Strange ideas in the middle of the night

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


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I finished reading Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston last night. It’s a contemporary male/male romance, featuring Alex Claremont-Diaz, son of the President of the United States, and Prince Henry, in line to inherit the throne.

When Alex and his family attend the royal wedding of Prince Philip, he can’t help but run into his rival, Prince Henry—literally. A minor scuffle between the two results in a ruined wedding cake and an international scandal. To smooth things over, both Alex’s and Henry’s “people” force them to spend more time together, making nice, and looking like best mates. Not wanting to ruin his mother’s chance for re-election, Alex reluctantly agrees. However, the more time he spends with Henry, the more he realizes that Henry is his perfect match. The two of them embark on a forbidden romance, knowing full well if they’re caught, the fallout will be epic but willing to take the chance.

Such a delightful, funny, heartfelt story. You can’t help but feel sad for Henry, who’s carrying the weight of centuries of tradition on his shoulders. Alex at least has a little more leeway. The way their romance unfolds, in stolen moments together, but mostly via phone calls and the email version of love letters, was charming to read, even as you knew it was going to blow up in their faces eventually. Characters were portrayed vividly and wonderfully, including secondary characters. I adored their sisters (June and Bea) as well as their BFFs (Nora and Pez). Secret Service and body guards were amazing characters, too. Story was told in third-person pov from Alex’s pov. I know I’ve said before that I prefer it when a book/story is in one character’s pov, but in this case I would have liked to get Henry’s perspective on things.

Favorite lines:
♦ “I want to be prepared for my first ever royal wedding.” // “You went to prom, didn’t you? Just picture that, only in hell, and you have to be really nice about it.”
♦ “Do either of y’all know what a viscount is?” // “I think it’s that thing when a vampire creates an army of crazed sex waifs and starts his own ruling body.”
♦ A picture of Henry’s dog wearing a Slytherin scarf (I don’t know WHO you think you’re kidding, you hufflepuff-ass bitch)
♦ “People don’t like women, but they like mothers and wives.”
♦ “You’ve been, like, Draco Malfoy-level obsessed with Henry for years.”
♦ “What in the rich-white-people-sex-dungeon hell?”
♦ “Remus John Lupin is gay as the day is long, and I won’t hear a word against it.”
♦ “Every time I see you, it takes a year off my life.”
♦ “Math has no authority here.”
♦ Have you ever had something go so horribly, horribly, unbelievably badly that you’d like to be loaded into a cannon and jettisoned into the merciless black maw of outer space?
♦ “I’m telling you right now, I will physically fight your grandmother myself if I have to, okay? And, like, she’s old. I know I can take her.” // “I wouldn’t be so cocky. She’s full of dark surprises.”

Wonderful story—thought-provoking, poignant, heart-wrenching, and uplifting. Five stars!

The Glass is Always Greener by Tamar Myers

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


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Used my holiday to finish reading The Glass is Always Greener by Tamar Myers. It’s the 16th (and final) in her “Den of Antiquity” series of humorous cozies. The main character is Abigail Timberlake Washburn, owner of Den of Antiquity.

Abby reluctantly agrees to accompany her friend, Rob, to a “going away” party hosted by his eccentric Aunt Jerry, who recently had a reading done that revealed her date of death. Jerry uses the opportunity to impugn her entire greedy family. Even Abby gets drawn into the drama when she tries to defend Rob. After Jerry is found dead in the walk-in freezer, Abby finds herself a suspect in the woman’s death. All she wants to do is go home, but she can’t leave town while she’s a person of interest. For that reason, Abby decides to do some sleuthing on her own. She’s aided by her Mama and friends CJ and Wynnell, who came to lend support. What Abby learns is that Rob’s family are all mad, and any one of them could have done the deed.

To begin with, I have several books in this series, and Amazon led me to believe it was the FIRST one, not the last one. Had I known that, I would have read it, oh, I don’t know...LAST. Grr. I have read a few others in the series; they are all delightfully funny and madcap—very entertaining. Abby’s observations are hilarious, and although some of the characters’ behavior is completely over the top, it just adds to the amusement factor. I did not care for how this ended, neither the book/story itself nor the series as a whole.

Favorite lines:
♦ In the stunned silence that followed, one could have heard a frog fart.
♦ It is no accident, I think, that the first syllable of the word hormones is what it is.
♦ “Those rolls make my tongue want to come out and slap my head silly.”
♦ “A hunch from a woman is worth two facts from a man.”
♦ “Biddies, please. Oops, I meant to say ladies.” // “The hell you did,” the biddies said in unison.
♦ Trust me, being surprised from behind by another person is even worse when it happens in a cemetery.
♦ “For now is not forever.”

I’d love to give this 3.5 stars. Hm. The rushed ending knocks it down to three.