This book is so fucking cute! I was smiling from start to finish. I love how Henry and Alex's relationship blossomed over the course of the book. Nothing felt too rushed, which is an important part of making a romance feel real (to me, at least). Henry and Alex are absolutely adorable together. Meant to be, I'd say. I'm praying the movie does them justice! I'm so excited to watch it.

Surprisingly, this book taught me a lot about queer history, which I wasn't expecting. It was one of my favorite parts of the book. The quotes that Henry and Alex sent to each other in their emails were of course lovely and romantic, but it really made me realize how bigots try to sanitize history and erase queer people. So thank you for that, Casey.

The only criticism I have to levy against the book, and what made me give it 4.5 stars instead of 5, is that the American and British characters did not have distinct enough speaking styles. Sure, the author through in a few bloody Christs and the odd British slang word, but generally they all spoke with the same sentence structure and cadence. And not only that, but (most of) the British characters were supposed to be royals, who have a very uppity way of speaking that was not represented at all. I wish there was more care taken to really ensure that they felt distinct because it would have been a welcome contribution to the "two different worlds colliding" feeling the author seemed to be going for.

However, I would like to address the most common criticism that I see about the story, which is that it is "unrealistic". Here's the thing: I don't care. So what if it is idealistic about politics and the state of the world? I think it's nice to imagine that someday we can get to a place that's similar to the book. And most importantly, I think queer people deserve to have the same type of tooth-rotting, starry-eyed romances that straight people get in books. We deserve to have a book where a prince and a son of the first family can be (mostly) accepted and get their happy ending.

I think Casey McQuiston put it best in her Acknowledgements: