ONCE UPON A TIME, IN A UNIVERSE MUCH LIKE our own, the United States of America had a female President with a son named Alex Claremont-Diaz. When Alex met Henry, a British prince, it was mutual rancor at first sight; down-to-earth Alex thought Henry a snob, and haughty Henry thought Alex an ill-mannered commoner. This antipathy escalated into an international incident that climaxed in a giant cake toppling and burying them under layers of fluffy icing. Fast-forward through a handful of publicity stunts designed to sell the public on their friendship, and the two young men are hopelessly, hornily in love. But neither is openly queer. If you're worried this is all destined to end in heartbreak (and geopolitical catastrophe) then you probably aren't familiar with Casey McQuiston, who dreamed up the scenario in their hit 2019 novel Red, White, and Royal Blue. Now back on best-seller lists in anticipation of a frothy new adaptation on Prime Video, Royal Blue is emblematic of a new generation of love story that has conquered pop culture. I call it wholesome romance.
Decorated with cute illustrations, wholesome-romance covers leap out from bookstore displays in gummy-candy hues. Whether shelved as contemporary romance, YA, or new adult, these buoyant books take place in more idyllic versions of our reality, full of gentle humor and happy endings. The stakes are low, the people kind, the sex scenes vanilla. And the books, like Heartstopper (based on Alice Oseman's comic), which just dropped its second season on Netflix; and Amazon's The Summer I Turned Pretty, whose author Jenny Han's YA romances have fueled three movies and two TV series since 2018, are getting snapped up by Hollywood. The sensibility has breached the romancenovel-to-rom-com pipeline and spilled over into literary fiction, reality TV, podcasts.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Are mosquitoes getting more dangerous? - It's not news that mosquitoes carry a number of viruses and parasites that can be harmful to human health, including malaria, dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, West Nile virus, and eastern equine encephalitis.
Mosquitoes seem to be everywhere this year, and they're not just a nuisance at outdoor gatherings. Health experts say they're carrying some serious diseases—a fact that's hitting home in the U.S., as some towns in Massachusetts have shut down public parks and other outdoor areas in the evenings, after mosquitoes in the region were learned to be carrying eastern equine encephalitis, a rare but deadly virus. And Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's former top infectious-disease expert, was recently hospitalized with a West Nile virus infection he is believed to have acquired from a mosquito buzzing through his backyard.
Dana White The Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO on manhood, his friendship with Donald Trump, and the future of the fight business
Why do you think Donald Trump asked you, and not a family member, to introduce him at July's Republican National Convention? Listen, he and I are really, really good friends. What I think, and from what his kids have told me, I am the one guy he connects with. They call it \"bro-out\"-we bro-out together.
There can be only one Sally Rooney
A FEW YEARS AGO, SOMEONE POSTED a photo of a man walking through Brooklyn with a copy of Conversations With Friends tucked in the back of his trousers, the words SALLY ROONEY peeking out above his waistband. It was an accessory that telegraphed as much about his personal style as his choice in attire did. Less than a month earlier, the book critic Constance Grady had published an essay titled \"The Cult of Sally Rooney,\" deeming it \"aspirational\" to be a fan: \"If you read Sally Rooney, the thinking seems to go, you're smart, but you're also fun and you're also cool enough to be suspicious of both 'smart' and 'fun' as general concepts.\"
Kate Winslet puts Lee Miller in the frame
KATE WINSLET LOVES TABLES. SHE LOVES THEM SO MUCH that the Oscar-winning actor collects them. There is nothing fancy about these antiques, but they enchant her. \"It's the knots and the whorls, the shape and feel,\" she says. \"They can feel like old friends, and there is something emotionally charging about an old table that comes with a history-I find imagining what that might be enormous fun.\"
ALFONSO CUARÓN GOES LONG
The Oscar-winning filmmaker finds pathos in our lonely present in his first TV miniseries
LATINO LEADERS
17 trailblazers CHANGING THEIR industries, THE U.S., AND THE world
THE AGE OF SCAMS
Why you're constantly baited by grifters and more vulnerable than you think
A Question Of Balance
THE NAVAJO NATION HAS FIRST RIGHTS TO THE WATER AROUND IT, YET PAYS THE MOST AND GETS THE LEAST
Trump Stumped
The former front runner is struggling to adjust to Kamala Harris
The heartache of calling Israel home
I KNEW THAT AS SOON AS WE CAME HOME TO ISRAEL, I'd ask myself why we'd been so eager to get back. I'd disconnected for a few days in New York City with my family, even stopped wearing the hostage necklace I wore every day, and I knew it would be hard to return.
