She was the Speaker in 2014, so Democrats must have had House majority in fictional 2014). His successor is Alex’s mom, a fictional Texas Democrat and former Speaker of the House (was she Speaker when she ran? Unknown, but clearly Pelosi doesn’t exist and/or the Republicans didn’t have House majority during Obama’s presidency.
The last “real” president is Barack Obama, and his term ended in 2016. This is an AU of extremely recent American politics, and that hindered my enjoyment of the entire book.ĬW/TW: forced outing of m/m relationship discussion of parental death, grief, depression, drug usage, and suicide.Īs I was reading, this is what I uncovered about the world-building: They make up fake presidents - albeit with similarities to Nixon’s successors - to fill in the worldbuilding). In other words, 2019 fictional politics with no recognizable figures and an alternate fictional political history for the past forty years (in The West Wing, for example, the last “real” president is Richard Nixon. Let me explain: before I started this book, I assumed that the setting would take in some political AU like The West Wing. Whether you love this book is 100% dependent on your ability to get lost in an escapist fantasy AU and not let today’s grim political reality affect your enjoyment. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen here and it’s due entirely to the POV/tense choices. In my favorite romances, I get so lost in the text that I forget about time and space entirely. Every sentence was a constant reminder that I couldn’t get immersed in the book. Every once in a while, an awkward phrasing (not inherently awkward, but awkward to me as I’m not used to it) yanked me out of the text. But third person present is uncommon in romance. 
My qualms can be attributed to two sources:Įveryone has different opinions when it comes to tense, and I’ve never thought that I was a reader with tense limitations. Despite how much I enjoyed the relationship between Alex (the son of the American president) and Henry (a British prince), there was a persistent itch that I couldn’t quite scratch. This book has received positive buzz, and for good reason: the enemies-to-lovers romance is swoonworthy, the banter is witty and laugh-out-loud funny, and the epistolary aspect is a delightful surprise. Reading Red, White & Royal Blue is an excellent reminder about why a couple’s chemistry isn’t the only thing that matters in a romance. Theme: Enemies to Lovers, Fake Relationship, Political Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, New Adult, Romance
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