Red, White & Royal Blue

"This book is special to me because it features a Mexican bisexual character who is both ambitious and messy, and that’s funny to me. I know that being messy and ambitious aren’t cultural identities of any one marginalized group, but it’s so interesting that books can read you and show you another side of yourself as you’re diving into them. I related a lot to Alex and it was pretty inspiring to me to see that there’s a character like me out there in a book. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . My own book was out on submission when I read Red, White, and Royal Blue . I met Casey, bought the book at the event, and I thought, okay, I hope this makes it easier for me to sell This is Why. On the other hand, I wanted to talk about all of the nuances that come out when you’re a bisexual Mexican guy who is writing a bisexual Mexican guy. I wanted to engage with the things that only I knew, and to be able to speak on that as well."

"The months in pre-publication of Red, White and Royal Blue took everybody by storm. It’s just come out in the US and it’s already a breakout. It stood out, for me, because of the royal connection. In romance, the royals have always been big; it’s a sub-genre, and all the tropes that come along with that. But Red, White and Royal Blue was interesting to me because of the United States politics side of it. In the book, the tabloids feed this tension between the US president’s son Alex, and his Royal Highness Prince Henry—a fictional Prince Henry. They don’t really like each other at all, but they have to smooth over this huge international mishap, and it turns into a media frenzy. So they sit down and have to agree to go out and pose as “best” friends. But as Alex and Henry are thrown together, they enter into a real secret relationship. There’s a lot of layers of politics in this story, which seems to be something that readers are looking for right now, especially younger romance readers. That’s because American politics is such an important thing to people right now, especially if they’re on social media. They like to exchange what’s happening and try to make sense of it and this book is really excellent for that. And for those of you who don’t know, Red, White and Royal Blue is a male-male romance. It’s been part of romance for quite a long time, but it’s really starting to reach mainstream audiences now. That’s a good thing because it’s our community, it’s our family, it’s our friends, it’s us. I’ve been a librarian for almost 20 years and I’ve been part of an increasingly diverse community. We don’t really like to call it ‘diversity’ anymore because this is just who we all are. But we mention diverse characters, so patrons and readers know how to find what they’re looking for. As far as in-person conversations go, this our community. We have people who are LGBTQ+; we have people who are neurodiverse. This shouldn’t be anything that’s labelled a “special” or “other” thing anymore in fiction. It’s more like, ‘I’m suggesting this book to you because you like the Royals. Oh and it just happens to be male-male.’ But, with any patron, if I know a trope or theme is not their jam, I wouldn’t suggest it. Except how could you not want to read a story about something that’s not only Royal, but a fun twist on diplomacy?"