3.5 stars - The Pairing was definitely a mixed bag for me. I really liked some parts but also felt like some parts were too long or completely unnecessary.

Theo Flowerday and Kit Fairfield are exes who just so happen to rebook a canceled European food and wine tour at the same time before their vouchers expired from a doomed past trip. Theo is a budding sommelier in southern California with a custom cocktail side hustle and Kit is a Parisian pastry chef and definite romantic. They travel across Europe, eating, drinking, hooking up with other people (ugh - not my favorite) as part of a competition with each other and slowly getting to know each other as friends again. I liked the playful sides of each other that they brought out when they were together. It made me like each of their characters so much more because these two on their own were not my favorites.

The travel aspect of this book was really cool, but so much of the events in each location were the same. Also the food/wine pairings that were rambled off so often felt like a bit much - I understand the intention behind them, but as a non-foodie, it took me out of the story. I wanted the relationship conversations to happen earlier so that there was some time to enjoy the two of them being together after SO long apart (both in the book and after their break up).

I was really intrigued by some of the side characters but felt like we met so many of them but didn’t really get to know much about any of them, something that I missed from the story. The story is told from Theo’s POV (first half) and then Kit’s POV (last half), which was an interesting choice, but I found myself much more invested when it was Kit’s perspective - not sure if that was because his romantic notions appealed to me more than Theo’s uncertainty but the second half of the book flew by for me. Overall, I think the book felt too long. It has so many interesting parts, but the repetition during the trip and how long it took for them to have a real conversation started to bother me.

Four years after their breakup on their way to a European food tour, Kit and Theo broke up. Now they find themselves back on the same tour, unbeknownst to each other, before the voucher expires. Since their breakup they haven't had any contact with it one another. This tour will be a good time to extend olive branches or let festering wounds get overrun.

I like parts of this novel and highly disliked others. For one, I really liked the way each stop of the tour, which acted as chapters, was introduced. The location is paired with an alcoholic beverage and baked food specific to the region. They also tended to indulge in each one during the chapter too. I liked Kit as a character. He felt mature, but you could tell he still needs help pushing himself out of his work comfort zone. I really didn't like Theo. It makes it hard since the first half of the book is told in Theo's perspective. Theo felt very immature to me and blamed everything on either someone else or that they were "good enough" to enjoy whatever life was throwing their way.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin for a copy in exchange for review consideration.

Rating: 3.5

The Pairing was lusciously sweet and spicy. Sensual descriptions were applied as religiously to the food and art as they were to the love and lust the characters experienced. I spent the entire book with a sneaky little smirk that my partner kept remarking on. In a perfect world, you’d read it on a beach in Cinque Terre or at a café in Paris, but if travel isn’t in your plans, go read it anywhere you can hide your flush from Kit and Theo’s sexy escapades.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc. This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024 and it pains me to write this review. I do wonder if I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't had such high expectations for it. Ultimately though, I think this a book you love or you don't, there's no in between and for me it was a slog. I kept going hoping for things to turn and for me to fall in love with it, which never happened. There are a lot of rich descriptions of food, wine and scenery, which as a non-visual reader added nothing for me and made it feel even slower.
There were elements I quite liked and moments I really enjoyed but it wasn't enough to counter my overall impression that this wasn't for me.

The Pairing, about exes who end up on the same European food and wine tour, was thoroughly enjoyable, just not not my favorite from Casey McQuiston. I usually get frustrated by romance that relies on miscommunication, but I thought the trope worked well here. I liked the dual perspective, but I think it would have been better to switch back and forth rather than getting Theo’s perspective for the first half and Kit’s for the second half. I’’ll likely revisit this one soon, because I think the reading of the first half will change now that I understand Kit’s POV. This book was spicier than I prefer - the scenes weren’t any more detailed than One Last Stop or Red, White, & Royal Blue, there are just more of them. Overall, it had a lot of the same charm, banter, and chemistry from One Last Stop and Red, White, & Royal Blue, and it was so incredibly queer (in the very best way)! I’d definitely recommend it for fans of McQuiston’s other adult novels. Just be warned that this book is filled with tons of cliches about Europeans, which I’ve already seen some readers frustrated by. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC!

Thank you to St. Martin's and MacMillan Audio for the review copies of The Pairing by Casey McQuiston. This queer-inclusive, second-chance, friends-to-lovers story is rich with detail about wine, food, and Europe... but it didn’t quite work for me. I am not leaving a star rating for this as I am not sure what to rate it, I think the stars for this book won't be a useful way to share my thoughts.

I’ve loved McQuiston’s previous books—the sapphic YA Shara Wheeler, the charming and endearing Red, White & Royal Blue, and the magical One Last Stop. In those stories, I felt the characters' connections, their desire to be understood, and the undeniable chemistry between them. I reveled in the joy of loving the characters, rooting for their relationships, and enjoying their banter. Unfortunately, I never reached that point with The Pairing.

While I appreciated the richness of the setting, I struggled to understand the attraction between Kit and Theo. Much of the writing made me feel disconnected from them, as I found them somewhat whiny, unlikable, and misguided in their pursuits. It might just be me, but this one didn’t land—and I’m heartbroken over that. For me, this book didn’t have the signature McQuiston style and character dynamics that I’ve come to adore.

Regarding the audiobook, I usually appreciate voice acting, even when a book doesn’t fully resonate with me. However, in this case, I found the narration distracting. It didn't help me connect with or appreciate the writing or the characters, which might be because I was already struggling to engage with the book itself.

I’m sure The Pairing will be a big win for many others, and I recognize its potential significance as an important, valuable, and needed read for queer and bisexual identities. I plan to read other reviews to see if there are themes and aspects I may have missed, in hopes of understanding who connected with this book and perhaps reconsidering it for a reread.

Theo (f/nb) and Kit (m) have been best friends since they were kids. Both bisexual, they fell in love as they got older, but broke up before they could take a whirlwind three-week European trip they paid for. Four years later, they both unknowingly re-book the trip vouchers for the same time frame and are forced to reconnect. But will it be just as friends, or as much more?

This was a very horny romp through France, Spain, and Italy! I think I’m on the more conservative end of the spice preference scale, so some parts in this one had me and I feel like I’ve read a lot, especially LGBTQ+ fiction! There were MANY long descriptions of food, pastries, wine, cocktails, historical markers, and places visited. While that part was nice, I think the book could have been edited to cut down some of those because the middle dragged for me. By the end I really was happy I read it. Just get those pearls ready for clutching!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martins Press, and St. Martin's Griffith for this advanced copy! You can pick up The Pairing now.

I know I haven't been in a romance mood lately, so it's definitely partially my fault that I didn't love this one. But I wish there'd been SOMETHING to keep me more invested throughout the book. I struggled to connect to these characters despite their emotional turmoil propelling so much of the story, and I found the writing to be... a bit clunky? Or maybe too quirky for my taste?

I can see why others might enjoy this one -- second chance, queer, international escapades, etc -- but for me it was a miss.

If you can’t travel this summer but wish you could, The Pairing is the perfect vicarious way to experience Europe in all its sensual glory while also immersing yourself in a heartfelt, funny, steamy childhood-friends-to-lovers-to-exes romance. I loved the exploration of Kit and Theo’s relationship, both past and present. There was so much love, hurt, anger, longing, lust, and so much more. This story is a beautiful exploration of friendship, love, expectations, and finding happiness.

Red White and Royal Blue is one of my favorite books of all time. I think Casey McQuiston is a beautiful writer but the story didn't work for me in this case. I didn't like that the two main characters repeatedly slept with other people and the plot started to feel repetitive as well as the food descriptions. I did really enjoy the insight into identifying as non binary. I think non romance readers might enjoy this more. It doesn't really feel like a romance to me.

Absolutely loved this one! “Red, White and Royal Blue” is one of my absolute favorite books of all time and this one is now right up there with it

DNF at 30%

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

"The Pairing" is about our two leads, Theo (a bartender and sommelier) and Kit (a Boulanger in Paris), who went from childhood best friends to lovers and are now estranged exes. After their brutal breakup in an airport (and several subsequent years apart), the two end up on a European tour together.

Obviously, anyone who dabbles in the romance genre knows how this is going to go: The two play cold shoulder, develop banter, nurse a blooming friendship, suffer from abhorrent communication, hook up, confess feelings, fight and break up(?), then reconcile and HEA. I take no issue with this format, but this book was just too long for what it was. The driving force of the plot is a friendly wager Theo suggests to Kit to see who can sleep with their hot Italian tour guide first, which (of course!) leads to a full-on European hook-up competition.

The descriptions of food and wine, while beautiful, were too much (both too long and too frequent); the sex bet was ridiculous to the point of caricature; and Theo's nepo baby syndrome was grating my nerves (i.e., they have Hollywood stars for parents and are super rich, but they play poor, complaining to Kit about struggling with rent while chasing their dreams, etc.) Like, why is the conflict of your story all about how much you suffered having a privileged family????

Granted, my complaints could have been resolved had I chosen to read on--I did read in other reviews that the second half of the book is much more enjoyable than the first-- but I can't justify sinking more time into this book than the SIX MONTHS I've already committed. Ultimately, I think the writing itself and the imagery in this book is top-notch for McQuiston, but I just couldn't buy into the plot and characters.

**3.5-stars**

Kit and Theo were childhood best friends, whose relationship finally blossomed to more as young adults. They were in love, but that was 4-years ago. After a vicious break-up, in the airport, of all places, Kit and Theo went their separate ways and have been estranged ever since. Until now. Things are about to shake up...

At the time of their break-up, they had a food and wine tour planned, which they subsequently canceled. They couldn't get their money back, but the vouchers were good to use for another 48-months. Separately. Alone. As the 4-year mark approaches though, it's unsurprising that they'd both come up with the same idea. It's time to cash in the vouchers, and take that tour.

Unfortunately, they don't discover that still think very much alike until they are actually boarding the tour bus. Oh, hello.

Neither one of them has any intentions of giving up the tour though, so it looks like they'll just have to play nice. And play they do, a little hook-up game to prove just how over one another they really are. I'm sure you can imagine what that entails...

Sadly, The Pairing was a bit of a mixed bag for me. It's a good story, but IMHO, it's not at the level I am used to seeing from McQuiston. This hurts to say. For me, it lacked the humor I'm used to from them. I wasn't attached to either MC and I didn't care if they ended up together or not. I actually preferred not.

Additionally, the side characters had no real development, and in the past, some of the SC have been my favorites. I know that sounds harsh, I'm not trying to be, but it is the overall feeling I walked away with. To be fair though, I did like the beginning, I was pulled in fairly quickly, and then I really enjoyed like the last 10%. It was just the in-between bits where I felt bored and like I was struggling to finish.

Both Theo and Kit felt flat for me compared to characters that I have read from McQuiston in the past. I wasn't crazy about the structure they chose either; as in, the way we were given the different perspectives. I would have preferred a more even back-and-forth. The thing that caused their break-up, I felt like that was resolved around the 65% mark and for me, the whole thing felt wrapped-up at that point. What are we even doing here after that? It was just like a couple fighting versus anything I cared to tune for.

I didn't feel any tension, or real angst after that. And frankly, I do semi-agree with Theo's sister, they do seem to intentionally make their lives harder, especially when it came to Kit!

That's all well and good though. I don't need to agree with a character's actions or decisions, but I don't want to be bored while I'm trying to figure out where they are going with their choices. Theo was frustrating.

The sex competition was fun at first, but then it just started to feel repetitive as time went on. Nothing really beat the couple themselves hooking up though when it came to repetitive. It just felt like the same thing over and over, just in a different place. Stale. Honestly, I was so ready for this to be over and felt more relieved than anything when it was done. Although, I will say, I did think it had a lovely ending.

At the end of the day, while McQuiston will continue to be a must-read author for me, I'm NGL, this was a little disappointing and definitely my least favorite of their work. I've read other reviews though, and know that a lot of Readers are LOVING it. So, just because it didn't work for me, doesn't mean it won't work for you. If it sounds interesting, give it a go.

Thank you to the publisher, St. Martin's Griffin, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I'm excited to see what McQuiston serves us next!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC.

I really liked this one! Without a doubt, my favorite aspect of this book was following Theo and Kit around Europe. All of the locations and foods were described in so much detail that I felt like I was there with them. I liked this book had a dual POV. I enjoyed getting to spend time with Theo and Kit. I loved getting to see how much love they had for each other and seeing them grow as individuals throughout the book.

I’ve been a fan of Casey McQuiston’s books for a while now, and know that her books are guaranteed to give off some witty banter, laughs, and a great romance. Naturally, I leaped at the opportunity to read the ARC, and then NetGalley sweetened the pot by providing access to the audiobook version as well!

The audiobook was narrated by Emma Galvin and Max Meyers, and both did a good job with the characters. I was surprised at how the POV chapters were divided, with the first half of the book being told from Theo’s perspective, and then the second half being told through Kit’s eyes. The structure didn’t work as well for me, since it didn’t really allow me, as a reader, to connect with Kit for half the book, so by the time his chapters started, I was already not feeling his character.

Maybe this is my own internalized gender bias showing, but I thought the cover illustration was of two guys, until through the reading I realized that Theo was short for Theodora, and for a lot of the book, I was confused about Theo’s gender identity. Kit and others refer to Theo as a girl for significant portions of the book, but then McQuiston does a great job with exploring Theo’s journey of their own gender identity. While the gender identity subject was discussed well, I thought the bisexual representation played heavily into the slutty bisexual stereotype—with the central premise of the story being a hookup competition. The romance takes a long time to kick in, probably because they’re so focused on avoiding feelings by getting naked with someone else.

I would have loved seeing more of the travel aspects of the story—the characters go to some really interesting cities and I’m sure they do a lot of cool stuff, but everything started to feel so repetitive that the cities blended together and got lost in the shuffle. It was overly formulaic—travel to new place, eat, drink, have a casual hookup, lather, rinse, repeat. The characters all came across at petty and immature, and I really struggled with getting invested in their lives and their f*ck-your-way-across-Europe competition. However, I found it incredibly fascinating to see how differently sommeliers (even ones in training) experience flavors. But this book might be a better fit for you if you enjoy second-chance romance in clueless characters, raunchy competitions, and if you’re all about foodies and winies (is that even a word? Well, it should be!).

The Pairing is a second-chance romance set on a romantic and picturesque European food and wine tour. The background was perfect, but unfortunately, I was a little disappointed in the story overall. I had a hard time connecting with the characters. I also had a difficult time with the change in POV to Kit's halfway through and the change in pronouns for Theo halfway through. It made me feel a little disconnected from the Theo I came to know from the first half. Like they were a completely different character. Their struggle with their pronouns was never even mentioned or thought about from her POV, so the sudden change was a little jarring. I also loved and hated the constant food and drink descriptions. They filled so much of the story, that it probably could have been dialed back a bit to focus more on the plot and characters. Overall I had to push myself to finish this one. I did not like it as much as the author's other books. I rated this one a 2.75 stars, rounded up to a 3. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to receive an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Beware of possible spoilers.

I feel like the first thing I should mention is that I adored Red, White, and Royal Blue, so I was really excited to read this one. Even so, I tried not to go into it with too many high expectations. And, well, it didn't matter in the end...It's safe to say I'm not the reader for this book.

The thing is, travelling stories with mentions of food and alcohol pairings and the exploration of people in different countries is something I DO like. Like, yes, please, talk to me about all of it. And, in the beginning, it was interesting. I even liked the characters. The sense of humor was pretty decent and I was curious to see how their relationship would unfold after everything that happened to them.

But then...it went downhill.

The idea of making their hookups a competition was kind of fun, especially when they were trying to out flirt each other while also bickering with one another. But I don't need to be in the bedroom while they get it on with characters I don't know, don't care about, and who aren't the person they're going to end up with. There were just too many scenes, which felt deeply unneeded to me. That's certainly a personal thing. Still, it took me out of the story.

Not to mention, how are they finding all these people who are just willing to hook up with them?? Why does it feel like everyone in Europe just wants to fool around?

Also, was this book long to anyone else? It could be the repetitiveness of them stopping, meeting people, having food and wine, hooking up, and then rinse and repeat. Honestly, it probably was...because by the time we got to Kit's POV I was just so over the story by that point. Which is disappointing because I actually really liked his character and wanted to enjoy it.

The romance: it was...not really there for me. The only time they had chemistry was when they were goofing around, being best friend, and reminiscing about the old days. Then it got to them actually BEING together and something happened. Maybe it's because we don't really get to see them fall in love. They already ARE in love from the start and that kind of takes the fun out of it for me.

The exploration of sex, sexuality, and gender, was nice to read and I'm always for that being in a book. But the rest of the story just fell way too flat for me. That being said, I know a lot of people will probably like this and I hope they really enjoy it.

Thank you to St. Martins Press for sending me an arc in exchange for review.

This book singlehandely made me wish to get my heartbroken just so I can go on a tour just like Theo and Kit and find my lost love. I loved this story so much and found myself googling all the different food dishes mentioned in the book. The romance between Theo and Kit made me cry for them, I loved how they found themselves and found a way to grow together with each other. Absolutely adored this book!

4.5/5 stars

I have read all of Casey McQuiston's books, each one has such standout qualities and a strong voice. McQuiston was able to capture my attention from the start, there is just something about their writing style and how they portray their characters. I was able to find Kit and Theo frustratingly relatable, they were both human. They made mistakes, kept making mistakes, but worked through them in the end to be the best they could be for each other. The chemistry between Theo and Kit was so strong from the start, getting to see that awkward interaction of reuniting with a lost love for the first time. But then getting to see the development of their friendship into a relationship.

Can't wait to grab my physical copy of this book!

My fave book by Casey so far! This second chance romance will have you traveling through Europe, and felt quite bougie. I really liked the queer representation and the tension between the main characters was alive & well! My favorite part was all the side characters who make up the found family, which Casey always writes so well. The only things I didn’t love were the very long chapters and the changes in the POV!