I AM UNWELL.

This book wrecked me in the best way.

When I first started it, I wasn’t sure how to feel and actually almost stopped 15% in, but I’m so glad I kept going!!

One Last Stop had total Black Mirror San Junipero vibes. I loved the time travel/slightly paranormal aspects of the story. You could never quite be sure how it was going to pan out that made me so anxious. I may or may not have cried for the final 40 minutes of the book.

The story was refreshing and unique. The found family was everything. Every character was so lovable, I just want to hug them all.

DNF at 50%.

The author is a talented writer, that’s undeniable. I adored R, W & RB! But this book was a lot. Way too many characters smashed into the first few chapters, each one unique and quirky, almost to an extreme. It’s like the author was trying TOO HARD to make a book full of LBGTQ+ characters from all walks of life. It just wasn’t believable at all because smack in the middle of it was boring August, the main character. She was a hot mess who blamed all of her issues on her upbringing.

I honestly could not figure out what the author was trying to accomplish with this story. It was like everting but the kitchen sink trope wise. It started out fun with a meet cute on a subway, but was so slow to progress that I almost fell asleep. Chapters full of absolutely nothing. Jane was the most captivating part and yet we knew next to nothing about her other than she was stuck on a subway.

So much of the story was far fetched and ridiculous. I didn’t realize it was tagged as a “time travel” romance until I was already a few chapters in and couldn’t figure out what was going on.

I decided to call it quits when I knew I could care less what happened to August or Jane or any of the other characters or finding out how it ended.

One Last Stop was a refreshing love story about Jane and August that has a little sass, and a whole lot of heart. The story itself is refreshing and well laid out. The pace flows and keeps you engaged, although it did feel a little long. I loved how almost all of the loose ends were neatly, yet soul crushingly, tied up at the end. Overall I really enjoyed!

This was a cute love story but have to say I was bit disappointed in this one.

I have to say overall it was a cute read but the execution dragged on a little bit for me. I was thrown off guard by the twist.

They had good chemistry but was hoping to have more development between the two before that twist came. I wasn't really invested in June at this point.

Many people loved this one so take my thoughts as a grain of salt as always and you may end up loving this one!!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

3/5 stars

Pub date: 6/1/21

So, this book definitely wasn't what I expected in ways both good and bad. It's wonderfully, lovingly queer, full of a weird and delightful found family. The supporting cast was honestly my favorite part of the book. August is prickly, flawed, and stubborn, but I couldn't help rooting for her. While I didn't love the supernatural/supernatural adjacent elements to the story, they didn't pull me out like has happened in other romances.

Unfortunately this was a Did Not Finish for me. I loved the authors first book but just couldn’t get into this book. The main plot just didn’t grab my interest and when you added in the magical element m, I just lost interest.

4.5 stars

When I saw this book, I didn't know if it could live up to its predecessor Red, White, and Royal Blue and how much I enjoyed it. I'm glad to say that I was wrong. This book has a colorful cast of characters , from the two leads August and Jane, down to the secondary characters we meet along the way. I absolutely adored the characters and how they felt like real people. There were moments that made me laugh, cry, hopeful, and angry, which is what would happen in real life. This book was not just a romance, it was about finding a family in the least likely of places. I also loved all of the LGBTIA+ representation in this novel. I do not think this review does this book justice at all, but I do think this is a book you should definitely add to your list! Thank you to St. Martin's Press, NetGalley, and the author for the ARC of this novel to review. This one comes out on Tuesday, June 1st!

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This one took me a little bit to get into, but once I stopped mentally comparing it "Red, White & Royal Blue" I really enjoyed it.

Right away we meet August who is a student and recent transplant to New York City looking for an apartment. After responding to an ad she found taped to a Popeyes trash can, she settles in with Niko, Myla, and Wes in Brooklyn. From there we gradually meet the rest of the varied and quirky characters.

One morning on the train, an intriguing stranger is kind to August when she's having a bad day. Thus starting a wild new chapter in August's life.

Over all, McQuiston did a good job with pacing and drawing out the mysteries facing our main character. I loved how timely the book felt while addressing LGBTQ issues and anti-Asian sentiments

This book was not what I was expecting…

Since I had read Red, White and Royally Blue last year, I was expecting a linear romance for this second release from Casey McQuiston, and what I got was a time shifted mystery romance…

First of all my over all feelings on this book made me give it a 4 star rating. I loved the characters, August and Jane were well developed and once the time sift was revealed, I started to really like them. Even better was the cast of side characters. This award of genders, identities and personalities really carried the book. They brought a fun and lightheartedness to an otherwise intense story.

Secondly, if I was rating this book on the romance alone, I would give it a 3 star rating because, while Jane and Autumn and their care for each other and their love is a continuing theme, to me this book didn’t read as a romance. The mystery of August’s missing uncle, to the time shift dilemma, to the rescue mission of the landmark pancake dinner all took precedence over the romance in my opinion.

Overall, I enjoyed this audiobook recording, but the time sifting was a hard element for me to get over as a reader.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston is scheduled to release June 1st, 2021.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#OneLastStop #CaseyMcQuiston #Netgalley #pinkcowlandreads

Romance, mystery, and finding family all come together in One Last Stop. Casey McQuiston’s sophomore novel brings a bit of magic to the New York City subway as August falls for a mysterious woman who has somehow slipped through time and is stuck on the Q line.

August comes to New York City looking for home. She’s a little lost, lonelier than she ever would admit, and somehow manages to find roommates who become family. Myla, Niko, and Wes, along with their neighbor, Isaiah, and the crew at the pancake place August works at become family and are my favorite parts of One Last Stop. From Myla’s blazing energy to Niko’s kind and knowing soul to Wes’s grumpy and scared heart to Isaiah’s patience and fabulous drag persona, everything about the people who become August’s family grabbed my heart. These folx came alive on the page and their vibrant personalities endeared them to me and made me miss them whenever they weren’t in a scene.

At the heart of One Last Stop are August and Jane. August has been a loner for so long it breaks your heart and I enjoyed watching her come into her own over the course of the story. Jane is a mystery I don’t want to spoil by delving into too deeply. She’s displaced in time, having somehow gotten stuck on the Q line since sometime in the 1970s. Jane is both porcupine and marshmallow. She will fight anyone who is bigoted or a bully but she also is tender at unexpected moments. The mystery of how she got stuck is just one of the many things you learn about her over the course of the story and I liked watching August peel back her layers. Their romance is solid, but for me it was one of the least interesting things about the book and I never felt truly invested. The chemistry just wasn’t there and I know McQuiston can deliver chemistry (Myla and Niko? Fantastic chemistry).

I’m torn on rating One Last Stop because there are a lot of things I like about it. McQuiston’s lyrical prose captured me at times and the love and support between August and the family she made grabbed my heart and didn’t let go. But the first half of the book was incredibly slow and if I hadn’t loved McQuiston’s debut novel so much I might not have stuck with this one. It did pick up in the second half but I still finished the story thinking I liked specific things about it a lot more than the book as a whole.

This book destroyed me, a little bit. Mostly in a good way. I have to say that I liked it even more than Red, White, and Royal Blue.

Some of my key takeaways are:
I am in love with Jane.
The Su Special sounds DELICIOUS and I wanna eat it.
The mystery and supernatural elements of the story were intriguing and had me invested.
The side characters were all richly portrayed and deeply lovable.
I was deeply invested in the romance, yes, but a large amount of the beauty in this book was in the queer community portrayed, which is not something we really got as much of in RWRB. It was New York and New York Community from Casey’s perspective, but it was also just...Queer Community, in the best sense of the word—warm, chaotic, accepting, and uninhibitedly itself.

Casey McQuiston's debut novel, Red, White & Royal Blue is one of my absolute favorite novels, so I admittedly had a considerable amount of anxiety about whether or not One Last Stop could live up to my expectations after that. For quite a while, fear of disappointment made me hold off on reading. However, (as is the case with much of my anxiety) the fears were unfounded. One Last Stop is truly the love letter to NYC that I had heard it described as, but it proved to be much more than that as well. This book is a glorious celebration of found family, bursting with love, and exploration of what it is to find one’s place and people. Safe to say, One Last Stop was everything I'd dare to hope or dream and beyond. This book is a difficult one to describe; it's a daunting task to properly convey the magnificence of it, but I will give my best attempt.

As a bisexual woman in my mid-twenties who has changed schools and majors multiple times, I resonated deeply with August. Her struggle to find a sense of belonging and self and her place in the world, the loneliness at rooted in her core, hesitance to hold onto things for fear of loss, the daunting uncertainty about so much in life, feeling trapped in her own head, grasping onto facts when she can't quite trust her emotions, her longings. These and many other things about August made me feel as though McQuiston was showing me a mirror that reflected back parts of myself I don't like to acknowledge. Yet in the end, I came away feeling that perhaps those scars and hurts and depths aren't so awful after all. Watching August come into her own, finding a family and her place in the city and new goals to pursue was such a gratifying and gorgeous journey. I adored getting to witness her brilliance at work, the power of her determination, and her confidence grow.

There were many characters to love in One Last Stop, but the one I fell hardest for has to be Jane Su. One of my favorite parts of the novel was getting to crack open the "unknowable" case of Jane, gradually filling in her story along with August. I adored everything about Jane, but most especially her fearlessness, how earnestly she loves, and her passion for life itself. While I aspire to be more like Jane, there's a great deal of her that I could relate to as well. I loved that she—like me—is a queer, Asian American woman from the Bay who is involved with community organizing. Underneath all of that, I could connect to her belief that people would be better off without her there to let them down. Her desire to see the world, but rarely feeling fully at home anywhere. As much as I admired her switchblade exterior, it's her cotton-candy heart that truly dazzled me. Despite the pain, grief, and fear weighing on her from the inside, she remained selfless and bright and full of fierce love.

Jane and August complemented each other beautifully, from the spark of their initial meeting to friendship with mutually frustrated pining/obliviousness and all that followed. Their dynamic was a kaleidoscope of tenderness, passion, selflessness, support, joy, banter, and more. I especially enjoyed how much they uplifted each other, encouraging the other to trust and feel and grow and live. They each had wonderful arcs of their own, but I also loved seeing the development of their relationship and how it shifted with their individual growth.

The cast of supporting characters also won my heart at once, from the residents of 6F (and 6E) to the crew at Billy's House of Pancakes. In each of them, I caught glimpses of fragments of myself, my friends, my own found family. McQuiston has such a talent for writing that even side characters are so fleshed out and whole that they imprint themselves into one's mind as vividly as a memory, turning lines of text into a near-tangible person. That being said, how could I not fall in love with each of August's roommates at least a little bit? And oh, did these characters and this book make me long to love and be loved. To be loved and known, not only in a romantic sense, but by friends who come to know me better than I know myself. Not to romanticize New York City any more than it has been across media, but that sort of city life is truly what I pine for. The romanticism of public transportation while also having a realistic loathing of it, settling into the day-to-day and all the struggles that come with it, but also being able to build myself a home + family with friends, and finding a bit of everyday magic along the way.

The mystery/sci-fi aspect wasn't major, but it kept me fascinated to find out more. Looking back, there were numerous clues that my sleep-deprived brain picked up on yet failed to string together. The prospect of being able to collect details and piece things together even more when I reread is an exciting one! Just as in their debut novel, Casey McQuiston was able to convey the experience of feeling in a way that's something adjacent to magic. The emotions of the characters reverberate off the page in a way that's palpable throughout my nervous system. McQuiston’s words somehow manage to seep into the safeguarded well of my emotions, breaking down the walls and allowing me to let myself feel.

My heart feels split open after reading One Last Stop, yet it has been instilled with warmth and hope. As though a book could peer into the very depths of my soul to pour in light and revive a bit of belief in magic. I will carry this story in my heart for a long time to come, with more hope than I had before and trust that maybe the universe has my back.

Endless thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion. While I loved the overall message of the book: that love can happen in any realm, between any people, no matter their history, I did feel like it took a very large percentage of the book to develop the relationship between August and Jane. I felt that it dragged because of this. Most of the book takes place on the subway and I started to get bored. Once it picked up and there was a change of scenery, I really enjoyed it. Her roommates turned family were a fabulous cast of characters and the pancake diner and “small” community feel in the big city were awesome!

This is the book where I fell in love with the note to reader and was already laughing in the first paragraph. Casey McQuiston has written a gem of a novel that will have you falling in love with her characters as well as NYC. August transfers to a college in Brooklyn in the hopes that the bigger environment will help her to find herself and who she is meant to be. She moves in with three of the most lovable characters I have ever read. I am obsessed with Wes, Niko, and Myla and want to move right in with them. They are quirky and funny and supportive and sweet and all the things you want in a friendship.

While there, she also meets Jane during her commute on the subway. It's an instant attraction for August which makes her notice Jane every day. She soon comes to realize that she doesn't just see Jane a lot but that she always sees Jane on her commute. Every single time. August realizes this has to be more than a coincidence and things spiral from there.

This book grabs you from page one. There is the vulnerability of finding oneself separate from the environment we grow up in as well as how we relate to others in the world. There is deep, true friendship. There is mystery and time travel. There is not just acceptance but a fight for that acceptance. There is love. The found family is fantastic. While this book couldn't be more different from McQuiston's debut of Red, White and Royal Blue, it solidifies her talent as an incredible writer. The words are almost lyrical and it flows well. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a coming of age novel and think that fans of Honey Girl would really like this one.

I could not connect to the characters and the writing style. I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

Three strikes, and I’m out. I REALLY struggled to connect to this book, but it’s such a highly anticipated read that I initially figured that it was just me. I set it down twice, and when I still wasn’t connecting on my third attempt, I started skimming. Things did not improve.

From the start, I struggled with the writing style. I don't usually have trouble with third person perspective, but there are so many characters that it adds another layer of disconnect. I felt like an outsider looking in, and I frequently struggled to understand who was supposed to be talking. And all of those characters? Make the story feel scattered - and SUPER LONG. I was bored. So, so bored. It takes a long time before the romance even starts developing, and by that point I had already disconnected. Add in a storyline that's pretty complex, kinda preachy, and not necessarily reality-based... and I was done.

I'm sure many readers will love this. I did like how unique it felt, and the representation is definitely there. The writing is technically good in a lot of ways, and there will certainly be an audience for this. Younger readers and those who like found families, coming of age stories, and fantasy/time travel elements will probably connect to it the most. I so appreciated receiving an early copy (and am voluntarily leaving a review), but this just didn't live up to the hype for me.

Oh, how I loved this book! This time-slip rom com was so much fun to read. It has everything in it, in a good way. Love, friendships, family, found family, jobs, LGBTQ+ history, New York City, community, and the best cast of supporting characters that I think I've ever read. It was representative and inclusive in a very natural way, as Casey McQuiston has a gift for seamlessly writing diverse stories that make you want to know the characters. It was funny and touching and full of everything that matters. Oh, and I loved Isaiah and wanted to eat pancakes the while time I was reading :) Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Casey McQuiston and St Martin's Press for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

I read this one so slowly to saviour the beautiful relationships that are formed between all the uniquely different characters. I don't know that I have ever read a book with such diverse characters that are incredibly loveable. The premise of this novel is so fun and different from most romance novels and I kept turning pages to try to figure out if their plan was going to actually work. I was obsessed with August and her roommates and how quickly they turned into one amazing little family. Basically I didn't want the novel to end because I wanted to be a part of these characters family a little bit longer. I definitely recommend this one!

No rating for this one, but I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC copy of this. This was a book I was highly looking forward to. I squealed when I was approved after LOVING Red White & Royal Blue; however, it didn’t quite hit the way I anticipated. It took a while of trying to read to figure out why I was struggling. This just wasn’t for me.

(Not included on Goodreads review) This was a learning experience for me. It took a while, but I figure out that I just couldn’t suspend belief to really care and get invested into the story. Unlike RW&RB, this wasn’t something I could believe could happen in the very much reality based settings. I have learned that realistic with just a touch of something else doesn’t work for me.

One Last Stop is about a young woman (August) who moves to New York City. One day she gets on the subway & meets Jane. Jane & August have an immediate attraction to each other. We follow the two characters as they run into each other daily on the subway. Their friendship (& attraction/connection) continues to grow.

However soon August realizes that Jane is on the subway every time she rides it; no matter what time day/night. We come to find out that Jane isn’t able to get off the subway & is trapped in this sort of time warp from the ‘70s.

After reading other reviews it’s very clear that I’m in the minority with my 2 star rating, but this book just wasn’t for me. This book had a fantasy quality to it & I’m just not a fan. Thanks to NetGalley & the publishers for the ARC!