You know the narrative. A dashing young prince sweeps a beautiful peasant off her glass slipper-sized feet and they live happily ever after – usually thanks to a twinkling touch of magic.
But what if that beautiful peasant was a man instead of a woman?
Welcome to the era of the gay royal romance novel.
A quick Google search for “LGBTQ royal romance” unveils a cornucopia of queer royal content faster than you can say Queen Elizabeth. From “Her Royal Highness” to “The Spare” and more, readers can bow down and buy.
One such offering, out Tuesday, is “Playing the Palace” by Paul Rudnick (Berkley, 327 pp.), which follows the unlikely but sweet romance between New York event planner Carter and British royal Prince Edgar.
The pair meets – and flirts – ahead of a press conference Carter helps facilitate and quickly become entangled in each other’s lives. From dates at IHOP to Carter’s sister’s wedding to international appearances together, the pair try to fit into each other’s lives as seamlessly as possible. Carter’s self-esteem proves the most difficult piece of the royal relationship puzzle. But if you relish rom-coms, you know where this story ends.
“There’s such a yearning and a demand for stories that end happily,” author Paul Rudnick (who also write “Sister Act,” “Sister Act 2” and “Addams Family Values” says. “That’s one of the great features of romances, is that the reader can feel confident that no matter what our main heartthrobs are going through, it’s going to work out. It comes down to everybody deserves a happy ending. So why not gay people?”
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A breakout hit of the new genre was “Red, White & Royal Blue,” by Casey McQuiston, which charted the surprisingly steamy (and disappointingly fictional) love story between the son of the first female U.S. president and a British prince.
“Playing the Palace” goes for much of the same dizzying drama as “Red, White & Royal Blue.” Tabloid scandals? Check. A monarchy not exactly thrilled with the relationship? Check. An impossibly supportive family in the face of insurmountable odds? Check.
“Playing the Palace” does deviate from “Red, White & Royal Blue” in that its characters have already come out as queer (yes, an openly gay prince). Rudnick wanted to sidestep the trauma and prejudice that comes with coming out stories “to emphasize a certain joyousness.”
He had the idea to write a gay royal romance about 20 years ago but didn’t know what form it should take. A play? A movie? At last, a book, which he figured out in the last two or three years.
He drew on some of his own life: the main character is a man originally from New Jersey who also has an obsession with IHOP, for example. Rudnick has also always been fascinated by America’s ravenous lust for royal gossip – something that remains prevalent today.
“I share that weird obsession,” he says.
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More than the central gay part of the story, Rudnick emphasized differences in social status, as has played out in real life with Prince Harry marrying actress Meghan Markle, now the Duchess of Sussex.
Rudnick conjured the comic element of royalty’s personal lives being dissected all of the time and the potential for global social embarrassment.
Carter goes through his fair share of international humiliation in the novel on live TV. He both vomits during a baking show competition and is blindsided during an interview when they show cell phone footage of him kissing his ex-boyfriend Callum.
In real life, Rudnick thought Harry and Meghan handled themselves beautifully during their bombshell-filled Oprah Winfrey interview, but he kept thinking about how short Harry’s socks were.
“That’s what I also wanted Carter to be subject to, that he keeps trying to do his best and keeps trying to be as polished and presentable and appropriate as he can be and the world just won’t let him,” Rudnick says.
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LGBTQ stories haven’t exactly been embraced over time though support for the community has grown.
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“There’s been a bit of a dam breaking,” Rudnick says. “And it’s interesting that I think in many ways YA publishing and romance publishing has led the way, that there’s still a little sense in terms of overall literature, that gay stories are a little niche, or maybe not relatable. And that’s just not true.”
Despite more attention to LGBTQ stories, a dark cloud hangs overhead.
“Due to the many discriminatory practices and biases still prevalent in societies around the world, it is hard to know how many authors’ voices have been stifled or pushed aside because of LGBTQ discrimination,” according to an article from publisher The Hachette Group.
Moving forward, intersectional inclusivity is the next frontier for LGBTQ stories – something we can already see in this year’s crop of YA LGBTQ novels.
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All told, there’s a groundswell of people living completely open and happy lives where being gay is no longer the obstacle, Rudnick says. A record amount of U.S. adults are members of the LGBTQ community at 5.6%.
Might broader acceptance prepare palaces for some (openly) rainbow royalty? “The world is waiting for some openly gay royaland for it not to be a story of tragedy or rejection, but of total acceptance and celebration,” Rudnick says.
And that stems from the fact queer people – and any marginalized group – wants what everyone else wants. “You want both the more serious end of things – you want the right to vote, you want the right health care, you want the right to marry – but you also want the right to pure entertainment, and to boisterous romance and to a sense of absolute pleasure,” Rudnick says.
Falling in love with a prince and having him love you back, though, also wouldn’t hurt.
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