3.5 ⭐️

I was actually kind of conflicted with this one, which is a total shock because portal fantasy is almost always an instant love for me. Which is actually what saved this book from being a two start to be honest, the world was awesome and I had a lot of fun learning the politics and complications of the Realms.

I found the plot to be kind of lacking, and the timing was so weird too. There was one point around the halfway mark where Maddie said she had only been there for 2 days or something and I was genuinely shocked, I thought this book took place over several weeks at least. It was weird because it felt like too much happened in too short a time, but at the same time it felt like very little happened at all. I think it was just one problem being drawn out which a bunch of smaller, unrelated problems sprinkled in at random, but it ended up feeling pretty disjointed.

When it comes to characters, while I didn't dislike the main character, I did find her to be kind of forgettable. I finished this book only a week ago and I'm struggling to remember what her personality was. I also found her constant inner monologue about her brother got old really fast. I understand grief and recognize that her way of thinking is probably pretty accurate to what it's like to go through that trauma, but holy shit she couldn't go through a single page without bringing up her brother or cupboards or blue fur and just oh my goddd shhhhhh! It was way too much, to the point that I couldn't even feel bad for her anymore. I did like the other characters though, especially Taya and Graylin.

Overall I did quite enjoy this, even though it definitely wasn't a favourite. But I am looking forward to whenever this series will continue!

★★★.5 maybe? Possibly a full 4 I'm not sure to be honest

It's been like a month since I finished this and I completely forget what I was going to say for my review oops. But I do know that I really enjoyed this! It wasn't perfect, and the story was pretty generic, but I liked the way it was done. Granted, I'll like almost anything with a found family aspect, especially if that found family is on a pirate ship. I found the magic system to be especially interesting and liked how well it was described. The plot and pacing was good, although the plot twist at the end was a little predictable but still well done. Overall, not my favourite book ever but I'll definitely continue with this series! I have zero memory of how this book ended so the next book will be a total surprise, but that's alright lmfao

Another night, another audiobook listened to in one sitting and finished at 2 in the morning

I listened to the audiobook for this at 2 in the morning while in bed, stoned, shortly after coming home from a really shit day at work. I was thinking about all the bad shit in my life and feeling hopeless for the future, and put this one just because I needed something to quiet my brain and help me fall asleep. I think these words were exactly what I needed to hear at that moment. I'll be honest, I don't actually remember most of the poems (thank you, marijuana), but I do remember feeling like Courtney had taken the swirling mess of emotions right out of my soul and turned it into poetry. I really enjoyed the audiobook specifically and I'm glad I chose to read this in that format; it's narrated by Courtney herself and she did a phenomenal job with it, so I definitely recommend going that route

I did find there was a certain level of cheesiness with a lot of the poems, but I don't necessarily thing that it's a bad thing? I personally like all things cheesy but it may not be for everyone

So cute and funny!

This was so unbelievably amazing and I'm so mad at myself that it took me this long to finally read it!. Red, White & Royal Blue put me in such a good mood, it was such a delight to read! I don't ever re-read books but I could totally see myself picking this up a second time if I was ever in need of a guaranteed pick me up

So what's going on here?
Red, White & Royal Blue is an unlikely love story between the son of the president of the United States and the prince of Wales. It follows Alex as he navigates US politics, helping his mother with her upcoming reelection campaign, and trying to decide which path in life to take. He believes he has it all figured out, until he accidentally throws the biggest asshole he has ever met, who just happens to be the prince of Wales, into a $75,000 wedding cake at the royal wedding. This causes a huge publicity stink on both sides of the pond, an in order to save face face the two are forced to pretend that they're actually best friends, which would be easy if they didn't hate each other. What starts as a begrudging hang out turns into casual texting, then to late night calls about a deep fear of turkeys, and eventually turns into something resembling friendship. At least, Alex thinks it's friendship, since he has always believed himself to be straight. What follows is a heartwarming tale of figuring out who you are, the lengths one will go to for their family, and the overall message that true love will stop at nothing.

What I loved
This was without a doubt one of the best book I've ever read. I'm fairly new to the adult romance genre, but I genuinely couldn't imagine a better way to tell this story. Everything from the witty banter, the pining, the longing, the slow burn, the steamy scenes, and watching these two warm up to each other just had be absolutely melting. I really love that this had heavy focus on family too, which I'm finding is pretty rare in romance novels. I really don't have a way to describe the amount of joy this gave me, it really is everything that I could possibly want in a romance. I'll be recommending this book to people for yeeeeears, it's so good! Red, White, & Royal Blue had me literally laughing out loud and smiling at my phone multiple times, it made me so so very happy

What I didn't love
I actually can't think of anything that I disliked with this book. I'm sure I could find something if I thought about it hard enough, but I don't really want to do that. I just want to sit and enjoy this unrestrained happiness

Overall thoughts
Please just do yourself a favour and read this. Just do it. Please.

★★.5

Not gonna lie, I really didn’t think a solid half of this book was just going to be descriptions of magical creatures. That was pretty boring, but the tiny amount of the book that wasn’t that was cute

I'm not going to leave a full review of this because I don't have a whole lot to say, but let me start by saying I didn't know just how much I wanted to read this until I got the notification that my library hold was available. I jumped on that so fast and started listening to Upright Women Walking within seconds of being able to lmfao

I'm so so happy that I stumbled across this book a few months ago; this isn't my usual genre, and this genre also doesn't pop up on my Goodreads feed too often so I'm not sure how even heard of this one. But I did and I'm very glad I did! This was a very quick read, maybe even a little too quick if I'm being honest. I wouldn't have minded some more time to sit with the characters and really get to know them but I'm ok with how it was. The plot was good, if a little fast paced, again because of how short this book is.

Mainly what I liked is that it was something different for me. I'm very much a YA fantasy kind of person and I really need to branch out once in a while. In all honesty, Upright Women Wanted probably won't stick with me for a super long time, but that's ok. I still loved this book and it definitely got me interested in exploring this genre a bit! And I'll probably keep a look out for any future releases from Sarah Gailey as well