This was probably a 3.5 star that I rounded up. The first part of the book is from Theo's point of view and I wasn't enjoyed it that much. I didn't like the choices both characters were making. The second half of the book is from Kit's point of view and I started to enjoy it more. I was still not keen on the amount of sleeping around all the characters were doing. I honestly don't really like a romance where the two main characters are sleeping with other people. But I really enjoyed the descriptions of various places they visited and lover all the food descriptions. That helped redeem it for me. Overall a decent book.

The Pairing by Casey McQuiston ⭐️⭐️⭐️

What I loved:
🍷 The travel scenes were so fun and made for a super aesthetic read. Anyone who has been to Europe or dreams of going to Europe will love it.
🍷 All the wine talk! I love a book about food and/ or wine and this was delightful.
🍷Their romance development felt very real and even though I usually hate the miscommunication trope, I felt this was well done.

What I didn’t love:
🧳 The book had a little too much spice for my taste. Others might appreciate that but I wish I had known going into it!
🧳 Overall it just felt a little too long. Scenes definitely could have been cut or reduced and the product would have been the same.

I have been a long time fan of Casey McQuiston and will definitely continue to read her new books but this one wasn’t my favorite! Definitely would be a favorite for someone with different reading tastes!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Kit and Theo’s breakup left them both reeling. Four years later, Theo decides to finally go on the European food and wine tour they had booked together. And so does Kit. Meeting again, they are reminded of what they loved about each other and what eventually went wrong.

The Pairing, a.k.a My Slutty Bisexual Summer (my subtitle, not McQuiston’s), was so much fun. I loved the setting, the characters, the banter, and of course the food. It was the perfect steamy summer read, and had me wishing I was floating down the French Riviera. It also has a powerful message about gender, coming out, and finding people who appreciate the whole you for who you are. The conversation around these themes in the book was really interesting and heartfelt. I loved the representation. Kit and Theo’s relationship is really sweet, including childhood friends and second chance romance tropes. Fair warning, it is a bit spicier than McQuiston’s previous books! But that too was a beautiful exploration of queer sexual expression, and I’m here for it.

Casey McQuiston never misses. I love everything about this book from the characters and their relationships to the settings and the conflicts. Theo and Kit both felt so real and relatable and I absolutely loved their relationship. Friends-to-lovers isn’t always my favourite, but this one really worked.

Of course, the representation and celebration of pleasure in all its forms was one of the biggest highlights. It’s just so well done, so fun to read and so impactful.

Loved all of the food descriptions! I am a huge fan of Red, White & Royal Blue and One Last Stop. I enjoyed this one too and would recommend it.

This book was a DNF for me. Personally, I just could not get into the story and did not like the characters.

I'm so glad I finally had the time to pick up this novel because truly it is one of Casey's best books. I am kind of a sucker for a second chance romance, and you never stop rooting for Kit + Theo to get the hell out of their own ways and get back together despite everything that has happened since their first almost-trip to this food and wine tour. I think loving someone, falling completely out of touch, becoming a new and (improved?) person, and then gettin ghte chance to fall back in love knowing everything you know now, and knowing yourself as a solo unit it so important and did so much for me.

The food and drinks described in this book were insane, and I was so hungry the whole time. The food porn in this book was incredible, and my five senses tingled the entire read between the beautiful settings, Casey's eye for descriptions, and for the beautiful people really transported me to the European cities I've always wanted to go to and haven't gotten the chance to visit yet.

The supporting characters were lovely, and I miss them so much. I wish I could spend another several hours with everyone else on this tour, and the many many lovely faces we met during the journey.

I know not everyone loved this book, but I did and that's what matters to me. I think it's some of Casey's strongest writing to date, and I enjoyed myself the entire time. It was a really special, fun read and exactly what I needed when I read it.

Overall, not my favorite McQuiston novel. I enjoyed the backdrop of the European vacation, however, there were a lot of inaccuracies. My biggest grip with this book is the characters; I found them rather underdeveloped and flat. There was nothing compelling about their relationship or why we should root for them to get back together. I found it particularly hard to sympathize with Theo, whose major personality point was being a nepo baby. Even worse, when we see Kit's perspective, it's almost entirely centered on Theo; I would've loved for more time to have been spent developing these two characters as their own people rather than solely focused on their relationship. I've liked McQuiston's other releases, but this one unfortunately missed the mark for me.

Ultimately these characters (Theo and Kit as well as the plethora of side characters) really charmed me, and CMQ’s prose lent itself well to the visceral European settings and beautiful atmospheric moments. And, I’m a sucker for second chance romances.

Parts of the book (especially the middle third) dragged, and I think it might have worked better for me had it been cut by about 75 pages. Would still recommend for CMQ fans or if the description sounds good to you! 3.5 stars rounded up

I think this is the first McQuiston where the characters are a little older and already comfortable in their queer identities.

The Pairing explores themes of love, identity, and personal growth. McQuiston's engaging dialogue and heartfelt moments create a delightful reading experience that balances humor and emotion. While I didn't enjoy this as much as RWRB, the book was still a fun and breezy read that made me want to drop everything and travel to Europe.

What I loved: the setting and the characters. Theo and Kit are on a culinary tour throughout Europe and it made me wish I was traveling alongside with them. I enjoyed getting to know them and liked when the point of view flipped half way through the book to get both Theo and Kit's thoughts. The side characters were delightful and they meet a ton of people in each place as well. I loved how the story ultimately resolved.

What was a little lost on me: There is a ton of wine name dropping, which makes sense because Theo is a wine aficionado, but it didn't enhance the scenes much for me. There were a so so many characters and it was hard to keep them all straight by the end. The book frequently moves locations and it was hard to tie scenes into locations by the end.

I loved the plot of this book. I felt like it was a little long-winded, and there were multiple times throughout the book I realized I was dozing off, but overall, a fun read.

UGH I did not like this book one bit. I loved Casey's first book, Red, White, and Royal Blue but every book after has felt so forced to me. The relationship felt completely wrong, there was too much yet not enough going on, and after the first couple of cities, every single stop felt the same. 2 stars.

Theo and Kit are two bisexual exes who swear they’re over each other – except they’re totally not. Then they accidentally find themselves on the same European food and wine tour, and they are trapped with each other for three weeks. Not so bad, right? Get ready for a tons of sex, food and gorgeous views in this wild ride of a romance novel.

I love me some Casey McQuiston, and she has a reader for life in me. I just don't know that this one hit home for me. It read more like a food and travel guide with sex scenes sprinkled throughout than an engaging story about two people falling and their life story together. One thing I have to say is that McQuiston always nails the humanity of the characters, so while it is can be categorized as an LGBTQ+ novel, it just reads as two people who happen to have fluid desires. I have to applaud her for that.

Hedonistic romp through Europe, but not in a good way. Not for me, even as a fan of McQuiston's earlier works. Almost seems like it was ghost written.

This is probably the steamiest book I've read of Casey McQuiston. I really enjoyed this childhood friends to lovers, second chance romance. If you are a fan of food and decadence (after all, love and food do go together), you will enjoy this romance. The audio book was well done as well, and it really does lend to the atmosphere this book is rich in.

I would like to thank the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the ARC of this book. I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition of the book might be slightly different. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

The Pairing is McQuiston’s return to adult romance after their recent YA release, and I was super excited for it. I’ve been following McQuiston’s writing since Red, White, & Royal Blue was released, and each new release continues to show their skill and range when it comes to writing.

While I’m not sure if I can say this one is my favorite book of theirs, I really enjoyed this one overall. Something about this book just fully gripped me, to the point where certain parts of it made me extremely anxious (showing I was fully invested in the story!) There were just so many layers to the story for me to sink into, from strong emotions Theo felt about themself and their ex to the exploration of gender. There were points where it felt like a book written especially for me, with so many of my fears and emotions reflected in the characters (and especially Theo).

The setting of Europe honestly felt like a set dressing to me, because my focus was always more on the internal journeys of our characters than the actual physical one they were taking. For that reason, the characterization or stereotypes of the places they visited didn’t really affect me that much, even though I can understand the criticism of it afterward. I think your experience with this part of the book will really depend on what parts of the story are most interesting to you and what you end up focusing on more.

The one thing that keeps me from giving this book a perfect 5 stars is the POV shift that occurs halfway through. On the one hand, I loved the sudden shift itself and it felt like it hit me really hard in the moment to see it. However, I ended up disliking that the shift was so complete, and losing Theo’s voice and narration really hurt my enjoyment of the final half of the book. I still really enjoyed it, but I felt like I’d connected strongly with Theo, and losing their POV felt like losing a lot of my favorite parts of the book. Even though I enjoyed the surprise shift, I think I would’ve enjoyed the book more overall if the story was more consistently split POV instead.

Overall though, I really enjoyed The Pairing and the comfort and understanding I could find in its pages. I can’t wait to see what’ll come next!

I heard on Bad on Paper that this book was the perfect vacation book. I saved it for a family cruise, and it was the best escape to read by the pool. Usually, I like one character more than the other but that was not the case for this book. Instead, I was yelling at both characters to go for it! Not only were the characters well developed but the descriptions of the food, setting made me want to book a trip immediately.

Thank you to Casey McQuiston, St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Griffin, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.