From the very first page, I was hooked. Theo is this lovable, realistic character on a journey of self-discovery, learning to trust themself, and faced with well, their greatest heartache on a beautiful food tour in Europe. It’s just so classically queer. Kit is endearing and thoughtful, quietly holding onto the aches in his heart in the hopes of gifting others happiness. His grappling with his family’s past, life choices, and also seeing his ex on a food tour take him on an introspective personal journey. Of course, it wouldn’t be two queers trying to make this impromptu run in any less awkward than adding a little competition between friends.

I laughed and cried and highlighted my way through this entire book. McQuiston steps out of young-adult and into adult romance with their usual wit, pop-culture references, and incredible character-building skills. It feels like a McQuiston novel, but with sensuality and adult humor, and personally, I just loved it. I enjoyed the long food descriptions, the fellow tour attendees, and the absolute unhinged sexual chemistry that they all carried with them. I know there are people out there who aren’t as comfortable in their own sexual nature, but this book so perfectly captured that many are very comfortable and I found it authentic. Plus, the food innuendos were *chef’s kiss*.

On a more personal note, I highlighted the heck out of this book. Theo’s self-discovery was so relatable for me. Kit and Theo’s childhood friendship, their love, and their absolute desperation for one another to be happy was so beautiful and profound. I cried and cried and cried some more. How a book can be both laugh out loud funny, super gay, and also full of heart is something only McQuiston can answer, because they did this.

Find me reading this book every summer. I’m sure I can find 20 more standout scenes to highlight. It was fun and queer and horny and had a lot of heart. With beautiful food descriptions, incredible settings, and a pile of spice, The Pairing is the summer read.

Casey McQuiston can do no wrong! While this book is a little different from their others, I still got immediately encapsulated in the world of Theo and Kit and couldn't put the book down. It's so refreshing to read a romance about two people who are so sure of themselves and their sexualities. I loved the usage of dual POVs and getting to read each half of the story from a different point of view, it made me connect so much deeper with both Theo and Kit. Thank you Net Galley for this e-arc!

4.5 ⭐️

A second-chance romance, friends-to-lovers romp around Europe on a food tour? Sign me up!

Kit & Theo were best friends turned lovers…until they broke up on a transatlantic flight to Europe. Four years later, the pair find themselves thrust back together — on *that* European food tour. There’s nothing left between them, so why not challenge each other to a hook-up competition? Nothing can go wrong…right?

Things I liked:
🍇 Tour of Europe through food & drink — It truly felt like I was there (which was a much needed escape during the last few weeks of pregnancy)
🍇 Non-binary rep! I loved that once Theo came out, Kit immediately accepted them. I truly felt for Theo — they didn’t feel like they fit in…
🍇 I’m a sucker for friends-to-lovers (even if this book was just basically one huge miscommunication!!)
🍇 Dual POV (part one from Theo’s perspective & part two from Kit’s)

I was very excited for a new McQuiston book, and it truly did not disappoint. I picked m this up *right* after I read Call Me By Your Name… and while the two are very different books, I felt there were some comparisons. The sexual tension, European summer love, angst…

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I just couldn’t get into this book, I tried a thousand times to get thru it and I just couldn’t.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the summer because I love One Last Stop and Red, White and Royal Blue.

This just wasn’t it- I don’t understand why the POV was spilt the way it was, I think it would have been more bearable if Theo and Kits POVs were back and forth between chapters.

This was just a huge let down.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

Finally going on the trip of a lifetime, Theo never expects to find the person who broke her heart - and who she was supposed to go on the original trip with - sat next to the only available seat on the bus. Kit had been her best friend, and partner, and broke her heart. Now trapped for three weeks on a romantic European wine and food tour, they have to make the best of a bad situation, and try and come out the other side with their hearts intact.

I've been putting off writing this review for so long. Like the rest of the world, I loved Red, White and Royal Blue, and found I Kissed Shara Wheeler enjoyable too. So I was expecting that The Paiing would be as good too, but I found I was forcing myself to finish the book, and was just pushing myself to the end so I didn't have to DNF it. I mean, the book wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either, at least in my opinion. I found this book so frustrating. It was the biggest case of miscommunication and dramatic actions that I've read in a long time, and both Theo and Kit were characters I found lacking, and I wasn't engaging with them. I found myself not bothered about their love story, or even if they got together in the end. Not something I would expect from this author, and I'm not wary on reading another of her books in the future.

There is so much to love about The Pairing!
The storyline is emotional and poignant with some past misunderstanding coming to light. I fell in love with Kit right away but it took a little longer with Theo, but after seeing them through Kit’s eyes, I was a goner.

“We were doing such a good impression of old friends who’ve never seen each other naked, and now I’ve dumped our nudes on the cobblestones.”

One of my favorite things is the book’s vivid scenic descriptions. The author paints a stunning picture of the beauty of the places Kit and Theo visited. Each setting is brought to life with such detail that I could almost feel the warm sun and gentle breeze. Also, I was all in for the food and wine pairings, describing each dish and vintage with mouthwatering precision, making me crave the sumptuous meals and exquisite wines.

The author’s voice and dry humor that I’ve come to look forward to in previous books came through in this sexy but slow burn story.

“Those men are terminally straight.”
“Nobody’s straight on a European vacation.”
“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” I observe, picturing Kit picking up tourists at bars in Montmartre.
“Historic precedent. They switch everyone to bisexual at passport control.”
“Damn, that’s what the stamp’s for? Could’ve skipped the line.”

I might be showing my age but there was a little too much ‘fast and loose’ for me especially with different and varied partners..It seemed that everyone was constantly horny and not very particular ;)
All in all I did love reading Theo and Kit’s story.
-4.5 Stars-

I have loved every CMQ book i've read, but this one was my asbolute favorite! I couldn't put it down and the way the story was built up and then unfolded was beautiful in so many ways, while also being funny and lighthearted and entertaining. would fully recommend to anyone needing a little dose of happiness in their lives.

thank you to netgalley and st. martin's press for the digital-ARC.

This is a second chance romance where it follows our two main characters who meet again after 5 years on the same trip, and follows there love story from there. This book contains a number of food references (honestly makes sense with the title). However while I could appreciate the pop culture references, I could not resonate with the characters.

Big big fan of Casey McQuiston!! Red, White and Royal Blue is one of my all time favorites.
This story is about Theo and Kit. And a whole lot about food and wine and their travels overseas.
I was a bit bored with this one. It just wasn’t grabbing my attention like I thought it would. I kept putting it down and then was always hard to pick it back up. The story itself is good, I just don’t think it was for me!

The tour sounds so romantic and it's quite ironic that these jilted lovers happen to choose the same time to take the tour. Sometimes life just happens like that. I love the writing style of Casey McQuiston. She really adds so much to the story beyond a typical rom-com. Forced proximity for the win!

4.25/5 stars, rounded down

Thank you St. Martin's Griffin for the advanced reading copy!

This was a super fun, super smutty journey through Europe! First off, setting was 10/10. Reading about all of the cities, big and small, that the tour group visited was super fun, and the food/drinks they consumed made me want to book a flight immediately. The descriptions were well-written and gorgeous. I thought this was really well done and added a lot to the story, but didn't take up too much time. The romance itself was pretty cute and a well-done second-chance romance. Theo and Kit had pretty good conflict resolution in the present and no super annoying misunderstandings. The POVs were done REALLY well, giving us a non-traditional glimpse at the past and present from both characters' eyes. This book was SUPER smutty. These scenes were creative, steamy and fun. Having bisexual characters with varying gender identities added so much unexpected dimension to the spice that was pretty cool to read. There were definitely parts of this book that I just didn't quite connect with and I think this was just a bit too long, but I enjoyed it overall!

SYNOPSIS -- Theo and Kit always said they would go on a European food and wine tour together. That is, until they broke up almost 2 years ago. Now, the last month to use the nearly-expired voucher, Theo is determined to go on the tour alone and enjoy it themselves. Enter: Kit. Theo and Kit have been childhood besties, deeply in love, and now, estranged exes forced to spend three weeks together traveling Europe. While the last two years have been pretty different for each of them, they're both determined to reconnect as friends, and prove to the other that they're totally okay with the breakup. So okay, in fact, that they set up a sex competition to see who can hook up with more people throughout their trip. Only one rule: they can't hook up with each other. This will go well, right?

This book was everything I want in a romance. Funny, emotionally poignant, and unbelievably hot, I fell in love from the first chapter. Casey McQuiston is THE romance writer to me, and this may be my favourite one yet. There was such a sense of overindulgence and art in this story that made me feral and the characters are truly soulmates. I cannot recommend this enough!

The Lizzie McGuire movie if it were gay and extremely horny ✌🏻

——— 🍷🍰🍝

I mean - this is a book about two bisexual exes booking the same wine/food tour of Europe and then dealing with that awkwardness, but yeah, that’s as deep as it gets. Just European city 👏 booze 👏 food 👏 hooking up 👏 another city 👏

And look, as a (retired) slutty bisexual myself, that would normally be enough! But this is Casey McQuiston we’re talking about and I expect a bit more from them.

Which is not to say I had a bad time - I absolutely did not, it was a fine time. The food and art and wine descriptions made me wish I was on the tour with them instead of sweating on public transit. There were moments that got the specifics of the bi experience so accurate it was downright eerie (The Moulin Rouge of it all).

But mostly, I found the writing to be repetitive and self-indulgent (occasionally slipping into full-blown cheesy territory), and a hair too long at nearly 400 pages. Instead of charmed, I kept wondering when this whole thing would end.

And from the subject matter alone, I get that this was a probably a very personal thing to write, maybe even something McQuiston felt they NEEDED to write. I think there is merit in this aspect alone, and I can see this expanding the romance genre further.

Still, there was just something wooden about The Pairing that never allowed it to resonate deeper with me.

Though this one might be a really solid choice if you’re traveling for end of summer vacations or trips - the wanderlust seeping off the page is infectious and fill you with even more excitement for your own adventures.

A food and wine tour of Europe reunites a pair of exes in this delicious second chance romance, my favorite of McQuiston's after 𝘙𝘦𝘥, 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦 & 𝘙𝘰𝘺𝘢𝘭 𝘉𝘭𝘶𝘦. I cannot wait for the special edition I preordered to arrive!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the copy to review.

I struggle with this book because while I definitely had a lot of fun reading this book, I didn't necessarily find it to be a necessarily good book. The setting itself was fantastic - I haven't been to all of the places mentioned in the book, but I feel like I can picture them vividly and it definitely made me want to go visit those places.

I feel like this was much longer than it needed to be. It dragged, and every time I thought we were reaching some sort of inciting incident or anything, it just continued to drag on.

I also feel like it really leaned into the stereotype of bisexuals being promiscuous far too much. And I found the characters to be way too immature; I think their actions would have worked better if this was a YA book, but they were pushing 30 and acting like this??? I also just hate the miscommunication trope, which was a huge reason for their initial breakup.

When I pick up a Casey McQuiston book, I know I'm in for a fun time with a romance that strikes the right balance of comedy and emotion. The Pairing is billed as a romcom about two exes, Theo and Kit, who end up crossing paths for the first time four years after their seismic breakup. In an especially awkward reunion, they realize they've both booked the same food and wine tour through Europe. Theo proposes a hookup competition to keep the peace and make the most of this trip (and manage their lingering attraction). Chaotic bisexual hijinks ensue.

I really love a forced proximity story (and a road trip romance!), but I find second chance romance can be a difficult premise to land. McQuiston's characters have such heart, that they stick the landing. The leads have really fun banter as they slip back into their old familiar rapport, despite the fallout from their breakup, striking a really nice balance with the more vulnerable, emotional scenes. The tour guides and other travelers make a great supporting cast, and the European backdrop (and the sensuous food descriptions) are divine. It's a really good summery read with a lot of heart. The chapters in Kit's POV are a treat. Lots of laughs and feels in a summery book with a lot of heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of Casey McQuiston's newest novel, The Pairing.

I thought that the idea behind it was cute and I was SO excited to read this, as I've read all of the author's other books, but I feel like this one fell a little short for me. It took a while to get into and I almost put it down. I'm glad I finished, as it definitely got better, but it felt kind of jumbled to me? I loved that they were on a European tour, and the descriptions of the places & their experiences were vivid! But the character dynamics are what felt a little off to me.

Spoilers ahead:
I did enjoy Kit's POV more than Theo's (it switched halfway through), but I feel like it would have been more enjoyable if the book flipped back and forth between the two of them throughout the book, as is more typical with a split POV. I really liked Kit and Theo as main characters, but would rather them have spent the book finding their way back to each other - rather than them hooking up with literally anyone else they met, then deciding they still loved each other?

DNF @ 22%. I am just not vibing with "The Pairing" by Casey McQuiston. I may go back and read this at a later date, but I have started and stopped the first 20% three different times, and it's not gripping me like I hope it would have. This is such a bummer because I have loved McQuiston's other novels. I was really looking forward to this one. I will say, I love the vast, visceral descriptions of trekking across Europe and the food that Kit and Theo eat, but apart from that, I don't love these characters and the things they do. I am all for $luts, we do not $lut-shame in this house, but the prospect of having to read about Theo and Kit sleep their way through Europe while trying to make each other jealous, instead of having an actual conversation with one another about how they feel, seems tedious and daunting to me. There is an air of entitlement and immaturity about these characters that is rubbing me the wrong way, too. I did enjoy the audiobook narrators, Emma Galvin and Max Meyers. Any success I had reading this book was entirely because of them and their voice performances.

Thank you to NetGalley, Casey McQuiston, St. Martin's Press, and St. Martin's Griffin for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

This is one of those books that I requested on here knowing full well that I would not be one of the chosen ones to actually get picked. I'm pretty sure I screamed when I got the email! I love Casey McQuiston's novels and this one is no different. I loved reading Kit and Theo's journey on what sounds like the most incredible food and wine tour (seriously, it made me want to sign up for every wine tasting in my area) but also how they confront their personal fears and struggles but that as a couple as well. I took my time with this one because I knew it would probably be one that I devoured in a day if I didn't and then I would be sad it was over and I was sad anyway. The characters, the story, the writing, it all came together to create a beautiful story of love, loss, growing up and getting older. I will definitely be getting a physical copy of this one because I know I will want to read it again over some summer vacation!

this book was an absolute delight! second chance romance is far from my favorite genre but when it's done, it should be done like The Pairing. eating and drinking our way through Europe while watching Kit and Theo fall back in love really made for the perfect summer read. while I felt like the reveal of their breakup/the actual explanation was a little dragged out (or really more like underdeveloped), them discovering each other again felt authentic and based on their current experiences not just previous attraction. stylistically, the perspective switch was EXCELLENT and made for a better reading experience than if we were getting both POVs the whole time. the ending was done perfectly and I found myself a lil emotional over it. overall, definitely one people should be putting on their vacation TBRs