The ARC of this novel was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Casey McQuiston’s sophomore novel, ONE LAST STOP, is the quieter, indie romance film to RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE’s shiny, summer blockbuster, though this makes it no less gorgeous, relevant, or profound.

Twenty-three-year-old August Landry is a cynic who moves to New York City hoping to find a city full of bitterness that she can disappear into. What she finds, instead, are warm roommates who welcome her into their makeshift family and introduce her to the city’s vibrant queer community, and an impossible, mysterious, charming woman on the Q who she can’t stop thinking about. What follows is a story of learning how to believe, of the families we choose, and of the miraculous impossibility of love.

McQuiston has written two books, and her second, ONE LAST STOP, will be published this coming June. As with any author who writes a seemingly flawless debut novel, I’ll admit I was a bit nervous coming into this one, especially because the plot sounded quite dramatically different. I loved the political subplot of RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE, and that would be absent in this novel. Would the plot be just as interesting? Most importantly, would I love August and Jane as much as I love Alex and Henry?

Well, turns out I had absolutely nothing to worry about.

As I sat down to begin reading ONE LAST STOP, as I was sucked into the world of August’s New York City, with her cramped, dated Brooklyn apartment, her crappy waitressing job, and her roommates, for whom chaotic good is the only satisfying descriptor...I felt like I was snuggling into a warm blanket. Reading McQuiston’s books, I realized, feels like coming home. McQuiston has this remarkable way of making me, at least, feel as though they are a part of the characters’ lives. I feel like I know August, I feel as though her friends are my friends, and I care about her and them all as though they were.

August Landry is a 23-year-old who has recently transferred to Brooklyn College in New York City, though she is a native of Louisiana. She’s been floundering around at different universities for the past couple of years, unsure what to study, unsure what kind of life to pursue. She is so smart, and because of her mom’s obsession with her own brother’s disappearance in the 1970s, August is an excellent detective. But her mother’s obsession has also made August bitter, and jaded, so much so that she has resigned herself to being a lonely recluse until Jane dares her to want more, to want and feel worthy of love.

Ah, Jane Su. If I’m not careful this whole review will just turn into a Jane Su love letter. Jane Su is the rainbow that comes after August’s rainstorm, which emerges behind parted clouds wearing high tops and a leather jacket, set to a Sex Pistols soundtrack. Okay, that comparison got away from me a bit, but I’m just gonna run with it. While August is somewhat bitter and lonesome, Jane is the bright sun that bursts into August’s life and changes her for forever--she shows her how to be brave, and happy, and embrace relationships instead of running away from them. She’s kind, a shameless flirt, and unfailingly charming. She’s the kind of woman who can start impromptu dance parties on the subway (because, well, she does it in the book). Jane’s the kind of character that no one can help but love. I mean, literally--another aspect of the novel that I really liked is the series of newspaper clippings, blog posts, radio talk show transcripts, etc, at the beginning of every chapter that trace Jane’s presence on the Q throughout recent history. We see how Jane has left an impression on countless people, no matter who they are or when they are from. And not for nothing, but I would pay an absurd amount of money to get a book full of nothing but text messages from Jane Su. You’ll understand this when you read it.

August and Jane form the most swoon-worthy bond as they try to solve the mystery of Jane’s curse, and despite the quieter tone of ONE LAST STOP, it is McQuiston’s characters and their ties to one another that fueled my interest in solving the mystery of the plot.

McQuiston’s supporting characters are also incredibly important in this novel, because seeing as how Jane is trapped on the Q, it’s quite obvious that she’s not the only one to have a positive impact on August’s life. No, her roommates--Myla, Niko, and Wes--coax August out of her shell and introduce her to the bold and inspiring queer community of NYC. And I adore the way that McQuiston, without fail, gives substance and shape to every single character in her books. Seriously, can they be my roommates?

And hey, as a live-and-die New Yorker, I may be a bit biased, but the setting of this book is a character all on its own. McQuiston’s novel, as much as it is a romance in and of itself, is a love letter to New York City and its queer culture. It was just beautiful, and I fell in love with the greatest city in the world all over again.

All in all, ONE LAST STOP is a memorable ode to New York City, the families we choose, and the boldness of believing in love. You will laugh, you will cry, and at the end, you’ll be dying for McQuiston’s next masterfully spun tale--I know I am!

As a huge fan of Casey's first book, I was absolutely exhilarated to get an ARC of One Last Stop. This book was even better than Red, White & Royal Blue and I have a whole reading vlog on my booktube channel explaining why linked below. To summarize those thoughts: this book had amazing characters just like Casey's first book, but it had a stronger plot. One Last Stop created a mystery behind Jane, who is from the 1970's and is somehow appearing to our main character August on a train in modern day. August soon realizes that there is something different about this beautiful girl, but when she realizes that Jane is from a completely different time period she is swept away with solving this mystery. I genuinely had no idea where this book was going and that is why it was such a joy to read. The relationship that formed between August and Jane throughout was also absolutely adorable. I love both of their characters so much. The side characters in this book were also very strong and I had attachments to them as well. All around, One Last Stop is a book you need to keep your eye out for in 2021!

My spoiler free reading vlog: https://youtu.be/uCzW8ElrGSI

This book was phenomenal!!

Let me start off by saying if you are like me and like to not be spoiled by a single thing, DO NOT READ THE SYNOPSIS!

I accepted this book knowing how much I adored Red, White, and Royal Blue and was hopeful that I would enjoy McQuiston’s other work as well and let me tell you, I think I loved it even more!!!

The main plot of this book is written in the synopsis, but having not read the synopsis I was pleasantly surprised by everything! This book was an adventure and completely magical in it’s own way.

The characters are all so warm and loving, even if they don’t seem like they are right off the bat. The friendships in this book are wonderful and even August’s relationship with her mom was nice to see. Not everything is all sunshine and rainbows and that’s what really solidifies this book into something that can be relatable but also has enough in it to take you into it’s world.

Reading this in the middle of all the Covid stuff is a bit weird, but only because August briefly mentions the state of 2020 but then we see no signs of it at all until a date at the end of the book. I’m not sure if this was me reading into it thinking she’s talking about Covid or if it was added in as a yes I’m going to acknowledge this but it was already written for ‘before times’ so things will just be normal. Either way it only bothered me when I really started to think about it.

I love that the setting for this book all took place in New York, yet it didn’t oversaturate with your typical tourist New York locations or events. The diner is fun and I enjoyed our time with it as well.

I know this review is a little vague, but I truly think this is one you should go into blind! It was so much fun not knowing a single thing about the story. Not that reading the synopsis will hurt your experience, just not knowing adds a little extra on top! So, if you were a fan of RWRB, I highly recommend checking this out!

What an absolute triumph of a book.

Let's get a few things out of the way first. ONE LAST STOP is <i>not</i> RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE. This is an incredibly different book in a lot of incredibly different ways. It is still unquestionably Casey McQuiston, which means it's heartwarming and sharp and witty and hilarious and steamy in equal measure, but it's not political. It's not about fly-by-night meetings in the English countryside, nor is it lavish state parties thrown for people with sixteen different last names.

No. ONE LAST STOP is a book about normal people - scrappy, young upstarts living in New York City, doing do-nothing things in their do-nothing lives. This book is as all-natural as a nudist colony. It's real, it's fresh, it's modern in a timeless sense. The characters are absurd, but they're absurd in the same way your roommates in college were absurd. It is Extremely Online™️.

This book takes all the parts of RWRB that made it charming and dials it up to eleven. The side characters bleed off the page, here, to the point where I was just as invested in Wes and his will-he, won't-he romantic flailings as I was in Jane and August's. The mystery and the intrigue of how August and her gaggle of misfit gays were going to crack Jane's secret leaves you hanging at the end of every page. It's an incredible feat of writing, this book is; in the same way we all said that RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE defined a new category of books outside of YA and outside of Adult, this book proves that this new category can be whatever we want it to be. And what it wants to be, right now, is Casey McQuiston's right-hand man.

I read all of RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE in a single afternoon. ONE LAST STOP took me two months to read, but not because I had trouble with it, or because it was boring, or because it wasn't <i>enough</i>. The opposite was true; I took so long to read ONE LAST STOP because this book deserves to be savored. It's love on a greasy, diner-quality silver platter. I didn't want it to end. I still don't want it to end, if I'm being honest.

But the magical thing about subways - and about incredible, supernova, masterful authors like Casey McQuiston - is that there's always another train coming down the track.

(Many thanks to St. Martin's Press for the NetGalley ARC! Oh - and if I were a ONE LAST STOP drag queen, I would be Knob Dylan.)

Absolutely loved this sophomore book from McQuiston and will be recommending it happily. Pyschic Niko was my favorite

One Last Stop bus Casey McQuiston follows August Landry a girl who has never felt like she had a home and her recent move to New York. On the subway August meets Jane a girl she’s interested in but August learns there’s more to Jane than she could ever imagine. I will say One Last Stop surprised me, the first 20% I felt dragged but once it got going I couldn’t put it down. My biggest piece of advice is to not go in with Red, White and Royal Blue expectations and McQuiston will definitely impress you. By the end I was in love with the characters and throughly invested,

SUCH. AN. AMAZING. BOOK! I absolutely loved this beautiful love story. It's a new favorite, and I can't wait for its release so more people can read it! The characters, the Qtrain, the romance - everything was such perfection and I'm so thankful to get this early read of this beautiful book.

What a FANTASTIC book. Character development is absolutely wonderful. I wanted to be in the apartment with them all. I would have loved to see Jane reunite with Augie somehow, but I think that's just because I wanted the story to go on and on. 5 stars, may read again!

I think I was expecting something more like Red, White, and Royal Blue when I requested this book. Other than both being LGBT+ romances, they are nothing alike! August is in a sort of limbo. She keeps changing colleges and changing majors and changing cities while trying to figure out who she is. She ends up in New York. On the subway one day on her way to class, she meets Jane, a hot girl in a leather jacket. August keeps seeing Jane on the subway. No matter what train she gets on, Jane is always there. Turns out if August is stuck in some sort of figurative limbo, Jane is stuck in literal limbo. She's been on the subway since the 1970s, not aging, not remembering how she got there, and she literally can't get off the train.

Can August find a way to get Jane unstuck from the subway and back to her own time? Does she even want to?

The romance is sweet, and there are moments when you feel punched in the gut because their situation seems so impossible. I thoroughly enjoyed this book,

AHHHHHHHHHHH ONCE AGAIN I AM CONFLICTED!
First of all, as a reader, I CANNOT handle books that ~feel~ long. I don't care if it's 800 pages, I don't even care if it isn't fast-paced. But I need to be connected to the plot or the characters in some way or else why am I even reading this.

I honestly had to push through this book(just like Red, White and Royal Blue).
If this book hadn't been so hyped up I would have DNF, but I was hoping that the author would shock me at the end.

Yep, didn't happen. So all that is left is a reader that feels like they wasted time on a book who's only good quality is its cover.

Alsoooooooooooo I hated August. I was okay with Jane until the ending and then NOPE.

I was a MASSIVE fan of Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston and I was so excited for this book to come out. It is a great follow up to her debut and expands on the ideas of found families and searching for what you need and want out of life.

August is trying to leave her past behind. She's new to NYC and on her third college and she's looking for something to believe in. She doesn’t believe in psychics, or easily forged friendships, or finding the kind of love they make movies about. And she certainly doesn’t think her ragtag band of new roommates, her night shifts at a 24-hour pancake diner, or her daily subway commute full of electrical outages are all that special. Then she meets Jane. After a few chance encounters on her subway commute August realizes there is a mystery in front of her and she's determined to solve it.

Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop is a sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time.

WHY CAN'T I GIVE BOOKS 10 STARS?? Because this one definitely needs way more stars than 5. Whew. What a fantastic, heart-warming, steamy, piece of brilliance this book is. If you liked Red, White, and Royal Blue (and, let's be honest, everyone did), you MUST read this one as soon as you can.

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this book once I realized it has some sci-fi elements to it (ones that I rarely enjoy) but I really loved this book. It made me laugh out loud; it made me cry, and it warmed my heart in a big way. The found family in this novel is beyond compare and the fully queer and fantastic cast of characters gave me such cozy warm accepting vibes. I adored each character, the way they had one another's backs, and the raw realness of being young and queer and also the sheer audacity of loving yourself just as you are. It's a fantastic letter to the queer community of the past and the appreciation and respect given to them for all their hard work to pave a path for queer kids today.

In true Casey form the sex scenes are fire, the friendships and banter are top-notch, and the message is clear and threaded throughout the entire novel. It's a masterpiece and if you loved their other work, you're going to adore this one. I can't wait for everyone to get their hands on this book.

Cute, fun, and quirky. Lived the quirky characters.
Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.

Oh sweet spilled coffee- I loved ONE LAST STOP

What I love about Casey McQuiston is her ability to write characters that feel alive and part of the world. Her stories make me laugh out loud one moment and sigh the next.

It's tender, funny, genuine and thoughtful. It's sexy, magical and romantic. It's glitter, drag queens, subway cars, unsolved mysteries and LOVE. All the elements of love: platonic love, romantic love, love for a found-family, love for NYC and love for self. .

The story felt absolutely grounded yet completely lofty and unexplainable. The characters were well formed yet fluid with "chefs kiss" representation: queer, bi, trans, BIPOC and neurodiverse.

While I feel hard for the lead couple: August and Jane, I was equally smitten with the cast of our queer found-family. I kept wishing I could smoosh myself into a bench at Billy's 24 Hr. Pancake Diner to be part of the crew.

𝐎𝗪𝐍 𝐕𝐎𝐈𝐂𝐄𝐒: ⁣
I try to link up #ownvoices reviews when I find them. I look forward to reading reviews from #ownvoices perspectives. When they start pouring in I'll share to stories.

This was just the story I needed to read in 2020. Granted it doesn't come out for a few months more I am in love with how amazing it was.

August has decided to move to a new city to continue going to school. Upon arriving in NYC she goes to see about a room in an apartment and meets Nikko a psychic who loves her instantly. She meets the other roommates Myla (Nikkos GF) and Wes. She goes about her day going to school and going to her new job as a waitress settling into the new life she has. But then she meets Jane on the subway and instantly has a crush on this impossible girl. As she gets to know Jane better she starts to realize things about her are a little weird. Her outfit never changes, she uses a tape player, she doesn't have a cellphone and doesn't get certain pop culture references. After finding a photo of her from the 70's she realizes that she hasn't aged a day and might actually be stuck from the 1970's.

This is a gorgeous found family story with speculative fiction thrown in the mix. I loved the seamless integration of time travel. It is a great read and is everything I expected from McQuinston. I may even say I liked it more than <i> Red, White and Royal Blue </i>

August is implied to be plus sized and is bisexual. August isn't perfect which is something I like in a main character. But she does have some trauma that isn't fully explored, it is mentioned but it isn't really shown how she worked through it. Just a few chapters later she is talking to her mom and has seemingly forgiven her for her odd upbringing.

Jane is Chinese American and gay. She is displaced from the 1970's, and was an advocate for gay rights in her time. Stuck on the subway she stands up for others on the subway and sprinkled throughout history is her being a good person and helping whoever she can. (Even though she stole a scarf)

The rest of the cast of characters are a range of diversity. These include a jewish gay character, a drag queen, a trans latino character and an asian queer character (based on dating history). I love the amount of diversity and the fact that the love interest was diverse as well. But having all these characters in the background to a white cis character although appreciated opens up the conversation about why August wasn't as diverse as everyone else.

Thank you NetGalley for reaching out to me about this book.
After reading RW&RB by this author, I knew I had to pick up anything and everything they wrote next. City lesbians in a Kate and Leopoldo retelling? Sign me up! I was absolutely obsessed with this book. Casey has such a way with writing characters, I felt like I was actually apart of August’s friend group as I was reading. I wanted to live in this book. I can’t wait until it comes out (no pun intended) so that more people can enjoy this masterpiece. I will definitely be buying myself a physical copy and reading it again this Summer.

4.5 Stars

CWs: Graphic depictions of sex, some instances to homophobia and racism, family estrangement, and allusions to grief and familial loss.

"There aren't perfect moments in life, not really, not when shit has gotten as weird as it can get and you're broke in a mean city and the things that hurt feel so big. But there's the wind flying and the weight of months and a girl hanging out an emergency exit, train roaring all around, tunnel lights flashing, and it feels perfect. It feels insane and impossible and perfect."

Once again, Casey McQuiston has made me feel every single one of my feelings, and I am GRATEFUL.

"One Last Stop" is a joyous, effervescent, incredibly smart, incredibly millennial romantic-comedy. The pitch was "Kate & Leopold" meets quirky queer rom-com, and it is exactly that, but also SO MUCH MORE. Not only is there such an amazing cast of queer characters, phenomenal banter and group dynamics, and a sapphic romance absolutely brimming with yearning and desire, but there's also really strong driving elements of mystery and sci-fi. You get to see August making her way in New York, building up her friend group, and falling in love with this mysterious girl on the subway—and figuring out who Jane really is, where she comes from, and how her existence is even possible is a really central question explored throughout the book.

So not only do you get this delightful slow burn love story between two useless sapphics, but you really get invested in figuring out the mystery and impossibility that is Jane Su, and every single piece of new information irrevocably colors the buddy relationship between August and Jane. Their dynamic is constantly shifting throughout the book, and that's part of what makes it such an addictive story to read.

It's also a deeply emotional story. It really taps into that experience of being unmoored, unsure, and feeling impossibly small in an ever-expanding world. August is a struggling millennial in every possible sense. She works in food service, she always seems to be a dollar away from her savings account quitting on her altogether, she is finishing college but has no idea what life outside of school looks like (or can look like), and she can only see herself as a drowning, unlovable mess. Her life is an unpredictably freeform disaster where everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Not only that, but she is incredibly lonely, and the fact that everyone else seems to know exactly what they should do and who they should be only makes her feel even more lonely.

And that parallels so nicely with what's happening to Jane, a young queer activist perpetually and impossibly stranded on the Q day after day, being surrounded by people and touching so many people's lives but ultimately remaining faceless to so many—just another body on the daily commute. I think the story is very much about these two lonely people recognizing each other in their loneliness and truly seeing the other person for not only who they are but everything they could be. It's the kind of relationship where the more the characters get to know each other, the more they give to each other, the more real they become, not only to the outside world but to themselves. It's about the kind of love that makes you recognize yourself and brings the world around you into even sharper focus.

When all is said and done, it's a beautiful, hilarious, thoughtful love story that's positively overflowing with life and love (and food). It's about learning to let go, to accept that the things that might hurt you are the things most worth fighting for, and that just because something is impossible doesn't mean it's hopeless. It's about how we are all worthy and deserving of incredible love even when our lives are falling apart or when it seems like nothing will ever make sense again. It's a celebration of the people who see you and sustain you and accept you for exactly who you are.

Honestly, I could go on and on and on, but this was just fantastic. It's a blindingly passionate love letter to New York, to friendship, to queerness, to self-discovery, and to magic that's just impossible enough to be possible. Even though there were some threads of backstory I wanted to see developed a little bit more, I absolutely loved this book. It's a masterful and worthy follow-up to "Red, White & Royal Blue" while being entirely different and joyful in its own way. The early praise is more than earned. You will not want to miss this one.

McQuiston's second novel is a fantastical romance. It's an interesting mashup of movies like "Sliding Doors," "Kate & Leopold," and "Serendipity." Fans of these movies will be intrigued, especially if you appreciate seeing a lesbian couple at the center. Unless you're a fan of the genre, it might be a bit of a hard sell. McQuiston is good at setting up the players and MacGuffin of the story, so we can follow what takes place. Yet, the pace does get slow at times, it's a great conceit looking for a plot.

Fans of her wonderful debut novel, 2019's "Red, White, and Royal Blue" will be surprised at how different the two works are. It's clear McQuiston isn't interested in repeating herself. I look forward to seeing where she goes next.

I am so grateful I was able to read this gem before it’s May pub date because it was BEAUTIFUL. If you read Red, White, and Royal Blue, you’re very much aware of Casey McQuiston’s writing. It’s sharp, witty, humorous, and completely tugs at your heartstrings. McQuiston’s follow up novel is every bit as wonderful as you’re imagining it will be. I laughed. I cried. I desperately miss these characters.

August, a lonely perpetual student, moves to New York with hardly a plan. When taking the Q, there she meets Jane and instantly falls in love. But like, very awkwardly because Jane is way cool and August is well, not. Or at least doesn’t think she is. What starts as a friendship, quickly escalates as it turns out Jane is stuck on the Q - an apparition? A ghost? A time traveler? It’s all a bit weird, but August plans to help her figure out her story.

This book made me want to be 23 and live in a tiny ass NYC apartment with some quirky and completely lovable characters. I want my next door neighbor to be a fabulous drag queen, and I want to work at a house of pancakes. PREORDER THIS NOW.