I really enjoy Caseys writing and this was no exception. It not my favorite but the characters were super relatable and the plot kept me reading. I did feel like it droned on at points but all in all it was a great book.

Thanks to St Martins Press and Netgalley for this advanced copy!

I have been finding Casey McQuiston's books a little hit or miss, but let me tell you that this one was a complete hit for me. Kit and Theo are fantastic and I love how McQuiston moves them around Europe while having them learn more and more about each other, why they broke up, and why they should find each other again. And it is SPICY. These two are all over the map and each other and other people and its all good harmless fun until you fall in love again right? Regardless, McQuiston is doing a lot in this book, both from a gender perspective, a sex perspective, a setting perspective, and the food! So much good food and wine in this book. The end came together much as expected, but I appreciated the sort of slow burn (is it a slow burn if there is a sex contest but they aren't hooking up with each other?) of this relationship and McQuiston both leaned into the pettiness we feel when dealing with exs we weren't expecting to see while using it to bring real growth to the characters.

This is hands down my favorite book of the 2024 so far. Casey McQuiston has done it again and if you loved RWRB and One Last Stop, you'll love this book too. The backdrop of a multiple-city European adventure paired with ex-best friends and copious amounts of both hedonism and longing is the perfect recipe for a book that will make you feel wanderlust in the best way. Kit and Theo are so authentically queer and unapologetically themselves that the more the reader finds out about them, the more they also fall in love with the duo. This is the bi 4 bi romance of my dreams and I will be thinking about this book for a long time.

I love Casey McQuiston and was looking forward to this book so much. I love food and my friends and I go to Europe fairly regularly. I am sorry to say I ended up DNFing this book. I did not like the characters at all and the writing just did not seem up to the usual quality I am used to. I kept trying to continue as I saw reviews that said the second half was better but I could not get into it. This was really disappointing but I will try out Casey McQuiston books in the future even if I did not like this one.

I loved this book! It made me want to hop on a plane immediately and go on a food/wine tour of Europe. The entire reading experience was just that -- an experience. I read it in one sitting. I laughed, I giggled, I cried. Loved the 1/2 story dual perspectives. Loved the side characters. Loved Theo and Kit. Loved it all.

Anything by Casey mcquinston is an auto read for me. This one was no different. It was a very satisfying read with lighthearted moments and wonderful reflections of love and loss. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy!

Holy crap I have never felt so seen in a book when it comes to queerness and gender identity. At my grown age I’ve been restruggling with defining what queerness means to me and it was so comforting to read my words reflected back to me so succinctly. This book was so so unbelievably gorgeous and tender and beautiful and lovely. Theo oh my beloved Theo 😭😭😭😭😭😭

i liked this book, but of casey mcquistons it’s probably my least favorite, and that has more to do with me than anything else. second chance romance really isn’t my favorite thing but i gave it a shot because casey mcquiston wrote it.

A decadent, meandering tour of Europe, food, wine, culture, sex, and love. Reading this had me traveling vicariously through Theo and Kit's experiences and enjoying their unique POVs. They're like two peas in a pod, a couple of romantic, bisexual, versatile adventurers out to take in all that Europe offers. For Theo, it's a time to revel in the progress they've made in the past four years, the way they feel at home in their skin and how they take up space in the world. For Kit, it's a complex medley of rediscovering passion and questioning if he's truly living his dream. Their tour is peopled by lovely supporting characters, hot flings with sexy strangers, and surprising new friends. It's idyllic, even in moments of temporary crisis. Sensuous, deeply sexual, and fun.

Casey, Casey, Casey. Thank you so much for allowing me the pleasure of reading and reviewing this book.
Kit and Theo went on an incredible European adventure and the way I had a full sensory experience was awesome. I am a sucker for food and wine and travel and having book bundle all of these in one seemed like a dream come true. However….. I didn’t love it, it felt repetitive and over done in some aspects. I couldn’t fully care about any of the characters and it felt so drawn out at times.
I will always read Casey’s work, but this did not hit for me.

I realized about 25% in that I am not the target audience and was only annoyed with the characters. They were just being twenty somethings and making dumb decisions but I just can’t read another book about it.

I wanted to like this book after loving One Last Stop. But just, no. Not for me.

This book is outrageously bisexual, exceedingly horny, and indulgently pretentious and I am here for it.

I can't be sure how much of this is the right book at the right time and maybe this is recency bias talking, but this may be my favourite book of the year. The emotional connection I felt reading this book was unparalleled. (And that's saying something because there have been a few books this year that really hit hard.) Something about this story and the main relationship touched me in a tender way. In fact, I often found it emotionally overwhelming and had to really parcel out my reading in a way I don't normally do. (Someone I spoke to said they also needed to take breaks because it was almost like they were impaired while reading it and I can totally relate.) I can't remember the last time I cried so hard or so often reading a book.

I've seen some reviews complain about the unlikelihood of our pair encountering so many queer/bisexual people, and maybe it's quintessentially pan(bi)sexual of me to easily come up with a dozen reasons why it still felt in the realm of possibility to me or at least aspirational in the way of books we read to be happy, but that fact is that I bought it.

And I know that some folks felt the food/sights/art descriptions were overdone, and if I'm honest, I would have been fine with them being taken down a notch but overall I enjoyed them and they were part of the reason why the whole book was delicious, if indulgent. And when those parts were at their best, I found they were artfully weaved together with the overall story.

The flaws and restlessness of the main characters was so well balanced with their innate goodness and competence and they felt very real to me. And I loved the whole cast of secondary characters - shout out to Fabrizio though as the MVP in that group.

Often a second chances romance is harder for me to enjoy and it's true that the circumstances of their original breakup are so fucking sad but this is one of those times where I felt like the time and space will contribute to their long-term success as a pairing so it feels worth the pain. And the tension, longing and pining that leads to in this book is exquisite.

When I reflect some more on this, I think that this book may have worked so well for me for a reason similar to RW&RB - because I immediately related to Theo in a lot of ways, that cemented an early emotional attachment to the book. And then having Kit's POV in the second half took this up a whole emotional notch - it makes me think that having Henry's POV in RW&RB would have annihilated me.

I enjoyed this book but not as much as Casey’s others! Casey clearly did their research because I felt like I was on this tour trip with Kit and Theo. I felt like I was in the trip with them. The relationship between Kit and Theo was told so beautifully. Interested to see what Casey writes next!

Uh, Siri? Play “The Cult of Dionysus” by The Orion Experience?

Wow. What a delight this book was. To describe its vibes simply: it’s a hedonistic romp, an experience for all the senses, a triumphant exploration of loving fully and deeply and irrevocably.

<i>The Pairing</i> follows Theo and Kit, childhood best friends turned lovers turned exes, who reunite by accident on a European food tour they had planned to go on together years ago. Forced into proximity, the two quickly create a competition to see who can hook up with the most locals by the end of the tour… all the while trying to avoid confronting all the reasons they broke up and all the ways they still want each other.

Okay, not to brag, but I have read an advanced copy of every single one of Casey’s books, and every time I have a near-religious experience devouring their writing in the space of a few days. This was no exception, and honestly, The Pairing could be considered their most well-crafted story to date.

McQuiston perfectly executed the complex dynamic between Kit and Theo. No small feat, between their complicated history, their rich bond, and the simmering tension and longing between them! The characters leapt off the page and I just. adored them so much. I was rooting so hard for them – especially after around the halfway point, where there’s a turning point in the plot and narration >:)

Another aspect of this book that I adored was its multi-faceted exploration of queerness. It situates and juxtaposes queerness with European art and culture and food, making the queerness feel (correctly!) an essential part of Europe’s history. Also: it’s in-your-face bisexual, it defies easy-to-understand conceptions of nonbinary identity, and it fucks with gender roles in such a sexy way. God, I’m obsessed.

The Pairing really puts the pink and turquoise back into the pride flag, if you know what I mean <3 I really can’t think of a better way to say I loved it than that.

Thank you St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for the eARC of The Pairing. All opinions in this review are my own.

I thought I was going to absolutely love this one and I am so sad that I didn't. I loved the concept of two friends turned into a relationship breaking up right before their European food and wine tour only to be reunited when they end up on the same tour trying to use their vouchers before they expire. I was expecting detailed descriptions of food, wine, and travel, but unfortunately that's not what I got. Extremely early on in the book, Theo and Kit become friends again and make a bet of who can sleep with the most people. This was so frustrating to read because they clearly were still in love with each other and just needed to actually talk about their feelings with each other. The book did get better after it switched to Kit's point of view and you realize how much he has missed Theo. The ending was really sweet too. I just wish the first half was more like the second half.

I am torn about The Pairing. I was very excited to read this book after reading the lovely rom com Red, White and Royal Blue, and I was aware of the storyline about two bi-sexual exes going on a European vacation together. I absolutely tore through the book in a day because it’s an easy, quick, kind of smutty read. (Note: this book was unexpectedly sexually graphic). But I was irritated for at least 50% of the book because Theo is such a self saboteur. Literally everyone, from the strangers on the tour, to Kit and Theo’s family, and you, the reader, can see these two idiots should be together. It’s endlessly frustrating to read their inner thoughts, and see their poor communication and self-sabotaging destructive behavior. In the end, it all still seemed too much about sex and not enough about a real relationship or communication. I did love the setting and depiction of all their travel destinations and food experiences. Book me on that trip ASAP. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for my ARC.

This was good but not great This one was already a tough sell because I don't love a second chance romance but that's on me, not the book. I should have known better! Overall, The Pairing is cute, the European setting is super fun but... Nothing has hit the way Red White and Royal Blue did for me.

I absolutely loved this book. Such beautiful food imagery that it would make you hungry after a single chapter. Such wonderful depictions of sexuality and friendship and love. I felt like something was missing, but overall I really loved it.

🍷There’s just no reason a romance, especially a second-chance one, needs to be this long! That said, this was a cute, spicy story and I did enjoy the audio. Thank you so much to @stmartinspress for the sneak peek at this. It’s out now!

🍷 Ok, so this one had a lot!
- travel
- second chance romance
- friends to lovers
- spice 🌶️🌶️
- food and drink descriptions that will leave you drooling
- loveable characters
- LOL scenes

🍷 When two bisexual exes go on a tour of Europe and challenge each other to a hook up competition, there’s a lot of possibilities! So beware this one is open door for sure!

🍷 I honestly liked a lot about this, but ultimately when you’re looking at a second-chance romance you KNOW how it’s going to end, and the journey just shouldn’t be this long. By the end I had pumped my audiobook up to 2.75x just to get to the point. If I was sitting down with a physical copy I would likely have DNF’d it.

🍷 That said, if you’ve liked McQuinston’s books in the past or have a soft spot for any of the tropes or storylines I mentioned above you should give the audio a try!

This book was interesting about 1/3 of the way, Theo is a very funny MC, the travel was interesting... then it got repetitive. Lack of communication, the sex bet, the peach... definitely not my cup of tee.
I did like, however, the gender affirmation in this book. Very well and tastefully done.