters are EVERYTHING, I swear.

They all are so sweet and so witty and so lovely and they make you feel so warm and welcome. They’re just a bunch of nutters. It’s like you have everything you need in a handful of persons:

- Strong mums who love their children and help them and support them no matter what;
- Equally amazing father figures with whom I’d actually enjoy having a beer;
- Fabulously beautiful and intelligent and daring girls who are the world’s best sisters and can easily be your best friends (and I mean all of them, June, Bea, Nora);
- Two terribly sweet boys who are so pure and so dirty and so completely mad at the same time I’ll personally unleash hell for them if that’s what’ll make them feel safe;

(Also, teeny-tiny thingy here: I TOTALLY COULD FEEL HENRY IS A PIECES AND ALEX IS AN ARIES. I could feel it in my bones, I swear. Henry is as slightly introverted and as prone to extreme mood swings and as puppy-lovable like every Pieces I know and Alex is as stubborn and as passionate and ready to take over the world, making plans, being the centre of every event, burying himself in thousands of projects as every single Aries I know. Jesus, this is disturbingly accurate.)

- The ultimate eccentric best friend who is like that one person you’d love to spend time with and know he’s going to force you to have a good time and you’ll love it aka Pez;
- A gay Latino Skittles-eating guardian angel aka Rafael Luna (even his name is full of essence);
- Zahra – the biggest fucking mood in the entire Universe;

All of the characters are part of this amazing feeling you get while reading the book, it’s something cosy and familiar and warm.

The love in this book is real and is tear-dropping. But still, let me warn you about some aspects.

There are loads of hook-ups and sexy-scenes in there, some more detailed, some not-so, but you still get the picture. Dead-ass serious now, to me, they are a bit cringe. But not because of a boy loving another boy. God no. To me, scenes like that, with an explicit type of content, are cringe as hell in general. No matter in which -sexuality suffix they end.

So. This was a lit book. I loved it. Even more than I thought. And while reading it, I didn’t care who fell in love with whom and everything. I actually forgot about all these stereotypes and labels the society tries to push down our throats. For moments on, there was just me, witnessing a love story unfolding. And this was fucking amazing because, being from a socially and mentally constipated country, I don’t get to see acts of freedom like that. Which scream at me with love.

“I thought, this is the most incredible thing I have ever seen, and I had better keep it a safe distance away from me. I thought, if someone like you ever loved me, it would set me on fire. And then I was a careless fool, and I fell in love with you anyway (…). And then, inexplicably, you had the absolute audacity to love me back. Can you believe it?”