This might be my new favorite read! I enjoyed it more than Red, White and Royal Blue, but that was also a 5 star read for me. I loved having queer representation in the book, and even more importantly, a queer love story!
There's substance in August and Jane's back stories as well as their relationship, and I fell in love with their found family. Loved this book. Can't wait to see what Casey McQuiston writes next.

Practically perfect. The supporting characters and side stories were just as well formed as the the main focus of the book. I think McQuiston’s second novel is brilliant and original with so much spice. A refreshing addition to the Romance genre.

What a cute book with such a unique plot! I honestly decided to review this book because I saw it popping up all over Instagram and I didn't even realize it was by the same author as Red, White and Royal Blue (which is on my neverending TBR). I'm really glad I decided to snag it from Netgalley.
August was a relatable character right from the beginning. She decided to move to NYC knowing no one because she feels like she doesn't belong. She doesn't think her roommates will become her friends, she doesn't think NYC will be her place either. Until she meets Subway Girl who happens to magically take every single subway train August is on and of course they fall in love. Jane is such a cool girl straight from the 70's (literally) and seems to be everything August isn't. August's roommates Myla (spelling?), Nico and Wes were people I would absolutely love to happen to become roommates with. They immediately make August feel welcome (even if it takes her a while to actually feel welcome). There were so many other great side characters too.
Finding out Jane is actually misplaced in time from the 70's was so out there and I loved it. I loved August's determination to get her back to her own time even if it means losing her. August bringing Jane random things to try to trigger memories was really fun but also heartbreaking because you knew that the more they figured out about what happened to Jane, the more it seemed to become that she would be going back to her own time. I also loved how Jane's problem connected to the sub plots of August's missing uncle and the restaurant August works at potentially closing.
Overall an absolutely cute romance with a little bit of mystery and a whole lot of diversity!

This was a very strange book and a lot of reality needed to be put to the side because of how there was such a focus on time travel. I did not love that part. I was hoping for a more believable love story, but that could have been my fault going into the story blindly. It was not the worst book I have read this year, it just was not for me. I liked the narrator of the audiobook.

"To a place to belong."

Title: One Last Stop
Author: Casey McQuiston
Audience: Adult, Emerging Adult
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

That's the toast that the owner of Pancake Billy's House of Pancakes in Brooklyn makes to his staff. It's also a guiding mantra for this perfect, perfect book.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston (Red, White, and Royal Blue) is perfection. To call it a romance novel fails to do the well-explored themes of grief and family and queerness and self-discovery and community justice.

The meet-cute setup between August -- a new-to-the-city bi college girl -- and Jane -- a ripped-jeans-and-motorcycle-jacket-styled butch -- is the stuff rom-com dreams are made of. It's an "Oops! I spilled my coffee all over myself on the subway!" scenario we've seen a thousand times before but under McQuiston's wordsmithery spell it feels fresh. Especially considering everything that happens after the meet cute doesn't follow the rom-com rules, up to and including a bit of magical realism. Fear not, reader: your suspension of disbelief isn't a big ask here; it fits seamlessly.

And the characters. Oh, these characters. I would like to request spinoffs for each of August's roommates -- Myla, Niko, and Wes -- please and thank you. Nobody here feels secondary, not even the line cooks at Billy's. Everybody has their place; everybody belongs.

And that, again, is the heartbeat of One Last Stop. To whom do we belong? To our biological families? Our found families? To ourselves? To the universe? A little of it all? How does belonging to something or someone else help us to also discover ourselves?

A friend of mine recommended this book to me so I was excited when the opportunity to listen to the audio book on Netgalley popped up. It was a great read for pride month. I enjoyed the time warp part of the story line probaboy more thab anything. Sometimes the story could get a little sexually explicit, which doesn't bother me, but I know it does bother others. Overall, I thought it was a good story with a lot of character, humor, and heart.

One Last Stop is an interesting story about paranormal time travel and love. While I absolutely loved the representation found in Casey McQuiston's characters, I found the paranormal/time travel aspect to be very confusing. I felt as if the author wasn't even sure what her intention was and in turn, the ending didn't make much sense.

Unfortunately, main character August was not incredibly likable and her relationship with her mother was frustrating at best. Jane's character was definitely a huge redeeming quality of this book for me!

This is a wonderful book. Casey McQuiston does it again!

This is a romance between August and Jane with a paranormal or sci-fi element to it. Which just intensifies this page turner.

💕 This was one of my most anticipated reads since I loved RWARB and I was just as happy with this one! I listened to the audiobook narrated by Natalie Naudus and she was fantastic.

💕 It had an all star group of secondary characters! It would make my day if Wes and Issac got their own story as well 😍

💕 It does require you too suspend your disbelief because of the supernatural element but I’ve always loved some paranormal/fantasy/scifi stuff so I was 100% on board with Jane being stuck in time and bound to the Q!

💕August is my fave! She’s quirky and a cute little detective who tries to be cynical but really has a gooey heart!

This was so good! Different, and sweet, with an ending that was better than I'd hoped. My only criticism is that is felt unnecessarily long. The author could've cut out 50+ pages and the story would have been just as effective. Overall, though, I highly recommend!

This book is incredible, and the narration of the audiobook made it even better! The audiobook is at turns hilarious, romantic, swoony, steamy, and suspenseful.

Back in 2019, I was driving from Texas to California and needed an audiobook to help pass the hours on the road. I had just returned from a vacation in London, so I was instantly drawn to Casey McQuiston's Red, White, and Royal Blue. That slow building romance between the President's son and a Prince of England instantly drew me in and had me longing to read more from McQuiston. It has been three years, but she's finally released a new work. Fortunately for me, her publisher was kind enough to send me a copy of it.

Like most young people her age, August has moved to New York City intending to pave her own path in the world. At home in New Orleans, her life was mostly tied to her mother's obsessive search for her long-lost uncle. While August gained an abnormal proficiency in the art of investigation, that is by no means her own passion. She's got a degree of her own to finish, and New York seems like the perfect place to start anew. Her apartment, a small place that towers above a Popeye's Chicken of all things, comes with a band of quirky roommates who instantly accept August as their own. She lands a job bussing tables at a local diner. Life isn't glamourous by any means, but August feels good about the place she's in.

Each day, August rides the Q to work and school. If you've ever ridden on a New York subway, you'll know about the interesting cast of characters that you usually find riding with you. August tries to mind her own business during her daily commute, but she can't help but notice the gorgeous girl who is always on the train. Jane is everything that August isn't. She's effortlessly cool with a vintage style that is all her own. She's confident and kind, not afraid to step in and help out a complete stranger. As August continues her daily ride on the Q, her crush on Jane grows and grows. The pair strike up a friendship that begins to veer toward romance, but a relationship isn't exactly in the cards for them. You see, Jane has ridden these rails since the 1970s, frozen in time as the world has moved on around her. She is bound to this train, unable to leave or travel anywhere else. August might be the only person who can help her escape this phenomenon, but she risks threatening their relationship in the process.

Casey McQuiston follows up her hit debut novel with One Last Stop, another captivating romance that will instantly draw you in. McQuiston excels in building chemistry between two characters, and I found her writing of the brimming relationship between her two main characters to be the highlight of this novel. You can't help but root for the two women and dream of them being able to come together. McQuiston fills the story with a supporting cast that represents the diversity of the city she's writing about, a move that I'd love to see more fiction authors follow. Having characters of different nationalities, ages, genders, and sexual orientations added a richness to this story that others in the genre usually lack.

Strong characters aside, I just couldn't fall in love with this book. I really wanted to love it, but the plotting surrounding the story's central mystery just fell flat for me. I think it came down to a lack of balance between the "frozen in time" hook and the actual relationship between the characters. So many pages were devoted to a plot point that just didn't pay off for me. As the ending approached, I was enthralled by the relationship, but frustrated with a twist that was all too convenient. Even the ending seemed unsure of which way to close the story. As the novel concluded, I was left feeling that the individual elements of the novel were more satisfying than the story as a whole. There's much to love about One Last Stop, and I seem to be in the minority of reviewers on it. While I didn't love the book, I still think it is a worthy addition from an obviously gifted author. I'll still be the first in line to read whatever Casey McQuiston comes up with next.

***I received a copy of this ebook from netgalley in exchange for an honest review***

“There was this girl. I met her on a train. The first time I saw her, she was covered in coffee and smelled like pancakes, and she was beautiful like a city you always wanted to go to, like how you wait years and years for the right time, and then as soon as you get there, you have to taste everything and touch everything and learn every street by name. I felt like I knew her. She reminded me who I was. She had soft lips and green eyes and a body that wouldn’t quit. [...] Hair like you wouldn’t believe. Stubborn, sharp as a knife. And I never, ever wanted a person to save me until she did.”†


This book is a sapphic masterpiece. Casey McQuiston can truly write a millennial contemporary romance like no other. She effortlessly creates characters that feel so real I can practically drag them off the page. McQuiston builds dynamic and hilarious found families, and is is endlessly gifted at creating organic banter that flows effortlessly between deep conversation and casual dialogue. I am OBSESSED with August and her fabulously diverse roommates. (Niko is EVERYTHING!!!)

I adored the way McQuiston grounded the done-to-death ~timeslip~ plot with actual facets of queer history. It gave more emotional depth to a story that had a ton of potential to end up gimmicky.

And the ROMANCE. Does anyone really yearn as hard as the gays? Because One Last Stop had some absolute god tier yearning. I was losing my mind.


“I fell in love with you the day I met you, and then I fell in love with the person you remembered you are. I got to fall in love with you twice. That’s—that’s magic. You’re the first thing I’ve believed in since—since I don’t even remember, okay, you’re—you’re movies and destiny and every stupid, impossible thing, and it’s not because of the fucking train, it’s because of you. It’s because you fight and you care and you’re always kind but never easy, and you won’t let anything take that away from you. You’re my fucking hero, Jane. I don’t care if you think you’re not one. You are.”†


I loved the narrator… Coincidentally, I had just listened to two other books featuring the same person, and thoroughly enjoyed their work in both. Was thrilled to see their name attached to One Last Stop, too. Perfect choice!


†must be checked against final text

This was my first book by Casey and it definitely won't be the last. I really loved this book.

August had my heart right from the start. I could see pieces of myself in her. I could also see pieces of myself in Myla. This found family is one of the best that I've read in quite a while. I loved everyone from this incredible friend group, but Myla was most definitely my favorite.

I loved the chemistry between Jane and August. I was hoping throughout the book that they would be able to get Jane unstuck and able to stay with August.

I went through all of the emotions during this story. I laughed, I cried, I swooned.

I listened to the audio version of this book and really loved the narrator. She did a great job of changing her voice between all of the different characters.

While there were many original quirks to this novel, I found a disturbing similarity to the novel Subway Love by Nora Raleigh Baskin published in 2014. In all honesty, my discomfort prevented me from truly enjoying One Last Stop.

Having heard so much about this novel and having LOVED Case McQuiston's last book, I jumped at the chance to listen to the audiobook of One Last Stop, unfortunately, after having listened to more than 45% of this novel, I have to dnf it. I feel that it hasn't really progressed and is simply overly long and unduly burdensome.. While I really liked the characters of August and Jane, neither character really pulled me in and I didn't understand why August got so caught up on Jane when she couldn't have her. In the end, I think I am simple the wrong reviewer for this novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the alc.

This book had comedy, romance, fantasy, and friends-made-family. The narrator brought all the characters to life for me. The author offered multiple types of relationships and family dynamics that made it feel more like reality. Loved this book!

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
Publication Date: June 1, 2021
.
Description from NetGalley…
“For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures.

But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.

Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all.”
.
Thank you to @netgalley @macmillan.audio @stmartinspress #stmartinsgriffin
.
My thoughts…
Unexpected. So, I went into this blind after seeing @gregslibrary story about this and it was such a great surprise. First, I really enjoyed the narrator I thought she was perfect for this book. The characters, both main and secondary were so fun - shout out to Annie Depressant - and the way the whole subway meeting unfolded was just so exciting. Then, you throw in the steamy supernatural vibe, it could only be an entertaining read. For me, I hope there’ll be a sequel about the “road trip.”
.
.
I want to add, Natalie Naudus has become a fave narrator for me. She’s just so versatile.

One Last Stop was a book that completely surprised me. I knew I was going to give it a read or listen, but I couldn't have imagined the trip I'd take. That's what I get for not reading the blurb and just knowing that it was going on my list of MUST READS.
I was kind of scared to listen to this book since I loved Casey McQuiston's first book, Red, White and Royal Blue (which is one I constantly recommend) so much. I went in with my eyes and heart open and gave it a shot. It's definitely a different, very unique yet refreshing tale of family, love and....time travel? From the combination of ragtag characters to the groundhog day same settings, this book is slow at points and confusing at others, but one that ended up coming together and worked.

From the moment we meet August, I already knew I wanted to know more about her. Her relationship with her mother and the way she was a forever college student. It's like she wanted to make no attachments to life or people around her. Until she moves to the city and ends up roommates with an eclectic group of characters. She goes to school and works at a local diner and takes the Q train. That's basically her life. Until Jane appears on the Q and they have a meet cute that will forever change both of their lives.

I fell in love with August and Jane and their journey to find answers and their attraction to one another that is slow to take off. Jane is a special character that almost overshadowed August at some points. I really liked her, her vibe and her whole attitude. Besides Jane, her roommates and her work friends are part of the cast that I had to keep straight. There were A LOT of characters to try to distinguish between and remember, but Natalie Naudus did a great job with the narration and all of the accents. Her narration was a step above and helped me figure out who was who as the story progressed. Because when you have a whole crew of characters, sometimes it's hard to remember how everyone is connected. I give major props to Natalie for bringing this story and it's characters alive.

If you're open to a little something different and to a woman that is looking to connect and make her own family, I think you will like August and Jane's story. It's different and not for everyone, but still one I enjoyed if you can make it out of the slower parts and enjoy the build up to September. ;)

This time-split, queer rom-com is like a John Hughes movie in book form. A great cast of character who are diverse, hilarious, and utterly quotable. This book is great for fans of Talia Hibbert and Jasmine Guillory.