3.5 Stars

There were a lot of things that I liked about this book, like the amazing european vibes as well as the bomb found family energy that Casey is so amazing at writing, but there were also a lot of aspects that I was not a big fan of. I historically hate the miscommunication trope, and the reason for the book couple’s original breakup heavily featured that. I also think that while the couple had amazing sexual chemistry, I did not get too much romantic chemistry vibes from them.

I'm a big of Casey McQuiston, but I sort of hated The Pairing. It's vibe heavy, which is fantastic, but so ridiculously cliched, I just didn't like this

Fantastic vibes (although stereotypical at times when it came to the european descriptors) for a summer read but unfortunately for me most of my positives remain in the setting. I struggled with the writing style of the communication between our two main characters, especially when major plot points continued to revolve around miscommunications.
I also kept feeling a sense of unrealistic side characters, though I was willing to suspend my disbelief to enjoy a few absurd moments and have fun with them.

I love food, I cook semi-seriously, I love travel, and at least some of the time I swoon happily over second-chance romances, the uglier the breakup and the more mutual the pining the better. Also, Casey McQuiston is very funny and I have a deep personal vendetta against sexual shame.

The Pairing, which is a second-chance romance with all the fixings cited above, including a whole lot of sex with sexy third, fourth, and fifth (etc.) parties, and which is set on a food and wine tour of Europe, should really have suited me down to the ground. So it did, until the endless details of wine flavors and aromas, and perfect patisserie, and meals comprising the finest and freshest and most superbly combined ingredients suddenly got to be too much. CMcQ seems to have lost focus on their characters and the growth/collapse/growth of their relationship, in favor of showing off their -- the characters' and the author's -- expertise. It got boring, just the way someone monologuing, on any subject, gets boring, and then gets more boring, and then more boring still, until all you want is to escape.

2.5 stars rounded up because I couldn't quite bring myself to round down.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC. It will be apparent that this is my honest opinion.

I am a huge fan of Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop and I Kissed Shara Wheeler. Red White and Royal Blue was good too (but not great). The Pairing was one of my most anticipated reads this year, and I checked Netgalley frequently to request it as early as possible. Unfortunately, this one really let me down. I just really did not enjoy it. I hated all the cliche stereotypes, the excessive hooking up and the lack of chemistry. It just made me so sad.

This book is utterly indulgent. I spent six straight hours on the couch devouring it. I’m already planning for a slower re-read so I can savor each page. This book felt different from McQuinston’s earlier novels. They treat Theo and Kit with such reverence; the two characters are truly the heart and soul of this novel. McQuinston is known for dynamic casts of characters and side characters that leap off the page. This book deviated from that, focusing whole-heartedly on Theo and Kit. I still fell in love with some of the side characters (Fabrizio, my heart), but they were not as fully developed. I found this to be very intentional. In a crowded bar, Kit describes seeing Theo with a quote from Ms. Dalloway, “All this was only a background for Sally.” He says, “To me, Theo is the eternal foreground.” Theo and Kit are the eternal foreground of The Pairing. Everything, from the homoerotic relationship between the Calums to the hypersexual Italian artwork feel meant to deepen the reader’s understanding of Theo and Kit and their relationship. The scene where Kit sees himself and Theo in The Birth of Venus was beautiful. The descriptions of food and art and sex never disappointed. I simply cannot wait to read this book again.

This is my second book by this author and they do not disappoint when it comes to their main characters. I absolutely loved and hated both of them. They are the definition of chaotic bisexuals. Kit is so Timothée Chalamet-coded it’s insane, in a good way. Theo I’d punch from time to time. The book felt very Call Me By Your Name in its aesthetics. It is a story set in Europe around a food and wine tour so the descriptions on these are heavy. At a point it felt like too much google-research and I found myself skimming over some paragraphs.

The story itself is very focused on sex, the main characters are exes and the whole plot premise is a hook-up competition to ease the tension. So I’d say the spice levels are high for this book. I am also not a fan of the miscommunication trope so that part frustrated me. Overall, the book was thoroughly enjoyable although it could’ve been significantly shorter.

Also, random thought, but if i had a nickel for every time the phrase “up to my nips” is said in this book i’d have 3 nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened more than once.

Also also, Theo and Kit, not lesbians as i thought this was before starting to read.

I love the premise of this book, I wish we got more flashbacks of Kit and Theo when they were younger. I found them both to be lovable characters. You can tell the author put a lot of work into researching and the food/drink sounds delicious I want to taste them myself. I loved how both characters were unapologetically bisexual. CMQ writes the best queer books but unfortunately I did not enjoy this one as much as their other books.
I gave this book 3.5/5 stars

Four years after BFFs turned lovers Kit and Theo abruptly broke up on their way to a food and wine tour through Europe, they separately decide to return to the scene of the crime for trip before their vouchers expire—unbeknownst to the other until Theo quite literally falls into Kit's lap on the tour bus. The duo decide to put aside their differences for the tour and soon find themselves in a bet over who can hook up with the most people during their travels through France, Spain and Italy, and find their spark hasn't fully gone out. Told from both points of view, the book delves into each of their perspectives throughout their romance and the breakup and the miscommunication that left them not speaking for four years.

At times I struggled with Theo's character and specifically how they got in their own way both in love and life—I almost wish Casey had fully committed to unpacking the Nepo Baby situation as it played heavily in the character but never fully got delved into because it lent to a *massive* chip on their shoulder. And while I did enjoy a lot from Theo's POV I generally favored the storytelling from Kit's perspective. But overall it was a poignant story about lost love and second chances.

What happens when you and your ex accidentally book the same European food tour? You make a competition for who can sleep with the most people, obviously.

I know this is a bold statement, but I think this is my favorite CMQ book so far??? It's by far the sluttiest, and honestly that's what I want in a summer read. The Pairing is so incredibly indulgent and makes me want to spend months on end in Europe in the summer. The bi4bi childhood friends to lovers to exes to friends to ??? just really hits different with the bonus of them eating and drinking like there's no tomorrow.

The addition of the food and drink pairings (ha) at the beginning of each chapter is honeslty so genius and makes me wanna reread the book while eating all of the listed food and drinks. I think that'd be so fun!

As with all of CMQ's books, the side characters are the perfect compliment to the main story line and make me feel like I can truly transport myself into the book. The relationships feel so authentic and honestly make me want to keep reading so I can know what happens to them, too.

Overall such an incredibly slutty fantastic book and I hope everyone reads it!! 5/5 stars.

Casey mcquiston is one of the biggest names in queer fiction at the moment, and wrote one of my favorite books of all time. This however missed the mark for me. I didn’t thoroughly enjoy either character so it was hard to root for their relationship

Sigh. This one is hard. I LOVED her other books so I was so excited to get an ARC of this one. Sadly, this did not live up to my previous experiences. The second half was better for me when it switched to Kit’s POV, but marginally. What I did like was all the descriptions of the food and wine and the different locations in Europe where they visited. That made me want to go to all those places right now! I just didn’t like how the characters were written and didn’t really feel their connection. The sex bet was pretty cringey to me as well. I did enjoy the ending, but some of the journey there was rough. Again, I have loved we books in the past and will read what is to come, this one just didn’t hit the mark for me. But I know this will connect with a certain audience. That audience just isn’t me.

I've waffled for a couple of days now on my review since finishing The Pairing by Casey McQuiston. I was highly anticipating this one ever since reading the synopsis several months ago! I was (and still am) delighted to have received the opportunity to read to this one in advance of its August release.

I dove into this one and loved it right off the hop. Two bisexual exes, Kit and Theo, who broke up explosively four years prior find themselves booked on the same European food/wine tour. They haven't seen and/or spoken to each other since the day the broke up, and after navigating the awkwardness of their relationship status, end up starting a competition with each other to see who can hook up with the most people as they travel through Europe. Sounds kind of fun?

The first half of the book WAS fun, but when I felt like the conclusion was on the horizon, I realized that the SECOND HALF of the book was just beginning. And then from that point on, it just felt long, and drawn out. The second half also was quite heavy on the graphic sex, although I can't fault the author for that because I literally signed up for a book based on two characters daring one another to see who could have the most sex, and who have a history of a very open sexual relationship themselves.

I still adore Kit and Theo, and I adore their respect and consideration for one another. It was quite refreshing to read a story where the two characters' feelings for one another are raw, unapologetic and tender.

I just think the entire story could have been 150 pages shorter. And after a while, the abundance of hot bisexual supporting characters waiting at the ready to have sex, well... It felt redundant.

Despite my mixed feelings, I think The Pairing has a lot to offer-- it was refreshing, and McQuiston has done such a fabulous job describing the food and drink on the tour, that I spent the better half of the book jealous that I was not sampling the same food that Kit and Theo were.

3.5⭐

Ok bear with me this is gonna be long I have a lot to say.

This was a book I had a really hard time with from the beginning. I’ve been looking forward to it for a year and J really really wanted to love it but no matter how hard I tried, there were too many things that bothered me.

For starters, this book had basically no plot it needed so much more substance! It felt like every new country they visited was just a repeat of what happened before and by about halfway through the book, this started to drag and I couldn’t believe how much more there still was to read.

The entire plot just seemed like sex and really long food descriptions which started to get annoying. Like every single character in this book just wanted to sleep with everyone else all the time. That is not all I want from a romance! Give me actual romance! And it had so much potential like there was a whole cast of characters that could have added more substance but we never got to meet them fully or get to know them. I feel like we barely got to know our main characters honestly.

Both characters could be so frustrating at times and they felt childish I kept forgetting they were supposed to be 28. I know so much of this is just personal preference because some people with absolutely love this book but it just reminded me that second chance romance is not my thing. It felt like misunderstanding with a small side of plot and misunderstanding drives me a little crazy.

Now there were things I did like about this book! It definitely had a fun, European summer vibe and Casey has beautiful writing even if the descriptions got a bit out of hand. I found that when it was a good moment, the connection between the characters was beautiful and there are some really incredible quotes about love and connections. The ending saved this book from a lower rating because I did enjoy the way it wrapped up and I do feel like there was some character growth!

Anyway, this just wasn’t fully my cup of tea which makes me really sad because it was so highly anticipated.

Adored this new McQuiston story, even more than I was hoping to. The food and travel descriptions are lush enough to make you feel like you're along for the tour, and the richness of the friendship/romance between the main characters is perfection.

DNF at 16%
Which makes me incredibly sad. I was ecstatic when I got the email that I was approved for an ARC of this. I've read two of Casey's other books and loved them! This just was... Boring. I didn't even care about the main character because they annoyed me so much, whining about their family all the time. It wasn't even relevant? And maybe I'm just to basic but the food and wine descriptions had me snoozing.

The Pairing by Casey McQuiston was kind of disappointing. I've read all their other work so I was excited when I got approved for the arc, but I was left feeling underwhelmed. I love second-chance romances, but I just wasn't feeling these characters—though their chemistry was off the charts. And everyone was having sex with everyone as they moved through Europe. I thought we'd get more about the food and wine tasting.

I really wanted to love this book. It was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. Let’s start with the good:

-it was incredibly atmospheric. I felt like I was where they were, eating and drinking and swimming in the sea.
-the discussion of gender and sexuality was so top tier. This is what Casey writes so so well.
-the characters were likable and deep and well fleshed out in many aspects.

The bad:

-every stop along the trip had the same sort of cadence and it got old quickly. I wanted more variation. I wanted it to feel compulsive to read and it didn’t.
-the characters felt so underdeveloped in so many areas. I wanted them to be more extreme, more believable, more daring. I wanted to feel so much more yearning and love from each of them.
-it lacked conflict where the conflict should have been easy. This one was confusing to me. I wasn’t quite sure why it was difficult for them to do so, but it felt like there was a story under the story that needed a lot of editing to uncover.
-which leads me to my next point: it needed more editing. I LOVE that this book was something different than the others. It felt fresh and like they tried something new. However, I think the book needed to be shaped into a more refined version of itself. I didn’t mind all the food and sightseeing talk but I know others will dislike it and find it boring for that reason. I do think those aspects would make a bigger impact if it wasn’t such a play by play of every bite they eat.

All in all, I will read whatever Casey writes and always hope it resonates with me. I think this will be a hit with some and a miss for some.

Oh my. How can I describe my love of The Pairing by Casey McQuiston?

First of all, I need everyone to know that I love queer romance, and I love books that include descriptions of delicious food. …thus, I had a FIELD DAY (😏) with this book, y’all!

CMQ delivers (as always) with this steamy, decadent, and downright delectable novel.

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to go on a food tour through Europe, this is for you! If you’ve wanted a friends to lovers to enemies to lovers, this is for you! If you’ve ever wanted a slutty M/NB romance (Is that too niche? Whatever, *I* wanted it.), this is for you!

Our two main characters, Theo & Kit, go through some gorgeous character development over the course of the book, and I really felt like I KNEW them as people by the ending.

I’m not even sure how many lines I highlighted overall as I read, but it was an absurd amount because the way CMQ writes is just so heartbreakingly beautiful. I also laughed out loud countless times because, dang, some of the hijinks those two get up to are just hilarious. And it is probably worth noting that I sobbed my way through last 20 minutes of the book (which is a good thing, in my opinion). But…you’ve been warned!

This was a five star read and possibly one of my favorite books I’ve read so far this year. It is just absolute perfection in its plot, tone, pacing, and characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

Say hello to my new favorite Casey McQuiston 🩷🩷🩷
First off, I'd like to say I really love how McQuiston dealt with gender in this book. It takes a bit for us to get introduced to the first MCs gender and it is totally intentional. This book is really just about the love and passion between two people regardless of gender and that made my heart sing.

People love that quote "a reader lives a thousand lives" and I typically I think they're referring to fantasy novels, but the trip Theo and Kit find themselves on is awesome and I'm glad I got to live through them in it. Experiencing all the cultures and foods through this European tour was magical and fell head over heels with every part of it.

My favorite things about second chance romances are how two people can find their way back to each other. When they remember the things they like but also are attracted to and infatuated with the new things about them. And of course remembering so much of each other and so much of themselves that were shaped by each other. This book holds ALL of those thoughts and emotions and it explores them in the most wonderful way. I loved it to pieces and it's beautifully written. I found myself wanting to laugh, cry, and smile on nearly every page.

Quite possibly my favorite read of the year!