REVIEW: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Pages: 421
Format: Paperback
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: May 14th 2019
Genre: New Adult
Buy The Book: Book Depository

What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?

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? Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn't always diplomatic.

You know when you have a list of Things You Love in a Book, and then a story comes along and ticks all of those boxes? Red, White & Royal Blue is one of those books for me. It’s everything I’ve been crying out for. Rivals to Lovers with important and uplifting messages whilst dealing with political affairs, all carried along by exciting characters and funny situations? CHECK. I don’t even know if I can properly put into words how much I love this book.

Set in an alternative version of events, where the President is NOT DONALD TRUMP THANK GOD a single mother of two biracial children, this book joins Alex on his journey through his mother’s re-election campaign. After an altercation with a Prince of England, he’s forced to fake a friendship between the two of them to keep the media off their backs. 

Now is the perfect time to reiterate some very important information to you all: I CANNOT RESIST ANY SORT OF FAKE-RELATIONSHIP PLOT EVER. It’s one of my absolute favourite troupes. It really can’t be beaten. With that in mind, it was pretty damn certain I was going to love this book before I even opened it.

These characters. I will offer them my heart. Alex and Henry are such contrasting personalities that it made their journey to becoming friends, and beyond, even more satisfying to consume. Alex discovering more about himself and realising he was bisexual was such an important part of the story. Sexuality is never black and white. There will always be people who don’t realise how they define themselves until later in their lives.

Now let me cry about how much I love Henry for a bit. HE’S ADORABLE AND INSTANTLY BECAME ONE OF MY NEW FAVOURITE CHARACTERS. Despite both being in the public eye, Henry leads such a different life to Alex, with the expectations that come with being a royal. I can’t even describe how much I adored his true personality being slowly revealed as Alex got to know him outside of what he shows the world.

When it comes to the Whitehouse Trio, and Henry’s best friend and sister, I loved them all equally. The merging of the two friendship groups is such a heart-warming aspect of the story because they are all people of around the same age, dealing with a similar way of life, and they share a bond through those experiences.

• DIVERSITY. The range of characters within these pages is BEAUTIFUL. The discussions they have are open and thought provoking.

• POLITICS. There’s never been a more important time to include politics in fiction. American politics is something I’m always trying to gain more knowledge in because I feel like I don’t know as much as I should, so the situations that arose in this story taught me a thing or two.

• HUMOUR. God, the amount of scenes that had me laughing out loud. The groupchats and emails between characters were a perfect way to get quick, hilarious interactions.

• BONDS. The genuine connection between the friends and family is enough to warm hearts and remind us of what’s truly important.  

The final few chapters had me crying happy tears and I have nothing but praise to give this book. I wish I could offer something more than my heart-eyed babbling, but it’s easily going to be one of my favourite reads from the year. If you haven’t given this one a try yet, it might just be the feel good pick me up you need right now.  

NOTE: This is New Adult as opposed to Young Adult so there are scenes that go more into detail when it comes to sexual content!

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REVIEW: Ren - The Man Behind The Monster by Sarah Noffke

Pages: 200
Format: Kindle
Publisher: One-Twenty-Six Press
Genre: New Adult, Fantasy
Release Date: November 21st 2015
Buy The Book: Amazon - Amazon UK

Born with the power to control minds, hypnotize others, and read thoughts, Ren Lewis, is certain of one thing: God made a mistake. No one should be born with so much power. A monster awoke in him the same year he received his gifts. At ten years old. A prepubescent boy with the ability to control others might merely abuse his powers, but Ren allowed it to corrupt him. And since he can have and do anything he wants, Ren should be happy. However, his journey teaches him that harboring so much power doesn't bring happiness, it steals it. Once this realization sets in, Ren makes up his mind to do the one thing that can bring his tortured soul some peace. He must kill the monster.  

My Thoughts:
He’s the snarky, arrogant, and all-round grumpy character that keeps appearing in Sarah Noffke's stories of Dream Travelers, but this time around, Ren Lewis has a story all of his very own.

We first met Ren in The Lucidites series, when he was working for Trey at the Institute, and despite his not-so-pleasant personality, I couldn’t help but adore him. His sometimes harsh honesty and the way he clearly didn’t care for the thoughts of others made him stand out from the very beginning. And when he appeared again in The Reverians series, and we discovered he had a sister and nieces, I realised there was so much more to his story, so much that we didn’t know.

So needless to say, I was thrilled when Sarah revealed she was telling Ren’s story. There’s nothing I adore more than wonderfully complex characters who are mysterious at first, but then allow you to understand them through a compelling backstory, and Ren Lewis is one of those characters.

We learn about his childhood in his desperately small hometown of Peavey. Feeling stuck and bored within its borders, Ren feels the need to spread his wings, to live his own life under his own rules. So he ends up moving to London, and falls into a not-so-legal lifestyle, becoming rich and breezing through life by using his abilities on others. 

He is content jumping from fling to fling with women, always knowing exactly what to do to please them with his power to read the thoughts of others by mere touch. But then he meets Dahlia, a wold-famous singer whose thoughts he cannot read. His powers have no effect on her whatsoever. With her, he finally gets to experience a relationship that isn’t just a one night stand, but nothing ever runs smoothly. 

After tragedy strikes, Ren ends up making some less than sensible decisions and we see where those choices take him. We see the bad situations he ends up in, and how each of them play a part in shaping his life.

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the real Ren, not just the show he puts on in front of others. He believes that he is a monster, that he doesn’t deserve to live a happy life, and I adored seeing his thoughts change throughout the course of the story. 

As mean as he is sometimes, he is utterly hilarious with it. His cruel honestly is highly entertaining, and I often found myself fighting back laughter whilst reading on public transport. His bleak outlook on life and the world is what allows Ren to separate himself from everyone else, to force his emotions to stay hidden. 

This is a story of change, of acceptance, of a man who believes he deserves nothing, finally learning how to allow himself to find happiness. Ren makes terrible decisions and has to live with the consequences, but everything that happens helps him on his journey to becoming a better man, even though he doesn’t intend for it to happen. 

I’m so grateful to Sarah for giving me the opportunity to read this book. Ren Lewis is a captivating character who will stay with me for a long time!

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Review: Amazon Burning by Victoria Griffith

Bookish Details:
Pages: 279
Publisher: Astor & Blue
Release Date: November 7th 2014 (Paperback)
Buy it From: Amazon - B&N

Synopsis:

When 22-year-old aspiring journalist, Emma Cohen, is forced to flee the comforts of her NYU student life, she maneuvers an internship from her father at his newspaper in Rio de Janeiro. There, Emma is immediately swept into a major news story--and a life-threatening situation--when a famous jungle environmentalist, Milton Silva, is mysteriously murdered. Emma must now enter the Amazon rainforest with her father to investigate; both awed by the enormity and beauty of the Amazon, and appalled by its reckless destruction. Not only will Emma have to brave the primal world of the Amazon, she must fight to survive the kidnappers, villains, corrupt activists, and indigenous tribes that lay in wait along the ever-twisting trail of the murder case. Stretched to the brink, it s up to Emma, her father and the dreamy news photographer, Jimmy, to unravel the mystery and live to tell the tale. Amazon Burning by Victoria Griffith is a spectacular debut Young Adult novel. Griffith's powerful rendering of the Amazon rainforest forms the perfect, wildly exotic backdrop for this extraordinary tale of a young urban woman coming of age in the midst of intense conflict.

My Review:

First things first, I love the Amazon Jungle. I’ve even written a few essays about Indigenous people. And of all the years I’ve been reviewing books, I’ve never once been asked to review one set in the Amazon Jungle. So needless to say, I was really happy when this arrived in my inbox.

The plot for this story is unique and intriguing. And, of course, the setting was one of the highlights for me. There’s a murder mystery going on amongst a ton of action and romance, so there's plenty to keep readers entertained. There are also quite a few darker elements to this story, which I really enjoyed.

The characters were fantastic. I do wish we’d seen a little more of Emma’s father though, because I found him interesting and thought he had more potential. Emma herself was a wonderfully strong character. I loved her view of the Amazon and her passion to tell the world her stories from her time there. Jimmy was equally as great. He struck me as kind-hearted and streetwise. You'd feel safer travelling with him!

My favourite parts of this book had to be the scenes set within the Amazon itself. The culture was utterly compelling. The descriptions of the tribes and their way of life were fascinating and well researched. I like a book that lets you learn something from it, and I think this story will definitely get its readers thinking.

The mystery element to the story is also super exciting! It keeps you guessing throughout each chapter, adding in plenty of twists and turns, building to a shock-worthy ending.

What didn’t work for me in this book was the romance. I liked both Emma and Jimmy, but the romance, for me, just didn’t have that spark that I felt it would. I wasn’t drawn in by it, and I wasn’t rooting for them to finally be together. I don’t know why, but it wasn’t as exciting for me as I’d hoped.  But as I said, I liked both of the characters.

I must admit, Jimmy’s story felt a little unresolved at the end of the book. Since his past as a doctor was brought up quite a few times, I expected some sort of conclusion from it. I know he explained why he gave up working as a doctor, but I still felt like it was all building up to something else, like maybe he’d put it behind him and try and get back into it?

As I see this blog as a place purely for YA reviews, I do feel the need to point out that this book feels more like a New Adult novel to me, rather than YA. The themes are more mature and the romance scenes are quite full-on. Just a heads up to any younger readers!

Overall, I’m happy I had the chance to read a story set outside of the usual locations. The way of life in a different part of the world definitely added the intriguing spark within this book. If you want to try something a little different, this story might just be one for you. 

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