Y’all ready for my jumbled thoughts?

WHERE DO I BEGIN?! I had high expectations for this novel and it somehow exceeded them?!

Our main focus is August and of course Jane, but we have quite the ensemble of characters and I adored every single one. The romance? Incredible. The plot? Intriguing. The pop culture references? Obsessed!

I am so excited I understood everything that was referenced. There is a Lost reference about being a constant and wow way to make my heart ache years later 😭

The first half of the book drops us into August’s new life in New York. Soon she meets Jane on the subway and her life changes. The first half really set up the second half without being too in your face. We learn everything the same time as August. The second half is just a rollercoaster of emotions. I would be sad then happy then crying then freaking out! This book is definitely a new all time favourite and it has been so long since I wanted to scream about a book 😩

I am still processing to be honest. I am just gonna have some pancakes or a chocolate bagel and watch Say Anything. Maybe listen to an oldies radio station. Read the book to understand and feel what I’m feeling. Please!

Also, August is bisexual and wow we are just WINNING aren’t we?

Red, White and Royal Blue was one of my favorite reads of 2020, so I was so excited to read One Last Stop! It did not disappoint. The perfect blend of humor, steaminess, and real conversation about life. I loved the unfolding of the characters and the surprises throughout! I also live in NYC, so it's always fun to read about something that relates to you. I highly recommend this one!

When it was announced that Casey Mc Quiston of Red White & Royal Blue fame would be releasing their second novel this year I was pumped. Mc Quiston's writing, pacing, and romance from their first novel were everything and naturally, I wanted more. They did not disappoint in this second novel. For it is filled with a sapphic romance, fast plot and time travel. The novel follows August a self-described loner who moves to the city, finds work at a pancake house, and embarks on a romance the quality of cinematic romantic comedies. On her daily commute does she meet and befriends Jane, a charming, engaging young woman who after multiple train rides begins to have romantic feelings. The only problem is that Jane's presentation is not only retro and reflects a 70's punk-rocker but is from the 1970s and has been in limbo ever since. I have not read a romance novel like this to include elements of science fiction, and not be the focus of the story. Time travel is something that is touched on but is used as a device to bring these characters together and expands their understanding of what it means to create intimacy in a romantic relationship. This novel is one that I enjoyed immensely and recommend it to readers of romance and LGBTQIA novels. As a thank, you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced reader's copy. I wrote this review and rate the novel a strong 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

One Last Stop
Casey McQuiston

I have to say, I went into this book so nervous about keeping my expectations in check as I have loved Red White and Royal Blue so much I wanted to have another winner in my hands as McQuiston is now an auto-buy author for me.
I want to report that I loved every bit of this unique time slip sapphic romance tale that was beautifully weaved together into a fantastic story I could not resist. I loved the Asian rep in this story as well all the important themes played well into the story line.
The writing was incredible - I enjoyed the found family trope and the character development was incredible. The romance was perfect and so incredibly queer. I really enjoyed this one a lot.
I would also like to comment that the audio narration is so well done I highly recommend it.

Meet August, a 23-year old kind of new to New York, shy student. She’s a bit pessimistic with a flair for the mysterious, thanks to her mother. When she meets Jane on the subway, she is instantly drawn to her, but things aren’t quite what they seem with Jane. She always seems to be on the subway when August is and August finds some connections with Jane from the 1970s. How can Jane possibly be the same age as she was in the 70s? August takes it upon herself to find out and develops relationship with Jane in the process.

My favorite part of this story was the mysterious element of Jane and although I enjoyed the story, I felt like the mystery element was kind of all that drew me in. I really appreciate the character arc involving August and how she ultimately came to find her space in the world with people that she loves and can trust, but the story just felt extremely drawn out and overly long.

4.25/5
One Last Stop is a new adult fiction book sprinkled with magical realism. It follows August as she moves from the South to NYC and falls in love with Jane, a Chinese American woman who is essentially stuck in time on the Q line.

Reps: Found family, fun banter, wlw/sapphic main characters, bi main character, trans characters, poc & queer poc characters

It does have slow pacing, especially at the beginning, but I don't mind when there are interesting characters and banter, which I think this one did. My own personal story is similar to August's (we went to the same university in the south and then moved to NYC in our early 20s to find more out of college and surroundings) so I enjoyed being brought back to that time in my life and I think the grandeur of NYC is really highlighted in the slower parts in the diner and apartment building.

I was excited to read this one after loving RWRB a few years ago! Enjoyed this one as well. Thanks to netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

There are not many sapphic romances that have been streamlined into the front and centre of the masses. Making it not a very popular sub genre. If nothing else this book is the book to give sapphic romance the attention it deserves. I loved it whole heartedly.

So this book took me about a week to get through, not because it’s not great, it’s just got a bit of a slow start, but once I got into it I couldn’t put it down.
This book is nothing like Red White and Royal Blue. But it’s amazing in its own special ways
Casey showed us more world building and deeper character backstories. They perfectly captured what it feels to be a young adult trying to start their lives away from what’s always been, trying to make their own way.
August and Jane have an adorable meet-cute that builds into more, but with a fun twist. Watching August try and figure out Jane, her crazy roommate, balancing work and school, while just trying to keep her head above water.

Please, please, please read this book. Ignore that crazy girl from TikTok and read this adorable love story with some mystery and great gang of characters.

4/5⭐️
✨Thanks to NetGalley for providing and ARC in exchange for an honest review✨

I was so excited to see this release after reading, and loving, Red, White, & Royal Blue but I have to be honest on this one...it just didn't do it for me. The tone was different, the setting a bit boring, and I didn't care much about the romance. To me the best part of this book were the side characters and even the story of August's missing uncle was more interesting to me than the rest of the book was.

I struggled with the relationship between August and Jane. I didn't feel like it was very healthy or balanced. It didn't have the same feel as the relationship in RW&RB which I loved so it was hard for me to really get on board with them.

The setting was a little lacking for me in this one as well and made it difficult for me to connect to the story. I wish she could've been able to leave the train but always feel tethered to go back to it. Even a small radius outside of the train would've helped move their relationship along for me because they could still do some normal things outside of just "making out" on the train.

I can see why people would love this story but for me it just wasn't up to my expectations. I'll definitely read more books by Casey McQuiston in the future.

The audio was great. I liked the narrator and the production was well done.

I REALLY wanted to love this as much as I did RWRB but unfortunately that was not the case. I can't even really pin point what I didn't like about it other than not having a feeling of enjoyment after finishing it like I did RWRB.

Things I did like:
- the representation was great in this
- spending time in the company of a found family of memorable characters ( I wish we got to know some of the characters more because they were more interesting to me then our main character.
- The setting and plot was interesting---I think this would make for a great movie if done right.
- Even though this is a fluffier romance there is still discussion of important issues like gender identity and race.

Things I didn't like so much:
- Was not a fan of the pacing. This book seemed to drag for large stretches of filler content only to then speed through what could have been important and plot-related content.
- Our main character---I just didn't really connect with August as much as I wanted to. I did like her interactions with the other characters though, but that is more about them than her.
- It would've been interesting to read Jane's perspective about living through 2 distinct decades and how that affected her and her relationship with August.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review- 4.25 Stars
I really liked this book. At first I was a little unsure of the possibility of a ghost love story but once I realized it played with the time travel, I was hooked. McQuiston has a way of writing and building her characters so that you really feel like you know them. Their interactions with one another are genuine and they feel like real people the more you read the book. August and Jane were just top notch with their chemistry. The sex scenes were fun and sexy and I loved the connection between Jane and the Q that her feelings for August shut down the subway! Jane being stuck on the Q played out really well and had me honestly wondering if this story would have a "happily ever after." While I do wish we were able to get a little more of Jane adapting to the 21st century, I liked that it ended hopeful for them and that she was going to reconnect with her family.

Blog:
I heard this described somewhere as a queer romance similar to the movie Kate & Leopold. That’s one of my favorite romantic comedies, so I was sold. I can definitely understand the comparison. They’re both set in New York and feature a love interest displaced out of their own time. While I love Kate & Leopold though, I have to admit I didn’t quite love this book.

Let’s start with what I liked. The main character, August, is bisexual and says it (more than once) with confidence. There is no biphobia expressed in this book by any of the characters she cares about. I also really appreciated seeing a bisexual main character who is a virgin and yet still declares this. An important moment of representation that one does not need to sleep with people to know one’s sexuality

August’s roommates and new friends are eclectic and fun while still feeling real. There is representation of gay and trans* folks especially. One of the roommates is Black (with Chinese adoptive parents), one is Greek-American, and one is Jewish. There’s a lot of diversity here. Part of what made them all feel real is that all of them had their own different families and issues. It wasn’t one queer story but many. I also really liked how real the local drag club felt, and I appreciated the representation of someone in recovery (the chef at the pancake restaurant).

I thought there was a lot of sizzle between August and the girl on the train – Biyu. Now at first she goes by Jane but over the course of the book she comes to ask to go by her birth name, Biyu, rather than her Americanized nickname. I want to be respectful of that. I also enjoyed the mystery of how she came to be on the train, and how August goes about solving it.

I felt pretty neutrally about the sex scenes. They were steamy without being explicit, but they weren’t anything particularly memorable for me. Some readers, I know, were turned off by the fact some of the sex happens on the train. That didn’t bother me because it makes sense for the characters. But be forewarned!

Now what I liked less. I don’t think the book handled racism and homophobia as directly or clearly as it should have. Biyu is from the 1970s and is a Chinese-American who is visibly lesbian. She literally had run-ins with the cops over wearing men’s clothes in her time period. But being jetted forward 40 years doesn’t solve the problems of homophobia and racism. I think the book acknowledges this by having Biyu have a run-in with someone who says something both racist and homophobic to her (the words are not said in the book and the incident appears off-screen). Yet August responds by saying, “most people aren’t like that anymore” (I can’t give an exact page number as this was a review copy but it occurs in Chapter 12). This does lead into a large fight between Biyu and August, which I think implies that August was wrong in what she said. However, I think August needed a bigger I was wrong moment, where she acknowledges that she did a very poor job of both being there for Biyu in that moment and of describing the complexity of how racism and homophobia are simultaneously different and yet not in modern times. I think readers also would have benefited from a nuanced discussion of how, for example, same-sex marriage is now legal and yet hate crimes against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders have increased dramatically in the last year, especially against Chinese-Americans (source). I think this book wanted to say something big and interesting about sexuality and queerness especially in the 1970s versus now, but in my opinion it falls short of accomplishing this.

Additionally, I know I was supposed to find the ending satisfying but it left me dissatisfied. I think for similar reasons – it’s a complex situation and the book doesn’t dig deep enough or hard enough into these complexities. Things are kept at the surface level. While it is a book in the spirit of a romcom, romcoms can say big and difficult things while not losing the romcom feel. Confessions of a Shopaholic springs to mind – it deals with the very serious issue of shopping addiction while still feeling like a very fun romcom.

Overall, this book is fun and lighthearted. It features a realistic bisexual lead and steamy, yet not explicit, f/f scenes. The queer found family is delightful. But it could have stood to have dug a bit deeper into the serious issues it brought up. They are important conversations to have that wouldn’t have messed up the lightheartedness of the romcom vibe.

Instagram:
Throwback to lying on the grass next to my tiny house rental near the beach, deeply enthralled by the world of One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston. August is a big bodied bisexual white woman 24 year old who recently moved to New York. She meets a Chinese-American butch lesbian on the Q train who looks straight out of the 1970s - and it turns out she is! Can August help her solve the riddle of how she got lost in time while not getting a broken heart? What I loved about this was the bi rep, the queer found family August gets in Brooklyn, and the sizzle between our two main characters. I thought the discussions of racism and homophobia - both in the past and now - could have been handled better. The ending also left me a bit dissatisfied. This is fun and light hearted with solid bi rep.
I have a discussion guide for this book if you want one for your book club! Link in profile.

GoodReads:
A bisexual main character who declares it many times by name. Excellent!

Other things I really liked - August's found family. The many aspects of queerness represented, as well as many types of family issues and struggles through them. The time travel romance The electricity. Pancakes.

The end left me a little...eh. I can't say more without spoilers. But I enjoyed the journey a lot.

*I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.*

August has come to New York City to find herself and to not feel alone. Thanks to her wonderful roommates she finds a job and finally learns the subway system. When August is at her worst the kindness of a stranger upends her entire world. As she finds out more and more about her mystery girl she learns that love can truly hold us all together.

This was my first book by this author and it won't be my last. It was such a good book that balanced hope and heartbreak, love and friendship and wrapped around you like a warm blanket.

Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for letting me read this advanced copy.

I didn't love this one as much as their previous novel. I found the main character to be thoroughly bland, though I loved the rest of the cast. Jane is an excellent and amazing love interest and that story alone would have been enough for me. Instead, there's the MC's issues with her mother and a heist??? I ended up wanting it over with a lot of pages left to go.

Thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun romance with a mystery, suspense and a splash of psychic powers. The characters in this book are queer and quirky which makes their relationships fun,serious, loyal, and full of life. They become the family everyone craves. The setting in someways helps drive the story A really delightful read.

Think this may be a case of “ it’s me not you”….
I loved RWRB, so had such high hopes for this one… but sadly I found it just OK. I’m not a huge contemporary romance reader, but when I do indulge, it’s all about the banter for me, and the back and forth between August and Jane just didn’t do it for me. Also, the insta-love trope isn’t a favorite.
The NYC setting was great, and the quirky secondary characters were all cute, but the magical aspects, and the central couple just didn’t capture me. Disappointed. But lots seem to love it, so…..

Falling in love, amid a timeline, surrounded by strangers on the subway. I really wanted to love the pacing of this book more, but the slump before the plan takes off made it hard to engage. The missing person(s) sideline stories with August's mom and her uncle weren't necessary to the plot, but added more depth to August. Some of the Asian characterizations of Jane made me uncomfortable, but I have to assume the author had sensitivity readers for fleshing out Jane's character. I can see my students taking issue with that as well.

I will definitely be adding this book to our classroom library and will be highlighting the relationships in this book for my students to enjoy, learn from, or see themselves in.

Even though the slump threw me off, the final chapters made it all worth it. Tons of good one-liners and heart-melting moments.

4.5 stars.

This was my first read from Casey McQuiston. Her name was all over the place last year with Red, White, and Royal Blue, but I wasn't super into the idea of the royalty trope, so I never grabbed that one. However...I now see the hype about her writing. This book was fantastic and so much fun.

The premise was intriguing by itself (because I'm a sucker for a time travel kind of trope), but the execution was just so well done. The plot moved seamlessly and just kept me turning page after page, slowly falling in love with McQuiston's fabulous cast of characters. They are all so unique, quirky, and enjoyable. I love the diversity in her writing and how it comes so smoothly, no inclusion feels forced and none of her diversity feels like it's just there for the checkmark. Her characters blend, feel realistic, and interact with one another in ways that just make sense.

I had so much fun with this book. I loved the friend group, I loved the romantic aspect (and I'm not that much of a romance reader), and I loved the fun of the plot. The hype was right...Casey McQuiston has got it going on. She's a must read from here on out.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *

This was so full of fun, thrill, love, and emotion. It will leave you wanting to visit NY, make some fantastic friends, while eating a stack of pancakes.

Queer, quirky, and absolutely swoon-worthy! I loved this book! It was mystery mashed up with wholesome and hilarious friendships. It's the found family everyone wants with the actions everyone craves. I can't wait to see what Casey works up next because I'll be here for it.