First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations.
The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince. Alex is busy enough handling his mother’s bloodthirsty opponents and his own political ambitions without an uptight royal slowing him down. But beneath Henry’s Prince Charming veneer, there’s a soft-hearted eccentric with a dry sense of humor and more than one ghost haunting him.
As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. And Henry throws everything into question for Alex, an impulsive, charming guy who thought he knew everything: What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?
Author: Casey McQuiston
Format: E-ARC
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Rating: ★★★★★
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Sometimes I read a book and I go in with no expectations, and I get halfway through and depending on how much I’m enjoying it, I’ll start having some either low or high expectations, and that will pretty much decide how I feel about the book. I enjoyed this book from the start, so when I got to about midway I knew I’d hold the whole thing to pretty high expectations, yet it still managed to exceed all of my expectations!
“But the first time I saw you. Rio. I took that down to the gardens. I pressed it into the leaves of a silver maple and recited it to the Waterloo Vase. It didn’t fit in any rooms.”
The main description of the book gives a clear preview of the enemies-to-lovers trope, which is probably the main thing that the book focuses on at the start. As the story deepens, it turns into friends-with-benefits-to-lovers, which isn’t really something I’ve read in a book before, and I loved it! I think one of the most important notes to make about this book is that despite the romance-based plot, the book deals with a lot of other important themes; Alex discovering and coming to terms with his sexuality, the consideration he is giving to his future career goals, divorce, death, and grief.
“A curious thing about grief is the way it takes your entire life, all those foundational years that made you who you are, and makes them so painful to look back upon because of the absence there, that suddenly they’re inaccessible. You must invent an entirely new system.”
The impact of both Henry and Alex’s political/royal statuses on their relationship, and in turn the impact of their relationship on their statuses is also a key aspect of this book, and it is interesting to consider how people with such statuses have to consider every detail of their life in this way – it’s like they have to make decisions about their relationship based on how other people will like it, and if they won’t, they often can’t do it. I think this is something a lot of people can take for granted, and it’s thought-provoking to read about it outside of an environment that’s not necessarily based on differences in culture.
“History, huh? Bet we could make some.”
I loved all the relationships in this book – obviously, Alex and Henry’s relationship was my favourite, but there were many other relationships that in some way were key to the story. I enjoyed reading about Alex’s relationship with his sister; sibling relationships can often include a lot of fighting in books (I hear this is often true in real life too, but I’m an only child so I have no personal experience), but the way Alex and June were written felt real, and they were both portrayed as very mature characters.
“If Alex from this time last year could see this,” Alex says, leaning into Henry’s ear.
“He’d say, ‘Oh, I’m in love with Henry? That must be why I’m such a berk to him all the time,’” Henry suggests.”
Alex’s mum, Ellen, doesn’t have many scenes in the book (she’s busy off doing her presidential business – although she is talked about often), but I like how supportive she is of Alex. It was interesting to read about how Alex often sees her as ‘president mom’ as well as just mom, and in these moments she has to deal with something personal in a business-like way, making sure they’re right for her presidency as well as her family.
In terms of relationships, I think my favourite thing is the fact that every character has depth, even if they’re not one of the main characters, and I loved discovering things about their lives, or about how they fitted into Alex’s and Henry’s lives.
The only small criticism I have is that the story often jumped from one key time-point to another, although this could just be the fact that the ARC doesn’t have any dividers in place. If this is not the case however, it did make it a little bit confusing at times, although I am sure this will be changed in the final printed copy of the book. Overall, I finished this book grinning and teary-eyed, which definitely means it was a great read!
“He called Henry the North Star once. That wasn’t bright enough.”
Happy Reading xo
Welcome to the island of misfit toys. 
I’ve recently finished this one and I’M NOT OVER IT. Everything about it was perfect and I completely agree about the high standards at the start being exceeded even more than I could have believed by the end. Each page just got better and better!