I already had a shaky experience with this author's One Stop Love. I wanted to like that one, but I just never fully clicked with it. Still, I was open to giving her a second chance and that's why I requested this book, but I clicked with The Pairing even less than I did with One Stop Love if that's even possible.

I just didn't like the romance or the characters, and I didn't care about what was happening at all. I liked some aspects of it but not the execution. For example, the whole traveling through Europe being horny af could've been fun, but it was just soooooo... cliché and every European character is a stereotype of their particular culture, which I think is so shallow. I mean, come on...

I don't know, I just didn't like this and while I appreciate how queer it is and people may find themselves in these characters, it just wasn't for me. I enjoyed nothing about it. 2 stars for effort.

Years after a terrible breakup on what was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime, Theo cashes in on the European excursion before it expires…only to arrive and find their ex Kit *also* booked the same re-do trip. Both have their own lives now - Theo a hustling bartender and aspiring sommelier, Kit a pastry chef in Paris — but somehow this trip brings back old feelings and the two must grapple with either reuniting and letting the past go, or stick to their separate paths.
I enjoyed the setting and could easily picture the settings throughout Europe. However i found the MCs somewhat unlikable. Grown adults lacking basic communication skills and found Theo to be immature and annoying…and the “nepo baby” of it all didn’t click. I would’ve loved more of Kit’s backstory. The audio production was great, however, and loved their portrayals, as well as the musical transitions between chapters.
Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This one is difficult to rate because I had a hard time getting through it but it had such a satisfying ending! 2nd chance is not my favorite trope so I do feel like I hold higher standards for this type of book. I had a really hard time with the main characters constantly hooking up with other people. Both characters were an interesting mix of being too boujie to function and being immature enough to have revenge hook ups. That being said as I stated earlier I loved the conclusion so I was happy I spent the time listening. I thought both narrators did great and loved the dual pov. I wasn't sure about the music starting out each chapter but maybe that's just because I've never heard that before. I wish I could do half stars bc this was a solid 3.5 for me.

I was lucky enough to get the ebook of this book first and feel in love with the book. Hearing the story in audio form made me love this book that much more. I already enjoyed the character but getting to have it in audio form made me connected more with Theo and Kit. The were such beautifully created characters. I felt I could see so much of myself in Theo. It was refreshing to see gender talked about this way. While yes it is a part of Theo story it wasn't something that was shoved in our face every 10 second as if that was all Theo was. Instead we got to have this amazing character fully thought out and you got to learn all about them. I think too often author try and have these topic talked about and they really want to 'wow' you with the fact they are outside what society would call normal that they forget that part doesn't have to be their entire identity and can still make the point you were after. I think that is what Casey McQuiston does best. They tell you things like their sexuailty and gender and move on. It will always be with the character, but they are more. I appreciate Theo insecurities and doubt didn't have to focus only on their gender or sexuailty like I've seen in so many other queer novels as if it something to be ashamed of. I can not say enough good thing about this book and how seen it made me feel. Though I did leave me really hungry and I wish I could do that food tour because it sounded amazing.

hmm...

honestly, i am still trying to figure out how to rate this because i have very mixed feelings about it haha, in a sense it is like rw&rb because of the situation but the spice level is turned up %1000000 and I'm not a spice person so i didn't really like that and for almost half of the book i was confused about the gender of the mc in the first half, it kept switching in my head because of the language that was used and it makes sense later but i had a hard time with that...

i like how this is more mature than rw&rb and i know it's kind of strange to base my rating on that but it's the only other book I've read by her so i don't really have anything to compare it to. also, the spice is pretty explicit compared (not sure if this is true or if i missed a lot in the other book)

i also could not hate these characters no matter how much i try, they all have such likable personalities and that's something i love about Casey McQuinston's writing, the characters always feel so real because of their flaws and language.

alright, I'm done gushing about the book.

As much as I love Casey McQuiston’s writing, there were SO many times I had to force myself to keep listening to this audiobook because the narrators were so awful. I immediately disliked the narrator for Theo, which I believe negatively impacted my feelings towards the character, then when it switched to Kit’s POV, that narrator was even worse. I can’t believe for an author as well loved as McQuiston that they couldn’t find better narrators. Although the miscommunication trope is my least favorite, I believe I would have enjoyed the print copy of this book far more than the audio.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Casey has written another winner. This was a great book that I thoroughly enjoyed. The narrator was awesome as well! Pick this one up!

TL;DR
I would tell my girlfriends to read this, but not my mom.
Two bisexual exes accidentally book the same three week European food and wine tour and are forced to reconcile the past in this (very) adult romance. Great writing, good pace, diverse and plentiful sex scenes, clever humor, and some of my favorite romantic tropes.

The Writing
McQuiston's prose has evolved in The Pairing, and the poetic way she paints emotions into the idyllic European locations with colors and aromas really defines the mood of this book. I found myself pausing the audiobook several times so I could write down some of the deliciously chewy sentences–things that I would underline in a book if I were reading rather than listening. The descriptions of food and wine were so complete I was craving everything mentioned. Well, except for the grilled lamb intestines on a stick…

Humor
Of course it's also filled with McQuiston's amazingly dry and clever sense of humor. Most notably were the other members of the tour group. I thoroughly appreciated that she named two Australians Callum and then referred to them consistently as "Blonde Callum" and "Ginger Callum". The two influencer friends named "Dakota" and "Montana" made me spit out my drink when they were introduced.

Romance
This has a nice slow burn that is full of classic romantic tropes we all know and love: forced proximity, only one bed, second chances. McQuiston filled this book with queerness in the best way possible. So many steamy sex scenes that prove penetration is not the be-all and end-all definition of sex. They also seemed to pay tribute to another queer story, Call Me By Your Name, with another steamy peach moment.

I requested this book because it's Pride month and people love Casey McQuiston so I thought I would give it a try. Romance isn't my usual genre, certainly not romcoms, but on my journey to read 100 books this year I thought I would also try expanding my horizons a little. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book and now I'm thinking about going back to read the other two books by Casey that people have recommended to me.

The characters in this story weren't entirely relatable but that didn't make me enjoy the story any less. I will say that I have been known to enjoy pretentious books and there is some element of that here in the way the characters talk about food and wine, but if you're reading a book about a food and wine tour some of that is expected.

There was no part of this book that I wasn't engaged in and I found the read over all really enjoyable, even if there were times I wanted to shake both of the main characters vigorously to tell them to stop being so frustrating.

If you like romance, especially queer romance, and you can stomach a little pretensiousness, I'd recommend giving this one a try.

Thanks NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

There was so much of this I enjoyed, yet a number of things fell flat. It was a stretch to imagine this trip, it almost seemed like a fever dream? I know writing is subjective, but nothing that happened in the book felt believable, and that’s where Casey lost me. This didn’t give the same umpf as ‘I kissed Sarah Wheeler’ or ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ … the magic was missing…

Was not my fav of hers but overall it was a good read if you are looking for hookups, food, and second chances. Lots of descriptions to the point where it was almost too much in my opinion. I also was slightly confused when it switched from Theos POV over to Kits due to the use of she/her pronouns at the beginning it made me question Theos POV for a bit. A good read with an interesting concept. 2.5 stars rounded up.

Disaster Bi's who can't communicate to save their lives. The writing was beautiful and poignant adding depth to characters that I sort of liked but was mostly exasperated by. Maybe I'm not the right audience for this book, but my patience ran very thin with Theo and Kit, two very well off 20-somethings on a three week European tour who choose to act like children instead of actually talking to each other. Only the genius of Casey McQuiston's writing saved this story.

“two bisexual exes accidentally book the same european food and wine tour” sign me the f up!!!! where do i even begin with this one. i knew from the first couple chapters that this baby was gonna be a 5 star read. if you want to transport yourself to europe in a summertime heatwave and imagine indulging in endless wine, pastries, art, love, and found friendships then this is gonna be the summer book of your dreams. theo and kit are childhood best friends, turned lovers, turned ex’s & years after their breakup they find themselves traveling all over europe together. what started as an unexpected reunion embarking into the unknown turns into the reacquaintance of their greatest love.

because of their shared history and knowledge of one another, their connection and familiarity of eachother was so palpable from the very start. there was also a huge element of “meeting one another” in such a new and curious way. the reacquainting of themselves with one another was just perfection.
every interaction was so yummy. filled with flirty glances, delicious yearning, steamy palpable heat (in more ways then one 😮‍💨) and discovery of romance in all its forms.

i couldn’t get over casey mcquiston’s writing. you know those super 8 film cameras that almost capture moments in a romantic haze and hone in on the precious details that can often be missed? well that’s what this book felt like to me. there wasn’t a detail left unfocused. everything was so vibrate and brimming with sunshine and attention. it truly played out like a film in my mind.

this needs to be on your summer reading list!!!! pub date: aug 6th 2024

here are just a few of my favourite lines (trust me i could add 100’s more lol):
- “and every person i take to bed from now on will be fighting his ghost for my attention”
- “the problem is, we’ve only ever been everything or nothing to each other. I don’t know how to start being something to him”
- “and every time we hold our glasses together, everytime the lip of his glass almost touches the lip of mine, i try not to think this is the closest we will come to kissing again”
- “ the only thing bigger than kits capacity for wonder is how it feels to be at the centre of it”
- “ it’s not just that I want him. It’s that he taught me what wanting was”
- “ I can’t keep letting you talk to someone. I love like that.”

Uggh… I wanted to love this book! But unfortunately I just didn’t. It could be a “me” thing but the more I think about it the more I focus on the challenges.

I am so thankful to have gotten the audio ARC for free from Netgalley and MacMillan Audio so I can leave my voluntary and honest review.

I was especially grateful for getting this early copy as I have a personal goal of consuming 10 LGTBQIA+ books during Pride month and this fit right in. I previously read and loved Red, White and Royal Blue which was my introduction to McQuiston as well as I kissed Sarah Wheeler which I didn’t love. So I went in with realistic expectations.

The overwhelming feeling I got whilst listening was that it was pretentious. I don’t want to give specifics as I don’t want to give spoilers but it seems like things that are mentioned or the description of a setting is done simply because it’s the popular thing of the moment rather than an organic addition to the story.

I also couldn’t stand Theo and Kit wasn’t much better. I could not identify with either of them in anyway which made me not care what happened to them. Had this not been an ARC, I would have DNF’d it but I don’t do that when I’m given an ARC.

As for the audiobook specifically I had a huge issue partially with the male reader (who was narrating Kit), Max Meyers. The characters are on a food tour through Europe and every time there is something from another country like a food name in French or Italian or geographic locations, Max would put on a fake accent. It added to the feeling of it being pretentious. Also the amount of drama he interjects into the prose completely removes the listeners own experience of how they interpret the material. He crosses over the very fine line that narrators must walk.

Lastly, the issue I have many times is with the second chance lovers situation where the author relies of all the emotional connections to have happened in the past and thus skips over it all and it’s just a given. This makes it really hard to connect with the relationship and root for it.

One thing I really liked about Red White and Royal Blue was that it seemed very natural. It was easy to fall in love with the characters and want to see them succeed. In this book, it comes off like they’re trying to hard and writing for a different purpose and to have some shock value.

I am sure other will love this book and devour it, especially those that need a connection to gay literary characters to see themselves depicted.
For me it was an ok read but not something I’ll go out of my way to mention.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

I really really wanted to like this but man did it drag on for way too long. I think it could have been 2-3 hours shorter and we still would've gotten the same story. It started to feel repetitive and I found myself zoning out at times. I also didn't enjoy the narrator for Kit, when they were doing Theo's voice, I found myself bothered by it. This is a second chance romance but you get pretty much no flashbacks or anything to help you see how they fell in love and got where they are now. It's also one huge miscommunication trope, which I also do not usually enjoy. I do think I would have enjoyed this one more if I would have had the physical version. I know a lot of people will love this one, I just don't think it was the perfect book for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an ALC in exchange for my honest review.

Alas, this one was sadly one big disappointment for me. In part, I'm perhaps not hedonistic enough to buy into a lot of the premise, but I also found it difficult to get invested into our protagonists' POVs (Theo moreso than Kit), and also think it's funny how so much of the reader's suspension of disbelief relies on choosing to believe that Europeans dislike Americans a good bit less than I'd believe to be true.
Overall, a miss for me

I knew in my bones that this book was written especially for me. I don’t expected, however, it would infiltrated so much under my skin. It become one of the “book for life” for me. I love it even more than I love RWRB (and I’m obsessed by RWRB. RWRB has my soul and my heart).
This book collects all my favorite tropes (except for age gap) and the food is also a main character alongside the cities of the trip.
I love the way the book is split in two parties, the first from Theo’s pov, the second from Kit’s pov. I can see how each of them think of the other and I love that.
The slow burn is reeeeeeally slow burn. Thank you Casey for this. You are the best. It’s frustrating but really rewarding.
I love this book more than life itself. And I love the narratore, they did a really good job!

One of my friends said this book is "not a book, it's an immersive sensory and emotional experience." and I think that is a better summary of the book than I could ever hope to provide... so I'm stealing it. Thanks, Nell for your contributions.

Jokes aside, there is nothing more true about this book than that statement. Casey McQuiston really stepped up their writing abilities because The Pairing is leagues above anything on their backlist. I think Red, White & Royal Blue will always be a favorite of mine for nostalgic reasons (it was the first romance book I ever read), but The Pairing is a very close second. It has something very different to offer than RWRB as well. Its not as humorous, but what it lacks in humor, it makes up in heart.

This is one of the most heartfelt books I think I have ever read. Emotion leaks off every page. Casey has joked and called this their "bisexual horny mess book," and while it is that, it's also a book that is so full of yearning it might as well be Pride and Prejudice (2005).

I really appreciated what this book had to offer stylistically. It is a dual POV, but it's not done in alternating chapters. The first half of the book is Theo's POV and the second half is Kit's. Part of me wishes it had alternated just because I loved Theo's POV so much, but I also see why Casey decided to tell the story this way.

Basically, The Pairing is the best book I've read this year and because of that, we're going to have a moment for one of the most breath-taking lines I've read in a while (it literally knocked the wind from me).

"Love took root in me before I even knew its name. Theo was a superbloom. The petals stayed."

Thank you Casey McQuiston. (and also Netgalley for giving me an ARC! MWAH)

2.5 stars

I'm struggling with this review because I have loved everything Casey McQuiston has written until now. But I got about halfway through the book and wanted to walk away. I finished because it's a NetGalley ARC, but it took me 4 days to do it. And that's a very long time for me and my reading habits.

I think the major problem was that McQuiston made the decision to start with Theo's POV. Unfortunately Theo is prickly and insecure. I usually like seeing a flawed character who grows during the course of the book, but Theo remained childish, and to my mind, unlikeable. And once I actively disliked them, it was difficult for me to want to continue with the story.

Kit is certainly more likeable, but a bit OTT in his feelings towards Theo. And even his sweet puppy-like adoration of them didn't change my mind. Both of the MCs were incredibly immature and so many of the decisions they made along the journey reflected that.

Another problem for me was that they fell in love off the page. That whole process was glossed over and did nothing to help invest me in their relationship.

Most of the action takes place during a food & drink tour of western Europe. Normally this would be enough for several stars from me, but I was left unsatisfied. And I'm a big foodie! Everything happened in such a blur that I wasn't even particularly hungry when hearing all the descriptions. That, along with the blur of sex with pretty people who seemed to all crave both Theo and Kit, had me thinking 'privilege' almost constantly. This was a book filled with indulgences and not in a way that endeared me to the characters or the plot.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

Wow, DNF @ 60%.

This book started off SOOOO strong, but started to flail when it turned into an orgy. The chapters are too long. The characters are unlikable. The second narrator did not suit Kit at all. What the heck happened?! McQuiston is one of the best queer authors out there right now and this book is a complete disappointment. Utter disappointment. I’m at a loss for words.

Would only recommend to queer people who are obsessed with food, world travelling, complicated feelings, smut, and… well that’s pretty much it. Even then, there’s no guarantee they’ll enjoy it. Sigh.