Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

1150 reviews

sydney_marie13's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book has highs, lows, laughs, cries, and warm fuzzies. Henry and Alex are both written to be so normal, or striving to be as normal as possible, while both are high profile political figures. Each character’s self discovery journey mirrors society and envelopes a loving family versus a judgmental family. Her characters are so well developed as well as the side characters which is what kept me glued to this book. I’ve read it two times already and will likely read it again before the movie comes out.

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deedireads's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

“History, huh? Bet we could make some.”

I am a million years late to this book, but I have arrived, okay?? Happily!! And just in time for the movie (which — no spoilers but — was so fun and beautiful and it wasn’t perfect but I still loved it).

Alex is the son of the (woman) President of the United States (who won in 2016 and is rerunning in 2020). Henry is a Prince of England, closeted by the royal family. At first, they’re rivals. Then…they’re not. And then they’re REALLY not. 🥵 But what would happen if the world ever found out?

Look. Is this left-wing political fanfiction? Yes. Is it cheesy? A little, yes. Is it also cathartic? Absolutely. You have to know what you’re getting into: a romance novel, aka a feel-good story with a happily ever after. But this one also packs a rare and deep emotional punch. I loved Alex’s journey to his bisexual identity, especially. I loved the incredible cast of side characters. I also loved the sheer number of spicy scenes here, and their gorgeous emails (read: letters) back and forth. 

Basically I just loved it!


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yananhai's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5


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green_mm's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

This book was pretty cheesy. Good thing I love cheese! I wanted to say that if this book was adapted into a holiday movie, it would be one I watch every year, but thankfully it was turned into a movie! I am so looking forward to watching it :) The book itself really hooked me. I connected deeply with Alex and Henry, their shared relationship, and their colliding plights. I actually struggled to finish the book because I knew I would miss the characters and story when the novel ended, so I put off the final pages as long as I could bear. Further, McQuiston is such a strong writer, which made the book quite enjoyable to read as well. Randomly, I was pleasantly surprised there was no epilogue, as I felt it would’ve been unnecessary considering how satisfying the ending was. My only critiques are that the politics felt relatively unrealistic at times, even though they were admittedly inspiring, and personally, I had a difficult time adjusting to a third-person perspective in the first third of the book. Ultimately, I would highly recommend this book and am eager to watch the film adaptation!

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floflo_13's review against another edition

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75


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fairytalefootnotes's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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memoirsofabooklover's review against another edition

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hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I enjoyed this book. the premise was really interesting. I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style and would have probably preferred to have the book split perspective between Alex and Henry. I also didn’t like how the scenes would change drastically from paragraph to paragraph, it should have been split in to more chapters really.
SpoilerSome things felt like we didn’t get a resolution to: June and Pez, June and Nora? It just felt like we had been given all the building blocks and didn’t even get the hint of an answer about any of them. the spice was great but it felt a little glossed over. Don’t get me wrong I don’t think all romance books have to have graphic details of sex in them but the way the writer wrote so graphically about everything leading up to the literal sex acts was the same as any good spice writer, but then it would gloss over the acts and describe the in-betweens and afters, I don’t know if it’s just me but maybe it’s because it’s a female author, writing about gay sex?
Very enjoyable overall but some of the politics went over my head and it just didn’t quite live up to the hype it had been built up to on social media.

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jana_f's review against another edition

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funny inspiring lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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malmal's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25


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perleerose's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

this is what i needed, a masterclass in writing an enemies to lovers tale
so many moments stick out as being my favorite, so many good jokes and genuine tension but truly
Spoiler the reveal of the whole world supporting alex and henry after they’ve been outed
made me tear up in the best way and will stick with me

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