Red, White & Royal Blue

Read Woke Challenge: LGBTQIA+ Voices

Earlier in the year I made the conscious effort to pick up books with more diverse characters.

While I have read a mix of novels in the past, I realized that I had a reading blind spot when it came to love stories that included members of marginalized communities.

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (full synopsis at the end), was the perfect opportunity to jump into a contemporary love story with queer characters that represent the amazing variety of love stories currently present in our world.

This book was refreshingly funny, beautiful, and romantic. The relationship between Alex and Henry was amazing and left me wondering why I had not sought out queer loved stories in the past. As an added bonus the story had a presidential campaign as a backdrop, and since I grew up surrounded by political scientists (even married one), I was thrilled.

This novel encouraged me to seek out LGBTQIA+ authors and other stories involving members of the queer community. It is crucial that we continue to seek out these stories and voices and elevate them for the world to hear. If you are looking for a fun, lighthearted romance novel then I would highly recommend Red, White & Royal Blue.

And if you have any recommendations for other queer stories or queer authors please do not hesitate to share them.

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Set in a world in which a female Democrat from Texas wins the presidency in 2016, Red, White & Royal Blue chronicles the illicit romance between the president's son, Georgetown senior Alex Claremont-Diaz (Dad is a Mexican-American senator), and Prince Henry of Wales, his childhood nemesis.