Casey McQuiston

Red, White & Royal Blue is a contemporary queer romance that follows Alex Claremont-Diaz, a fictionalized First Son of the U.S., as he develops romantic feelings for Henry, an English prince, following an altercation that forces them to fake a friendship for damage control and PR purposes.[18][19]

McQuiston first came up with the idea for what would become Red, White & Royal Blue in early 2016 as they followed the 2016 American presidential elections.[8] While watching a season of the HBO comedy series Veep and reading both a Hillary Clinton biography by Carl Bernstein, A WOMAN IN CHARGE: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton, and The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, McQuiston found themself intrigued by the extravagant, high-profile lifestyle of the royals and wanted to write their own take on a story featuring a royal family.[8] Some additional inspirations behind Red, White & Royal Blue include All the Truth is Out by Matt Bai and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.[9]

McQuiston describes Red, White & Royal Blue as a queer romcom and says that they write queer fiction "for the same reason straight people write straight fiction," meaning that they draw from their own experiences.[8] For protagonist Alex's realization that he's bisexual, they were inspired by their own experience.[2] The character of the fictional American president Ellen Claremont in the novel was inspired by American politician Wendy Davis, whose filibuster McQuiston watched in 2013 and found themself moved by.[20]

As part of their research for Red, White & Royal Blue, McQuiston used websites such as whitehousemuseum.org to study both past and present White House interiors that would be incorporated into the novel.[14]

In April 2019, Amazon Studios acquired the film rights to the novel at auction, with Ted Malawer attached as writer and Berlanti Studios as producer.[21][22]

Red, White & Royal Blue was published by St. Martin's Griffin in May 2019 and debuted on the New York Times Paper Trade Fiction bestseller list, at No. 15.[23] It was received favorably by critics, earning a starred review from Publishers Weekly,[24] Kirkus,[25] Booklist,[26] Vogue[27] and Vanity Fair.[28]

It has been published and translated in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Sweden, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Spain, and Uruguay.[29]

Red, White & Royal Blue won the Best Debut Novel and Best Romance Novel categories in the 11th Annual Goodreads Choice Awards, making it the only novel to win in two categories in 2019.[30][31]

In interviews, McQuiston has expressed hopes that Red, White & Royal Blue, along with their future novels, will help push queer romance into the spotlight.[32] When asked about their writing process for this book, Mcquiston said they knew from the get-go that they wanted to write a queer-romance but didn't plan out each character before they began writing.[32] For example, both Henry and Alex were eventually written as Cis boys, even though that wasn’t necessarily the plan from the beginning.[32] Additionally, many of the characters in Red, White & Royal Blue were inspired by different political ideologies and archetypes instead of real-life people.[32] In interviews about this novel, McQuiston likes to say that “no real royals or first families were harmed in the making this book”.[32]

McQuiston's next book, One Last Stop, comes out on June 1st, 2021.[3] The book is “pitched as a queer Kate & Leopold, in which a 23-year-old realizes her subway crush is displaced from 1970’s Brooklyn, and she must do everything in her power to help her - and try not to fall in love with the girl lost in time - before it’s too late.”[33]

This book follows two young adults who were never supposed to meet as they have a chance encounter because one is lost in time.[34] August, the protagonist, doesn’t believe in love and happily ever afters. She believes that living her life alone is the only way until she meets Jane, the time-traveling love interest, on the subway. The subway quickly becomes August’s favourite part of her day and she realizes that she needs to do everything in her power to help return Jane back to her own time before it’s too late. [34]