3.5 stars

TW: outing; drug use; sexual harassment

All I had heard about this before going in was that it’s an enemies to lovers m/m romance between a prince and the first son of the US, which it is. However, when I heard that, I assumed more slow burn than we got. With that being said, this has an element for everyone: enemies to lovers, banter, romantic love letters, and actually seeing a couple in a relationship. I was surprised by how early they got together, as most of the book is us watching their relationship. I tend to prefer something more drawn out, and tend to lose interest when the couple gets together, so this didn’t work for me as much as most people but it was still cute.

I’m also curious about the reactions of people who read this for the first time in 2020 vs earlier. The political stuff in here was honestly hard to read during 2020 right after the election. This more hopeful alternate reality may have been an escape for some readers, but for me, showed just how shitty things are currently in our reality. This didn’t feel like what would play out these days. The stress of reading about an election after just experiencing an election.. not super fun. Because of that and the couple getting together so soon, I do feel like this book was too long. There were too many opportunities for misunderstandings, and I tend to like those kept to a minimum.

Overall this was still cute, I rooted for them, but it just wasn’t as soothing to me as it was to so many readers.