Red, White & Royal Blue

Being on the editorial team at BOTM means always looking into the future for the next book that everyone will love. But once a year, we take a moment to look back and reflect on the books we read and loved—including those we didn’t feature. Carrying “one book we missed” each December has become a bit of a tradition (last year we offered Severance, a breakout debut we couldn’t stop thinking about) and this year, we’re so excited to feature Red, White & Royal Blue—arguably the best rom-com of 2019.

Alex Claremont-Diaz is the most eligible bachelor in the country. The son of America’s first female president, he’s not only gorgeous but on track to follow in his mother’s footsteps as a brilliant lawyer. But all this perfection would be boring without a little drama, right? Enter his archnemesis—the Prince of Wales, Alex’s stuffier British likeness. When the two get into a tussle at a royal wedding, what should be the start of an international relations crisis not seen since the Revolutionary War turns into … [dah dah dah!!] TRUE LOVE.

It’s the queer, cosmopolitan, classy romance we were all waiting for. But this book is also so much more—it’s funny, charming, and seriously escapist. For a warm-hearted, holiday-friendly tale, look no further than Red, White & Royal Blue!

When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius—his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex–Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.

Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through?