Bookish Mumma

Outside of daily life getting in the way of finishing Red, White & Royal Blue in it’s entirety in one day, I have really enjoyed what I have read. I think that that is the mark of a gifted storyteller. Maybe that’s bias or maybe that’s just a fantastic book. You read it and tell me which you think it is!

Speaking of which, you can get the book here!

And if you want to read any of my previous books or posts, you can do so here!

“Fuck you doing here, kid?” he says, watching him like a cat.

It’s always weird to think of politicians as people and that they may have their own mannerisms especially like here. They always seem so foreign. That might be because every politician I know of is so grossly out of touch with reality.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice you changing the subject. For the record, I won the office pool on how long it’d take you to cause an international incident.”

This book should be re-classified as fantasy based on how human politicians feel.

“Come on. I’m trying to give you some advice, from one old man to a much younger version of himself.”
“You’re thirty-nine”
“My liver is ninety-three”

If I’m 31, I have a child (which as we all know, ages you at LEAST 10 years), my back and knees hurt all the time and I’m constantly in and out of hospital. My estimation is that my body is around 78.

“Don’t act like this isn’t a part of your extra-long game of abusing your position to murder Woody Allen and make it look like an accident.” Alex says.
“He’s just so frail; it’d only take one good push-“
“How many times do I have to tell y’all not to discuss your murder plots in front of a sitting president?” their mother interrupts. “Plausible deniability. Come on.”

Yeah, this would be me as a president. Encourage sarcasm and joviality which this absolutely is. There is no way that this is a reprimand in any way, shape or form. This is 2 siblings poking at each other and their mum joining in for a second.

“I, um…” June rips a piece of crust off her pizza. “Don’t remember ever saying I wanted to do anything like that. That’s, uh, kind of a big assumption to make, Mom. And you realize if I go into campaign communications now, I’m basically shutting down my chances of ever being a journalist, because, like, journalistic neutrality and everything. I can barely get anyone to let me write a column as it is.”

Journalistic neutrality doesn’t exist, it’s a pretence. Everyone falls on one side of the fence or the other. It just depends on intensity and how much of it comes out in the media. And who pays them. It absolutely is a big assumption to her mother to make too. You can’t just make big choices for your kids like that and just expect them to fall in line. Not everyone wants to work on a presidential campaign for their parent.

He stares at the screen, at his own message, for a few seconds too long, suddenly afraid it was a stupid thing to say. He shakes his head, puts the phone down. Locks it. Changes his mind, picks it up again. Unlocks it. Sees the little typing bubble on Henry’s side of the conversation. Puts the phone down. Looks away. Looks back.

Well this is painfully accurate! Casey, I didn’t think you’d be calling me out like this using Alex as a proxy!

“I’m really going to have you offed,” Henry tells him. “You’ll never see it coming. Our assassins are trained in discretion. They will come in the night, and it will look like a humiliating accident.”
“Autoerotic asphyxiation?”
“Toilet heart attack.”
“Jesus.”
“You’ve been warned.”
“I thought you’d kill me in a more personal way. Silk pillow over my face, slow and gentle suffocation. Just you and me. Sensual.”

There is so many talks of death for a modern romance novel! I do love the chemistry that Alex and Henry have fallen into and developed. It feels really natural despite their circumstances being decidedly UN-natural.

Oscar does laugh, then, enjoying his brazenness. He is an adrenaline junkie – mountain climbing, cave diving, pissing off Alex’s mother. Flirting with death, basically.

To be once married, divorced and to share kids with a woman like Ellen is portrayed, I think you’d have to be a unique kind of human. Nothing wrong with Ellen and the way that she is. She would be very intimidating to a lot of people, myself included.

Alex shrugs. “I think she’s a good mom.”
“Yeah, to you,” June says.

I sat with this one for a minute because I wanted to talk on it, but didn’t really know what to say. As a parent, role model and a mother figure, it can be hard to express love for every child equally. It’s just not realistic and it changes over time. That doesn’t mean that favouritism is okay. I am just trying to say that treating each child exactly the same both isn’t going to work for them and also just isn’t possible.

The way that Ellen is a mum to Alex works for him, but doesn’t work for June. Either June hasn’t been able to say that or Ellen isn’t able to recognise it. No party is in the wrong here because I don’t think communication on the topic has been done to one another which is bound to cause hurt on both sides. I hope that they are able to talk to each other more about it as the story progresses.

A muscle in Henry’s jaw moves, and something soft, almost like a smile, tugs at his lips. “D’you ever wonder,” he says slowly, “what it’s like to be some anonymous person out in the world?”

I’d be entirely shocked if neither had imagined that. The difference being that Alex does know what it’s like to be a regular person even if that was some time ago now. When you are being smothered with people you don’t even know being able to make choices on how you live, you’d be crazy not to imagine what that would be like. It’s a big reason why I don’t want to be famous. I’ll take my little slice of the internet and my little community and be happy with that.

Conclusion

I really like both the development of Alex, Henry and June, but also the serious moments sprinkled in with the hilarity. To expect a book like this to only be comedy is delusional and I really enjoy the serious moments of books, especially when they make you think. We see a little more of the relationship between Ellen and her children too which I hope we see more of particularly in the way of June. There’s more to that than I’ve seen so far and I think it’s worth exploring in the following chapters of Red, White & Royal Blue

Speaking of which, you can get the book here!