I think this is one of those books that some people will adore and others will not. I enjoyed parts of it a lot, I really loved the concept, and the writing was truly beautiful. The food and drink and all of the atmosphere of the tour were great - but there was soooo much of it! I could have done with fewer food and drink descriptions and more secondary character development. All of the side characters had so much potential but they were half-formed caricatures. I also felt like the sex competition was really immature and made me root a little less for the MCs’ reunion. I did love all of the beautiful queerness in the book and the friendships that grew. I think I would have liked it better with more focus on the friendships, less on who can bang more people they don’t even really want to bang.

If you really like bougie food and drinks like a whole lot, you’ll probably love this book. I did enjoy it and I’m glad I read it, but I think it could’ve been more.

This book was beyond incredible. RW&RB will always hold a very special place in my heart, but even I have to admit that this book has a level of emotional depth and storytelling that makes it Casey's best (in my opinion, anyway). I think I cried for the middle third, not because I was sad but just because I had so many feelings. This book covers love, friendship, lust, fear of growing up and does it all with such grace and wisdom. I kept saying Casey is in their Emily Henry era because this story has so much depth and complexity that it reminded me of an EH book, but it is also just quintessentially CMQ — sexy and fun and queer and hilarious.

3.75 ⭐️

I adore these little freaks, but can they take a BREAK!
The writing was beautiful and the setting was so majestic, but I think this was just a bit too smut-intense for me personally! Other than that this was such a cute summer book that had me wanting to book another euro trip and enroll in pastry school! Ty to NetGalley for providing me with the arc!!

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'm a big fan of Casey McQuiston's books and was very excited about this one. I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed.

Around 1/3 of the way through, I started to get bored. It felt like the story could have resolved then and been fine. I honestly hated the hookup competition plot point. It felt so juvenile and, while I get that was the point (we adults do silly things when faced with difficult moments), I could've done without it. Also, how do you find that many partners that immediately want to hookup and also are hot and queer? And on an exhausting tour???? The wine and food tour was such a fun concept. I wish it could've just focused on that and re-falling in love with someone from your past after growing up and apart. The parts of the book that did focus on this were good. It could've been such an excellent novel for near 30 year olds, finding our way in the world.

Maybe I missed more thoughts from Theo about their gender identity when the book was from their perspective. The pov changed and it felt like it mattered more to Kit than Theo themself. Maybe an intentional thing. Idk :/ I just think this one wasn't a favorite.

Also, Van Gogh wasn't French.

🎧 + E-book- The Pairing- a standalone

✍️ By Casey McQuiston- read Red,White, and Royal Blue & One Last Stop gave 4/5*

🗣️ Narrators: Emma Galvin & Max Meyers.The narrators' voices fit the characters with standouts from Theo and Fabrizio.The reading style brought the text to life, and the author and narrators worked together well. The pacing and flow allowed me to get lost in the story . The narrators paused and announced new chapters with music and each location of the tour.

📃 Page Count:  432

🏃🏾‍♀️Run Time: 14:14

🗓️ Publication Date: 8-6-24  | Read: 7-31-24  

🙏🏾Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Griffin, and Macmillan Audio for this ARC and ALC ❤️! I voluntarily give my honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

Genre: Contemporary Romance, Adult Fiction, LGBTQIA+

Tropes:
❤️BFFS in love
❤️friends to lovers
❤️forced proximity
❤️1st POV
❤️European tour
❤️found family

⚠️ TW: Both H&h sleep with other people


💭 Summary 💭: Theo and Kit have broken up and went their separate ways while on a plane to start their European tour of France, Spain, and Italy. A terrible misunderstanding kept them apart for four years Kit staying in Paris and Theo back to LA. They both decide to finally go on the tour before their vouchers expire. When reunited old feelings come back, but they agree to a hook-up competition.



Heroine: Theodora"Theo" Flowerday- from a famous family where her parents and sister are actors and writers in entertainment.

Hero: Kit Fairfield- his mother died when he was thirteen. Fell in love with Theo and hasn't gotten over it.

Side cast: Fabrizio- funny tour guide; Sloane- Theo's sister a multimillionaire;


My Thoughts: This was OK for me. I didn't care for Kit's POV which started around 48% because he didn't show as much emotion as Theo. They both slept with other people when they claimed to still be in love. I wasn't into the hook-up competition because I like my main couple crazy over each other. Things were messy with the threesomes and both trying to sleep with the same people.

Range of emotions: 😬🤔🙄

🌶️: Spice 3/5 open door
🎧:Narration  3/5, didn't like Kit
😭: Emotion 3/5
❤️: Couple 3/5
⭐️: Rating 3.5/5 *

DNF at 25%

Just not for me. I’ve read “Red, White, and Royal Blue” and did enjoy so had hopes for this one. The writing really wasn’t for me and came off in a trying to be quirky cringe millennial way. I could see others enjoying this book especially if you enjoy chaotic bisexual romances.

This was one of my favorite recent reads. The romance and back story between Kit and Theo was so well done and the food and drink descriptions were so beautifully done. I was skeptical when I heard the it switches from Theo to Kit’s perspective half way through the book because I often don’t love that but McQuiston really made it work.

I absolutely love Casey McQuiston books, but this one was just okay for me. I don’t mind a messy relationship, but this may have been just too messy for my taste?

I also wish that we had more in the past with the characters or really see their love, it was told more than shown.

This was my first Casey McQuiston novel and I enjoyed it immensely. The Pairing is an immersive reading experience with absolutely exquisite storytelling. You can almost believe you are on this trip with Theo and Kit as the descriptions are so detailed for the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of what they are experiencing in the story. As a second chance romance between two best friends that become more and then break up, not to see each other again for four years, the feelings of friendship and heartache are strong. At times I held my breath, unsure which direction their relationship would take. It’s a really unique premise for the two of them to enter into a competition to sleep with other people while they are traveling. It made me worry for their feelings but it was handled so well and in the spirit of these characters. This book is so sex positive and with varied queer representation. It’s a beautiful story with the side characters as loveable as the main characters, each person burrowing their way into the reader’s heart. It did feel a bit over long but that is personal preference.

Casey McQuiston’s new novel is absolute perfection. It is indulgent and glutinous and truly beautiful. Vivid descriptions of food, drinks, and European landscapes is the backdrop for two people finding themselves and following their hearts.

Theo and Kit are two people who grew up together and because of that never truly grew apart. Throughout the novel you can tell how they shaped their lives around each other whether consciously or not. They are two people with very real flaws and the need to become the best versions of themselves to try and right wrongs from their past.

Casey McQuiston's prose is unlike any other and I know I will be thinking about this book for years to come.

I never realized how much I needed a second-chance romance with dual POVs by Casey McQuiston until it was right in my hands. This book exceeded every expectation, and I can't stress that enough.

The adventure of Theo and Kit’s three-week tour through Italy, France, and Spain was an absolute joy. I felt as if I was right there with them, exploring every city. It was especially thrilling to recognize some of the locations from my own travels—Barcelona, Florence, and Rome. Casey’s vivid imagery and masterful use of metaphor are among my favorite elements of their writing. The comparison of Theo's "great unfinished love" with Kit to Gaudí's relationship with the Sagrada Familia took my breath away.

"The Pairing" had me laughing out loud (classic Casey), but it also brought me to tears, made me reflect deeply, and nearly inspired me to book a European food tour just to experience the richness of life. Theo and Kit’s love is the kind that I aspire to have one day, even if I don't have a childhood best friend-to-lover-to-stranger to reconnect with on the beaches of San Sebastián. The way they speak about each other had me in constant emotional upheaval. And Theo’s journey with gender representation was beautifully handled—seeing Kit transition from she/her to they/them after Theo came out had me weeping.

Here’s to Theo and Kit and their slutty European escapades. Thank you, Casey, once again, for creating such a remarkable love story.

I won't lie. This is probably my biggest disappointment of the year. I love everything that Casey McQuiston writes but this just wasn't it. The best thing this book had going for it was the food. I read it with pinterest open next to it so I could look up everything they were eating. But there in lies the problem... I *only* cared about the food.

As I’ve mentioned recently, I am DEFINITELY in my delectable-beverages-in-fiction summer, and this rom-com must be the third in my personal series. Also, *SUBTLE SPOILERS AHEAD.* 🥂🍾🍹
 
Make no mistake, though, this is more than a romantic comedy about food, drink, travel, art, music, and relationships.  It IS all that, but THE PAIRING is also a *literary* romance about lost-and-found love, self-discovery, hurt, comfort, joy, loss, longing, grief, shock, and the unique magic of misunderstandings - and then really and understanding. Oh, and lots of fun, unapologetic horniness, undeniable love, and luscious wine. After all, it is an adult romance - and hilarious, too – I mean, it’s Casey McQuiston, people. 🩵💛
 
The English professor, pretend foodie, and romance reader in me had a FIELD DAY with this book. ☺️
 
As I read this novel (it’s about lifelong friends/lovers/exes - Kit Fairfield [a pâtissier] and Theo Flowerday [an assistant sommelier and bartender] - who meet again, unintentionally, at the fancy European food and wine tour they were about to embark upon when they originally broke up), I had lots to say to various groups of DM recipients.  😱

To wit:
After one-third: “It is so good; I’m full. And not just of the food and drink descriptions. The whole thing is decadent and rich and luxurious and breathtaking. I feel drunk and I haven’t had anything alcoholic.” 😵‍💫
 
After two-thirds: “angst, longing, horniness.” 🍑🍑🍑
 
After three thirds: “holy shit, Field Day, sobbing. Viollette’s letter. Kit’s letter. Romantic gestures in Paris. ‘I’m never going to love you less.’ A bar that’s also a bakery.” DMing CMQ and our “Sl*ts for Casey’” GC repeatedly. 😭😭😭

What Casey McQuiston has achieved here is a piece of literature that, in my legit expert opinion, will be studied. It is literary – it’s full of symbolism, deep insight, intentional and revelatory and necessary misunderstandings, rich (Henry) James-like descriptions, Proust-like romance, Joyce-like puzzles that become clear, and, at bottom, a heartbreaking and then a soul-healing love. These features do not take away from the fact that it is an extremely hot and sexy romp, as well. As SNL’s Stefon would say, “this book has it all.” 📙❤️‍🔥

In the best way, THE PAIRING is not a quick read – I urge readers to take their time with it, to savor it, to not expect to blow through it in a few hours or even a few days. Some have struggled with the pacing and the points of view (Theo speaks for about the first half of the book, then Kit speaks for most of the rest, with a little bit of alternating POV at the end), but I would suggest readers take pauses and re-read. It all becomes clear and has a sob-worthy, laughing/crying, joyful ending (this is not a spoiler; CMQ has told us this). 🥹

I have hardly mentioned the gorgeous Europe, the mouth-watering food and pastries, the signature cocktails, the curated wine pairings, the karaoke, Phil Collins, the VW bus cocktail bar – and did I not tell you about the horny bisexual main characters and the more-than-intriguing secondary characters and the hot priest calendar? The structure, plot, and characters of this book are intricate and unique. 🍷🥐🥖🍅🌻

Thanks to the author and to NetGalley for the eARCs – please note that there was NO expectation of a review, and I was happy to write it. I mean, obviously. 🥰

Casey McQuiston has a way of completely immersing you in a scene that makes you forget you are reading and puts you right in the moments with the characters. Second chance romance isn’t usually my go to trope but I liked the spin out on it here even though it also made me agonize over this pairing and if they’d ever figure it out. Similar to RW&RB, the banter and wit in this book was hilarious and felt very real to the characters. A huge thank you to St Martins Press and Net Galley for allowing me to read this in advance.

“The Pairing” is the sort of character-driven book that will be divisive – it’s about Theo and Kit, queer, nepo baby exes who run into each other on a booze-fueled European food and wine tour four years after their breakup. Then, to prove to each orher that This Is Fine, they embark on a hook-up competiton – and yes, it is precisely as angsty and heart-yankingly uncomfortable as it sounds.

But despite this sounding like it could veer into over-the-top slutty summer territory (and maybe for some reader, that it exactly where this goes), I found myself engrossed in Theo and Kit’s stories, how they see themselves, and how they see each other. Plus, the book is packed wirh vivid descriptions of food and wine (Kit is a patissier and Theo is basically a sommelier), as well as a whirlwind trip across Europe – it *is* touristy in a way that can feel cliché but…they are tourists!

I didn’t always love Theo and Kit and the decisions they made, but Casey McQuiston wrote the hell out of this book, capturing both the pain and pleasure of unexpectedly reuniting with your childhood best friend-turned-partner-turned ex. Plus, it made me cry in a very serious way, so!

4.5🌟

“I suppress a burp that tastes like pure Irish vengeance.”

“I’m beginning to suspect that a flirtatious smile and a genuine love of food and drink may get me anywhere.”

CMQ has an achingly beautiful way of writing and wit that wakes me want to cry.

I love the descriptions of the food and wine tour, it put my time spent watching the Great British Bake Off to good use.

This book makes me want to book a trip and fall I love and that is the higher regard I could impart on anything.

Feeling very mixed about this story. Second chance romances are always a hit or miss for me. This one takes it to a whole different level with exes hooking up with different people was a bit much for me. I did enjoy the dual POV and the start of each chapter with the pairing and setup for the chapter. The story felt just a little repetitive as well. I did enjoy the ending and how they finally got their HEA.

Emma Galvin and Max Meyers did a great job with the narration. Thank you @smpromance @macmillan.audio for a copy of this.

Man I’m torn about this one. McQuiston’s writing is the best I’ve read yet from them in this one: the food descriptions and landscape/travel montages were FLAWLESS. I can’t wait to get my physical copy of this one after release date so that I can highlight some of its incredible prose.

I liked the spin on dual-POV: the first half of the story/tour is from Theo’s POV and the second from Kit’s. And Kit’s narration is breathtaking, heart-stopping, insert-swoony-adjective here. He capital-L LOVES Theo and I ate. it. up. Here’s my problem: I found Theo to be kinda insufferable 😬 I hope on a reread, with the whole of the book in my mind as context, I can understand them better, but I didn’t 100% buy their swag, their vibe, the enormous chip on their shoulder. It’s lovely to see someone so in love with someone else that at one point they state that archeologists should study them for the space they take up in the world. But I wanted to get Kit’s infatuation and I just really didn’t upon this first read through.

Loved The Pairing by Casey McQuiston as much as I hoped! It was a delight to be back in a McQuiston world. In their third adult romance, McQuiston gives us a wonderful second chance romance between two exes and childhood best friends, Theo and Kit. The two broke up a few years before, centered on miscommunication but also because the two needed to grow, perhaps separately and out of their comfort zone. They inadvertently reunite in London when they end up on the same tour they had originally booked before the break up. They spend the tour mending fences and coming to learn what they didn't know or couldn't say before - and also embarking on a petty competition to see who can hook up with more people on their travels. Naturally, shenanigans and jealousy ensue. It's all set against the landscape of France, Spain, and Italy, with special detail for food and wine and exquisite summer vibes. McQuiston's sense of place, eye for detail, and way of describing food were beautiful (and left me dying to be in Europe too). While McQuiston spends a lot of time on these elements, and is also very funny, they leave a lot for the deeply felt emotions behind Theo and Kit's chaotic trip. McQuiston divides the book into two sections, one for each perspective, which helps illuminate the misunderstandings while also serving a specific reveal around identity. McQuiston laid the groundwork for that so well, and shifted to see how the other character would see it. The Pairing is an excellent summer romance, from the fun ride through Europe to the pair of characters to really fall in love with.

Definitely a cute and swoony way to end my summer!

This book was everything I was pretty much expecting it to be. It was an enjoyable, romantic read. I think this book delivered exactly the way it promised to. The characters were both interesting to follow, and the romance was unique and full of life.

I really enjoyed Kit's character. He honestly is the real MVP in this book. The switch to his POV halfway through was a twist I wasn't expecting, but I enjoyed it. And I think Kit's POV is what really redeemed this book for me. Theo was interesting. I didn't find myself as invested in their POV throughout the first half of this book. I found it at times hard to relate to their struggles especially with the whole NEPO baby thing. But overall, I liked both characters. Kit was just a little more of an enjoyable MC. I thought the emotions really came through the best in the second half. The pacing also took awhile to click for me. I do think the plot worked for the most part, and I enjoyed most of it. Like I said, I really only struggled to get into it in that first 30%.

This book made me long for a European summer vacation so bad though! Honestly just all the wine and food sounded so delicious. Overall, this book was fun and enjoyable. I think this book is definitely worth the read. Perfect way to end the summer vacay!

I would like to give a big thank you to the author, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Rating: 4.5/5