Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Summary: 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. True love isn’t always diplomatic.

It’s rare that I bother to review adult fiction books, but this one was so delightful that I had to! Everything about this book just sucked me in and kept me reading late into the night, rooting for Alex and Henry and their unlikely romance. I loved those two adorably geeky cinnamon rolls (I mean, come on, they write each other emails quoting great love letters by historical figures!). I loved all of the secondary characters, especially June and Nora, and the way all the messy, intertwined relationships fueled the plot. And, let’s be real, the alternate reality aspect wherein the appearance of unethical behavior in the White House might actually make a candidate lose votes was refreshing. I read this book while on vacation, in great gulps, and it was everything my exhausted, embittered soul needed. It’s more than a compelling story; this book, right now, is downright therapeutic.

RED, WHITE, AND ROYAL BLUE is out now.

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I did a lot of reading over the summer, but I am a little behind on my reviewing! Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing my reviews of my favorite recent reads. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. First up: a feminist YA read that pairs nicely with my most recent book, She Spoke: 14 Women Who Raised Their Voices and Changed the World:

Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu
Summary: Vivian Carter is fed up. Fed up with her small-town Texas high school that thinks the football team can do no wrong. Fed up with sexist dress codes and hallway harassment. But most of all, Viv Carter is fed up with always following the rules. Viv’s mom was a punk rock Riot Grrrl in the ’90s, so now Viv takes a page from her mother’s past and creates a feminist zine that she distributes anonymously to her classmates. She’s just blowing off steam, but other girls respond. Pretty soon Viv is forging friendships with other young women across the divides of cliques and popularity rankings, and she realizes that what she has started is nothing short of a girl revolution.

I loved this book! Vivian was a such a fully-fleshed out character, with all the hopes and fears and internalized insecurities of a girl growing up in small-town America. I loved the way Viv was inspired by the zines of her mom’s Riot Grrrl past, but what I loved best about this book was how it showed that all it takes is one voice, one spark to bring out the light in others. Viv may be the one writing and distributing the Moxie zine, but the movement she starts soon develops a life of its own, and it doesn’t belong to her, or to any of the individual girls who start speaking up – it belongs to all of them, together, and what they have created is bigger than any one person or single action. Inspiring, empowering, and downright fun, Moxie is a must-read.

MOXIE is out now.

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