please note that the trigger warnings and topes/themes may contain spoilers
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
HEA: yes
POV: dual 1st person POV
spice: several open-door spicy scenes
TWs: mentions of parental death, grief, lots of OW/OM drama
standalone: yes
final thoughts: CASEY! This book put me through the wringer in the first half!!
The POVs are split up with Theo having the first half POV and Kit having the second half POV which was confusing at first, but it really built up the angst and miscommunication which are big tropes in this book.
This book made me want to take the same tour they did, eat all the delicious food that was described, and meet other fun backpackers along the way.
Theo and Kit engage in a sex-off bet by seeing who can sleep with the most people by the end of the trip which they think will help prove they’re both over their past relationship… sounds foolproof right?

read this book if you love

🌈 LGBT+ representation
🔎 adventure
😬 angst
🤝 bet
🧑‍🍳 blue collar MCs (pastry chef and bartender/ sommelier)
💞 friends-to-lovers
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 great side characters
💞 childhood crush
🏝️ forced proximity (same vacation, shared rooms)
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 found family
🧠 “it’s always been you”
🛏️ “it’s just a fling”
🤐 miscommunication
🚙 road trip
😂 romcom
2️⃣ 2nd chance romance
💓 slowburn
😏 kinky
🙏 praise

Thank you to NetGalley, Casey McQuiston, and the publishers for allowing me access to the e-Arc.

I honestly feel like this book was not for me. Their books have been a hit or miss for me. This one was a miss. I was interested in the beginning of the book but slowly I felt more distant from the story. I knew that it was going to have food and wine. But not to the extent that was described. I wanted to love the main characters or at least one of them but they are both so unlikable. Their immature behavior towards each other was odd considering they are adults. I enjoyed the themes about identity and nonbinary. I was confused by the way it was introduced to the story. I was lost throughout most of the story about Theo’s identity. I’m glad that it was discussed but not the way it was delivered.

Thanks to St. Martin's and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy. Below is my honest review.

I really enjoyed this one. Casey McQuiston just knows how to write queer love in a way that brings joy, and I love that so much.

This one had two bi main characters, so there was lots of love to go around! LOL.

While there was some drama, because of course there has to be, you could feel the character's pull towards each other like gravity and the backdrop of touring Europe was perfection. My biggest gripes were the detailed wine discussions, the nonstop misunderstandings due to the body count competition, and the constant "oh, everyone in all these countries clearly want to hop in bed with me!"

All in all, another solid book from McQuiston. I'll definitely be reading whatever they put out next!

Overall, I did enjoy the book a lot, it's very picturesque, almost like an arthouse movie but in text. Even the romantic plot, I enjoyed to a degree. Theo and Kit just didn’t click for me. I am a sucker for happy endings and here we have it but I wish it had been a bittersweet ending. My heart was left aching and yearning for something more (and better) for Kit who is the only reason I am going so high with the rating.

2.5

i skimmed through this so bad because i just couldn’t connect with the characters. i mean, i really loved rw&rb and shara wheeler so i’m not sure why this was different. it just felt like a different vibe and energy to me and not something i really enjoyed.

I wanted to love this book. Red, White, and Royal Blue absolutely blew my mind, and I had extremely high hopes for this novel as well. Unfortunately, it just fell short.

⚠️Spoilers Ahead⚠️

The plot of this book? Two bisexual exes accidentally book the same European food tour and, instead of dealing with their completed feels about their past breakup, they decide to compete with each other to see who can hook up with more people.

Don't get my wrong—I am a fan of smut and all things romance. BUT...I don't feel like the casual, competitive, and comically easy nature of the constant hook ups in this book did enough for me.

It felt too easy and too surface level and, while I am always a fan of best friends to exes to friends to lovers, I just felt underwhelmed by this story.

It didn't feel like love, it felt like lust. And it was hard to believe that the main characters would actually stay together in the long run.

The prose was well written, the LGBTQ+ representation was absolutely there, and there was a TON of fun information about food and wine (I feel like I learned a lot) but the lackluster plot did a disservice to the other lovely aspects of the book.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5

"The Pairing" is a deliciously stunning read that will leave you craving more. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone in search of a heartwarming romance filled with laughter, love, and plenty of delicious treats. Trust me, you won't be able to resist falling head over heels for Theo and Kit's enchanting journey.

"The Pairing" by Casey McQuiston is a steamy, sensual, and indulgent novel that explores themes of sexuality, identity, and the complexities of love and desire.

The story follows Theo, a nonbinary aspiring sommelier, and Kit, a pastry chef in Paris, who were once childhood best friends turned lovers before a brutal breakup four years ago. They accidentally book the same European food and wine tour, reigniting their rivalry through a flirtatious hookup competition across France, Spain, and Italy. As they navigate the forced proximity and reignited chemistry, the novel delves into their bisexual identities and the nuances of queer relationships and sexuality.

Sounds great, right? Well it wasn't. While I have really enjoyed McQuiston's previous novels - Red, White and Royal Blue, and less so, The Last Stop - I could not get on board with Theo and Kit. In fact, I fell asleep every time I started reading this book and it was a slog just to get past the 25% mark. Hoping to pick this back up at some point, bc almost every review I've has been fabulous. Are we reading the same book?

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was a beautiful homage to some of my favourite things; good food, good friends, travel, history, and E. M. Forster's A Room With a View. In some ways, I think we are probably all Lucy at some point, trying to find ourselves (and in some cases, our George)

Though I am usually such a stan of short chapters, I absolutely loved how Casey broke the book up based on each city they stopped in throughout the tour! It really added to the whole experience of the book for me! This book is definitely for folks who love a good spicy book (never in my life did I think I would read a scene about making bread that I would consider spicy, but here I am)! ALSO the PEACH SCENE OH MY GOD. This book had so many good tropes (one bed, second chance love, miscommunication) and I would recommend as a good summer read for anyone looking for a deeper summer romance that involves deep descriptions of so many european cities!

I was pretty disappointed with this one. It drug on and I wasn’t into the characters at all. So sad. I loved Shara Wheeler! This book was just not it.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins for the ARC

I have had mixed feelings about McQuiston's previous work. Often, finding them to be the equivalent of reality TV wasn't the best work, but I found it fun. The Pairing does not fall into this category as the Nepo baby main character (Theo) and Eat Pray Love style journey through Europe. While the idea of turning a summer across Europe into a hook-up competition could make for a good horror or 2000s comedy, it does not make a good RomCom because you already know that Theo and Kit will end up together.
Some of my fellow reviewers have pointed out Theo as a Nepo baby who cosplays being poor who, despite being offered thousands of dollars, turns it down for the sake of the "struggle." Kit was an easier character to like mainly because they are boring and simply spend half the book pinning after Theo.

Despite the book seemingly being a vehicle for FoodNetwork, I no longer desire to cook and will order cheap takeout in the foreseeable future.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for providing a digital ARC for review. In Casey McQuiston’s The Pairing, Kit and Theo were on the way to Europe for a once-in-a-lifetime food and wine tour when they broke up so badly on the plane that Theo immediately went home and Kit moved to Europe. They haven’t spoken since, but four years later, they find that they both have used the expiring vouchers from their missed trip to book the same tour. As they tentatively attempt friendship to get through the tour, a bet to see who can hook up with the most strangers as they travel through France, Spain, and Italy stirs up old emotions and the misunderstandings and secrets that broke them up, causing both of them to reexamine their lives and what they want from the future.

I always love McQuiston’s talent for building believable characters and relationships and the life they bring to side characters, but the standout in this book for me were the descriptions of locations and sensory experiences. Theo and Kit are traveling through amazing places, eating delicious food, and Theo in particular has a fascinating relationship with taste and flavor both in food and wine. Sadly, I discovered that second-chance romance after a bad breakup is not a trope I enjoy when I don’t already know the characters, so I did not enjoy the romance element of the plot as much as I have in McQuiston’s previous books. I want to clarify here that it’s well written and that was kind of the problem. We get a front row seat to the angst and insecurity of being around an ex and wanting to have back the previous relationship, win the breakup, and be a functional adult who can talk to that ex without fighting all at the same time, which wasn’t a comfortable headspace for me. That said, the romance is well crafted and believable. We start the book knowing that the breakup took place, but the details of what happened and what caused the fight are doled out a smidge at a time over the course of the book, which is very effective in slowing unspooling who the characters are to one another. Overall, very well done, but the parts I enjoyed the most were the travel and the tentatively building back a friendship that had collapsed, rather than the romance elements.

Thank you so much for this advanced copy! This was one of my most anticipated reads because I adore all of McQuiston’s works. Unfortunately this one didn’t quite hit the mark for me - I didn’t love the characters and found the plot rather repetitive. Still, a decent read and I’ll still look forward to McQuiston’s future works.

I have struggled with Casey McQuiston's books since their debut, but this might be their best work yet. The Pairing is a love letter to food and wine, a beautiful exploration of sexuality, and a heartwarming journey of self-discovery and acceptance in all its forms. From the first chapter, I was enthralled by Theo and Kit, with each of them latching onto my heart in different ways. This is definitely a book I will be rereading once it comes out and recommending to everyone who is looking for a romantic and sexy trip through Europe.

While I've had the pleasure of reading a few of McQuiston's books in the past, I was so pleasantly blown away by the LOVELINESS of The Pairing. A second-chance romance is one of my favorite tropes to read, and the settings of this story were so gorgeously described via the remarkable imagery and somehow even the FLAVORS of each region we visited.

This was also the most positively sex-inclusive book I've had the pleasure of reading in quite some time, maybe ever. This inclusion, and particularly the wonderfully-written conversation about Theo's pronouns, have prompted me to recommend this book to friends as a positive example and a breath of fresh air.

I did find some of the food and wine descriptions only barely tedious, but found I could skim those when I needed to - I wouldn't even count that as a con for this book. In all, I absolutely ADORED this read for it's characters, their love story, and for making me constantly alternate between laughing and sweating.

Huge thanks to Casey McQuiston, St. Martin's Griffin, and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Im floating between 3.75 and 4 stars. This was cute and hot but it also got a bit repetitive in the middle. Still a good time though!

Wow, this was one of the most immersive books I have read in a long, long time. As a foodie, I had such a fun time reading this book. It straight up made me hungry and I felt like I was along for for the tour of Europe that Kit and Theo were on. I learned quite a bit about European wine, food, and culture and the banter was top notch. The only thing that I really hated about this book was the competition to see who could sleep with more people on the trip (when they were obviously in love with each other). Without that storyline, this book would have been near perfect--but then we also wouldn't have gotten the "that still only counts as one!" line that had me cackling. I adored the nerdy Tolkienisms and highly recommend this book!

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that has touch my soul so much. Everything about this book was beautiful. Watching how Kit and Theo fell in love in their youth before even fully understanding what love was, to being completely consumed with each other in their early twenties to figuring out we’re each other fit in their new lives.

I loved the bi representation of both characters in this book while also exploring Theo’s gender and not fully being ready or willing to give up the she/her to avoid being upset by the norms but also preferring being compared to more masculine traits.

I genuinely had to take breaks while reading this book because it truly just hit on a lot of things about myself and my life that I don’t like to think about. This book is going to stick to my soul for the rest of my life I think.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the ARC! Having read Red, White, and Royal Blue (3 stars) and One Last Stop (4 stars), I was excited for McQuiston’s next adult book! Also as a bisexual woman, I was really excited for the bi rep!! While the book was a fun read, I felt like I never really connected with any of the characters. Also, as others have stated, the bi stereotype of being a slut is definitely perpetuated here— which is fine to demonstrate sexual freedom, but it would be nice to see at least one bi character who isn’t so over sexualized.