(Alex is an Aries sun with a Leo rising.) She also recently debuted a series of Spotify playlists dedicated to each of the characters. Essential details like their Hogwarts houses, zodiac signs, and Myers-Briggs types. McQuiston actively engages the book’s loyal followers by doling out Easter eggs about her characters on Twitter. After one editor raved about the book, a staff-wide waitlist sprang up as we circulated one dogeared copy around the office.)įor now she’s reveling in her runaway success. (I saw the power of that first-hand at Glamour. With seven printings and 100,000 copies in circulation, the book’s popularity was fueled the old-fashioned way: by word of mouth. Without an Instagram endorsement from Reese Witherspoon, a shout-out on Today from Jenna Bush Hager, or any major traditional publicity pushes, Casey McQuiston’s debut romance novel about the First Son of the United States and the Prince of Wales managed to do what few books in any genre manage-it went viral. Red, White & Royal Blue is the little novel that could. First there was Twitter chatter, then came the New York Times best-seller list, and soon a film adaptation was in the works. But while we’ve reclaimed the rom-com in film, these books are still often relegated to being “guilty pleasures” or considered “mommy porn.” This week we’re discussing these overlooked, often powerfully feminist books-that just so happen to have a happy ending.

In 2016 these novels made up 23% of the overall fiction market, and they consistently out-perform all other genres.

Red white and royal blue author