This book was beautiful. The descriptive imagery of both the scenery and the food was wonderful to listen to. The narrators were enthusiastic and their voices very soothing. Especially Kit. Love and loss were a major theme of this book and the story hooked me from the very beginning. There was inter conflict with each main character as well as conflict within their relationship that needed to be worked through. The change of pronouns halfway through the book was smooth and easy to follow. I think it was a good representation of some of the struggles that queer folk have to deal with.

3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 on Goodreads.

I wanted to love this one because I absolutely adore Casey McQuiston, but Theo and Kit might just be the worst characters I’ve ever followed in a book. They’re both incredibly manic and in need of several medications and massive amounts of therapy. A younger reader would probably love their energy, but as someone who went through that phase of life already and had to right the ship, they just made me incredibly upset.

I did absolutely love the food tour they went on and wish I could do something like that in real life! The characters they met along the way were all different and dynamic, and that certainly added to my enjoyment of the story. I also really loved Theo and Kit’s discussion surrounding Theo being non-binary. That part by itself was absolutely 5 stars, and what I have come to expect from Casey in their stories. I wish the entire book had the vibe of that conversation, because I probably would have rated it higher.

Withholding my review in support of the SMP boycott. Until SMP speaks, I won't share any of my thoughts publicly.

3 stars

This was a mixed bag for me. I like the premise, the writing is good, and I love the rep and sex positivity we get. But I struggled to get through this. I felt like the issues between Kit and Theo were very trivial. They literally broke up over a misunderstanding and then ghosted each other for 4 years. Their behavior seemed very immature for being in their late twenties, so I got pretty frustrated with them at times. I understand the aspect of not knowing what you want at that point in life, but behaving like a teenager about it is unnecessary. Also, the descriptive writing is beautiful, but it also got long winded at times so it took me out of the story. It felt as if we got more description of the settings of the story than the story itself. The actually story was a little bland. I will say, I loved how the author addressed and presented Theo's gender identity. As an enby person myself, it felt so real and I felt so seen. I appreciated that. Overall, this was kind of okay. Just fine.

McQuiston has outdone herself with this one. The story is sweet, romantic, funny, and relatable. The writing has grown so much since RW&RB and the characters are delightfully well rounded. This is a fairly long story but it's packed full of fun adventures and sexy steamy romance. There was a bit of lag in my brain trying to keep the characters all in my head but I got there about halfway through. It's a lovely representation of queerness, gender expression, romance, and taking chances.

Definitely one to pick up again and again.

I’ve loved Casey McQuiston’s writing since her first book. The Pairing did not disappoint. Travel, food/wine and queer characters?! Sign me up! A fantastic read!

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced reading copy! This book was a wild ride and truly like no other romance I have read - in some great and not so great ways. Let's start with the things that I loved (and it’s 4 stars from me, so I overall liked this book). I liked the writing, the tone, the dual POV worked well for me because of how the writing changed, I liked the travel, and the friendship building back up between the characters. One thing I kept thinking about throughout this book was how decadent it was - it was not demure, lol, and this aspect worked well for most of the plot. Some things that I did not like: it was too long and there were too many descriptions of food. I know the idea is that they’re being decadent with love! Wine! Food! Pairings of food! But it got to be too much at times and it made the book too long. I struggle with second chance romance and this book fell into some of those traps in that they spend 4 years apart and then just were pretty quickly back in love, and that’s a lot of trauma and hurt to just move on from, but whatevs - overall this book was fun and thoughtful and well written, with very sweet moments. I recommend this book for fans of McQuiston, queer contemporary romance, European travel, and food/drinks.

Missed opportunity to really explore their connection that wasn't just sexual. I loved Red, White and Royal Blue so I was really excited for this one but it wasn't as consuming as I had hoped it would be. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Not my favorite of their's, but I enjoyed it enough. I started skimming through the location and food descriptions about halfway through because it was just so. much. I will agree with other reviewers that the MCs are kinda dumb and suffer a bit in the repetitiveness of each stop, but they got there in the end.

3.5/5

I started talking to my romance group around 35% about DNFing The Pairing by Casey McQuiston. I have heard amazing things about her novels, but this was my first so I went in with higher expectations than I should have. I considered DNFing around the 50% mark but found that once the POV switched the book became tolerable and I finished it. Theo was insufferable, Kit became likeable but I didn't want to see them end up with Theo. The spice scenes were fine, but the way McQuiston used nearly every stereotype of Europe in one novel was almost impressive. And wholly unrealistic. Everyone is rich. Everyone is young. Everyone is bi or at least bi-adjacent. A random yacht owner is waiting to be charmed, and sexed---yeah, no. The food porn was too over the top for me. Overall it was a massive miss. The sprayed edges are gorgeous so I did buy a copy for my shelf at least.

Thank you SMP for the gifted ARC.

This was fun, but not my favorite from the author. I love reading about hot slutty people as much as the next person, but it felt like a large majority of the book was just our two MCs hooking up with other people in a way that really didn't further the plot. We didn't even really get spicy scenes, we were just told they went home with someone. I loved the European vacation setting and the wine and food descriptions, and I did like both of our MCs, but I just wish we had spent more time developing that relationship.

Loved the premise, setting, and *vibes* of this one so much!! Another great one from CMQ 😍 also really enjoyed the NB perspective, I feel like I haven’t read too many books from this perspective (yet!) but hopefully I can change that.

I think you may have to be a foodie to love this book. The MC’s both work in the fancier side of the food industry and go on this trip where they are exploring the finer side of food in Europe. I am someone who is more familiar with Michelin tires than Michelin stars. The constant talk of fancy food I have no desire to eat and wine that I will never drink broken down to its notes really bored me.

They also get involved in a competition of how many people they can get in their beds, which just didn’t work for me. I can get behind books that don’t adhere to monogamy but I had a hard time reconciling the way they were using it to hurt or invoke jealousy out of the other.

I liked the characters. The narration on the audiobook was well done. It was good enough that I finished it. But it just wasn’t entirely for me. I absolutely absolutely recommend picking up their other three books though. I loved them all.

Thanks to @macmillan.audio for the ALC in exchange for an honest review. #macaudio2024

This book has such a great premise: childhood friends to lovers to enemies to second chance romance– what’s not to like?

Theo and Kit haven’t spoken since breaking up and neither of them expected to run into each other on their three week long European food tour. But since they’re stuck together, they might as well make the most of it.

Theo and Kit spend a great deal of the book hooking up with other people while they sort out their feelings. They both need to acknowledge that they aren’t the same people they were several years ago and they need to come to terms with the new version of themselves and how they’ve changed. Theo was sometimes difficult to empathize with. It’s admirable that Theo wants to forge a path without the backing of a famous family, but struggling for the sake of struggling when assistance is available is exhausting. Just take the help, babe. There’s no shame in it.

Pretty much, this book consists of three things: food, sex, and Big Feelings. Frankly, that was enough for me. I had such a good time with this book. I’m a bit of a picky eater, but this book had me thinking thoughts like, “Damn, that grilled octopus sure sounds good!”



I would absolutely recommend The Pairing. At its core, this is a redemption story and I loved the overall message that the two protagonists were so enmeshed in each other’s lives that they had to separate in order to find themselves. They were so accustomed to functioning as a single unit rather than two individuals. Rediscovering each other after several years was a beautiful process to experience. McQuiston is one of my favorite authors and I am always here for one of their books.


I received a digital ARC of this book from St. Martin’s/NetGalley.

4.5

This book was everything to me. The trip throughout Europe, the description of food and wine, the second chance romance and the TENSION.

I generally enjoy Casey's books. There's something about their writing that just scratches a part of my brain. But this book just might be my favorite. I loved watching the relationship between Theo and Kit evolve from ex to competitors back to lovers. The switch from Theo's POV to Kit's was perfection and really made the second half of the book. I love a person who's down bad for another a person.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5/5 stars


This is a sexy adult romance featuring two bisexual exes on a European wine & food tasting trip.

This book was quite different from what I was expecting. I’m not sure if the genders on the cover were intentionally ambiguous. But for some reason I thought that the book featured two women.

The main characters are exes Theodora/Theo (wine expert) and Kit (pastry chef). They play a game to see who can have sex with the most people on the trip. I didn’t really enjoy this aspect of the book. It was quite raunchy with the main characters constantly hooking up with people. Although the author did a great job of including bisexual characters.

I did struggle a bit with this book. The travel aspect was very cool. But the cities all blended together to me. It just felt like a lot of the same thing (eat, drink, hook ups) over and over.

The book also changes to Kit’s POV in the second half. This was such an interesting way to tell the story. However I unfortunately got so used to the book being from Theo’s POV that I kept getting confused and forgetting that there was now a different narrator.

There are also discussions about gender quite far into the book. I really wish that this had been much earlier in the story.

This book felt really long. And it took so long for the romance to start. However I am still glad that I read it. The discussions about gender and the way sexuality was depicted were so different from most mainstream romances. I am very curious if most people consider this a romantic comedy. I didn’t find it funny. But I’ve seen others mention that they laughed constantly. Definitely an interesting and thought/provoking read!

I’m happy I stuck with this book, but it was really hard to read the sections from Theo‘s perspective. As a reader, it felt like Kit and Theo were just trying to hurt each other. It wasn’t until the section from Kit’s perspective that things started to clear up and make more sense.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Casey McQuiston never misses. I really enjoyed the duel POV, it helped in getting to know the characters. This story follows Theo and Kit who end up on the same European food and wine trip.

Kit and Theo embark on a second-chance romance as well as a food and wine tour around Europe. And reading from a chef and sommelier’s perspective (respectively) is so cool.

Not to mention it was extremely well written — as in, reading this makes you hungry! (In the best way.)

Casey spoke about how this book focuses on what fills you up — food, love, experiences — and that’s what made this romance so indulgent.

We have spice, we have sexy leads (doing sexy things hello!) and the love is almost unexpected, irreverent but ultimately, these two are in awe of each other.

I love how these two are taking “slutty” back in the most joyful of ways.

And seeing them make each other happy (because we get an HEA, obviously) was so satisfying!

If you’re thinking about picking this up, do. I highly highly recommend, all around!

When a book grabs my interest, I tend to finish it in one or two sittings, but I spent almost two weeks reading The Pairing - and I mean this as a compliment. While I wanted to binge it, I more so wanted to have the (in my opinion) better experience of enjoying it in small bites, like one of the delicately crafted desserts it describes.

The plot takes you along with two exes (with a near-lifetime worth of history) that find themselves on the same food and wine tour across France, Spain, Monaco and Italy. As someone from one of the countries who's been to several of the cities in the tour, I think Casey McQuiston does a solid job at making the trip feel real without dragging - a vivid journey full of flavours, nature, architecture, art, and human connections. I'm sure we could get nitpicky about the accuracy of an American author writing about European characters and cultures, but this is not a travel guide, and to me it's clear it comes from a place of appreciation with a good amount of research for a summer romance read.

The tour acts as a rich backdrop for the two main characters to accidentally reconnect after four years apart. Both Theo and Kit are compelling, flawed in a charming way that makes them real. The book starts from Theo's POV and switches to Kit's more or less half way, letting you spend time with both of them while slowly building your understanding of their relationship, past and present. Theo's energy and attitude works well with the first half, and the switch to Kit's thoughts is such a satisfying turn that completely fits the development of the story. Having both perspectives made the experience better. I understood their past split and their choices, could feel the longing, and rooted for them both as individuals and as a pair.

I've read (and loved) all 4 of Casey McQuiston's works so far, and one thing that they excel at is threading queer joy throughout and without shame, showing strong-willed characters that fight for the happiness and love they deserve. The Pairing does this indulgently. It doesn't shy away from sex - quite the opposite, with two bisexual exes who spend a chunk of the book in a competition over who can hook up with the most people. Sexuality and gender are treated openly and naturally, as part of these characters and not any reason for judgement or drama, but rather as another way in which they understand and match each other. It's a breath of fresh air. As a side note, the secondary characters aren't as developed as in their previous novels, which makes sense given the setting (a three-week long bus tour shared with strangers) but they're charismatic and the glimpses we do get are fun and hint at full complex lives.

The Pairing is a decadent summer treat with a rich depth of flavour once you bite into it. Easily 5/5 stars. Pairs well with sunshine and a light breeze, fresh fruit, and an iced drink.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC.