i would create a 6th star solely for this book. oh my god this book is perfect. my favourite book in the entire world. casey mcquiston has SUCH A WAY WITH WORDS LITERALLY HOW. somehow it's so emotional but also so funny and light-hearted at the same time, the characters are so so loveable--and they have depth. also serving SUCH GOOD ENEMIES TO LOVERS ANGST, TENTION, AND MUTUAL PINING. some people say the ending of the book is unrealistic, which, i guess yeah it is but honestly the book is so good that you won't even care. and hey, it's a book, so obviously a story where the first son of the US president falls in love with the price of england isn't going to be particularly realistic lmao.

edit 2 years later: i still agree with everything i said in the above review from the first time i read it. nothing has changed, this book is still an absolute MASTERPIECE that i would do anything for. i LOVE it so, so, so, so, so much. words can't describe how much i love this book and tbh i don't even know how to make this review comprehensive and well organised because i have so many feelings about this book. i could rant about it for a very, very long time lmao, so this is about to be a very, very long review. if you actually read this whole thing, i love you lmao.

1. alex and henry's romance is genuinely THE most beautiful and pure expression of love i have ever seen, ever. no other romance books i've read (and i've read a lot) have been able to capture love like casey mcquiston has done in red, white & royal blue. i don't even know how to explain it it just made me FEEL so MUCH. alex and henry are literally soulmates, you can literally feel it through the page how much they love each other and truly belong together. they have soooo much chemistry even from the start and the build-up of their romance is IMPECCABLE OH. MY GOD. from being enemies to getting to know each other for a PR stunt to becoming best friends to hooking up to an actual relationship to alex storming kensington palace in the rain to tell henry I FUCKING LOVE YOU OKAY I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU and just UGH EVERYTHING it's gorgeous. i think, perhaps, lady gaga said it better: "brilliant. incredible. amazing. show-stopping. spectacular. never the same. totally unique. never been done before."

2. the writing in this book is just stunning, there is no other word to describe it. the way mcquiston is able to capture so many emotions but also make it light-hearted and funny makes it the best reading experience, and literally the things that alex and henry say to each other, MY GOD. it is SO ROMANTIC I WANTED TO CRY. like it's so so so so so passionate and beautiful and charming and intimate and wonderful and my sappy hopeless romantic heart ate that shit UP. like can we please just talk about this email that henry wrote to alex: "Should I tell you that when we're apart, your body comes back to me in dreams? That when I sleep, I see you, the dip of your waist, the freckle above your hip, and when I wake up in the morning, it feels like I've just been with you, the phantom touch of your hand on the back of my neck fresh and not imagined? That I can feel your skin against mine, and it makes every bone in my body ache? That, for a few moments, I can hold my breath and be back there with you, in a dream, in a thousand rooms, nowhere at all?". 
like i genuinely believe that is the most romantic thing that's, like, ever been written in the history of ever.

can we also talk about: "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 that ever loved me, it would set me on fire. And then I was a careless fool, and I fell in love with you anyway. when you rang me at truly shocking hours of the night, I loved you. When you kissed me in disgusting public toilets and pouted in hotel bars and made me happy in ways in which it had never even occurred to me that a mangled-up, locked-up person like me could be happy, loved you. And then, inexplicably, you had the absolute audacity to love me back. Can you believe it? Sometimes, even now, I still can't." 
like. you're fucking joking. this is magnificent. 

another one of my favourites: "I can't decide if your emails make me miss you more or less. Sometimes I feel like a funny-looking rock in the middle of the most beautiful clear ocean when I read the kinds of things you write to me. You love so much bigger than yourself, bigger than everything. I can't believe how lucky I am to even witness it to be the one who gets to have it, and so much of it, is beyond luck and feels like fate." and then "God, I want to fight everyone who's everyone who's ever hurt you, but it was me, too, all that time?" and "he called henry the north star once. that wasn't bright enough."

3. i not only love alex and henry but also all the other characters in the book, mcquiston makes you get invested in all of them bc they all have such distinct and funny personalities. all of their banter with each other made me smile so much and it's just so heartwarming. june and nora and pez and bea zahra and shaan and raf and oscar and bea i love them all so much they're such a family <333

4. i love how history and legacy plays such a powerful role in the story. henry, being the prince of england, and alex, being the FSOTUS and an aspiring politician, both have so much at stake and by being together they literally make history. i think it's so funny how when they first make out, it's literally against a portrait of alexander hamilton, and then later when they communicate through emails, there are so many references to queer history and literature and that is my absolute FAVOURITE part of the book. the fact that at the end of almost every email, there are excerpts of love letters that queer people in history have written to each other because they weren't allowed to express their love out loud, but now henry and alex actually have the chance to. first of all i just think it is so clever, especially how the excerpts they send to each other always reflect how they're actually feeling. second of all, i love how by drawing on letters from LGBTQ+ thinkers, writers, musicians, artists and politicians, alex and henry broaden their understanding of history and shed light on the people and experiences that have been erased by traditional history. in doing so, they reimagine the past and find hope for a future that will put them in the history books too. also i just think it's the most romantic thing in the entire world. in the end, alex and henry's relationship is reflective of hope for the future and a world where everyone can just love who they want to love without the consequences <3

5. this brings me to my fifth and last point, which is that i know a lot of people say that this book is very unrealistic, which is why they didn't like it, but i literally don't care at all lmao. i know the book is incredibly unrealistic and idealistic, but it doesn't bother me at all because it is just so so well done; in my opinion, the execution is flawless. i've said this before in my reviews; i don't mind if a book isn't particularly realistic, as long as it's written well. after all, it is fiction, and if you read the blurb at the back of the book, i don't really know why you would expect anything "realistic" from it. it's literally about the prince of england and the FSOTUS getting involved in an international relations scandal and then falling in love. i think you can enjoy the book so much more if you just go into it knowing that it's unrealistic and that that doesn't really matter, because i don't think the book is even pretending to be anything it's not. i feel like casey mcquiston obviously knew when she was writing it that the world the book is set in is extremely idealistic, but that's why it's so lovely to read. sometimes you just want to read fluff about a world that isn't so corrupt and have that whole love conquers all moment<3

ANYWAYSSS all that being said i would recommend this book to everyone. if you haven't read it, you are seriously missing out!! my favourite romance book of all time forever❤️❤️❤️❤️