here’s my journey with this book: august of 2021, the first 20 pages don’t get me hooked and i put this back in my tbr. november/december of 2021, i read one last stop by the same author and absolutely love it. july 2022, i don’t know what to read and wish i could experience one last stop for the first time again. so i pick up red, white and royal blue and give it a second chance.
sometimes, you’ll read a book twice at this different points of your life and they won’t feel the same. this is what happened to me with this book. when i gave it a second go, those 20 pages that didn’t hook me the first time around, hooked me.

not only was the romance so very cute, but the characters were so fun and all felt so real i fell in love with them. main & side characters all brought something to the table. the cast was diverse and felt like a real friend group. they all acted their ages and had their special something that made them useful to the plot at some point, too. this is the second book in a row i read that has a female president and i love it. more women in politics please.

yes, the romance was hella cute, but what i adored was that we got to see a lot of what made alex and henry fall in love. texts, facetimes, emails, date, getting to know each other, getting to know their friends and family, it just felt so real and refreshing.

what made me take off a star is the rhythm of the book. i felt like there were some chapters that felt a bit too slow and uneventful, some had a LOT going on and the end felt like a very fast succession of events that didn’t feel rushed in the writing, but made me feel like i was sprinting to the end.

all in all, very fun read!