Casey Mcquinston does it again! This is a fantastic book and I enjoyed every second of it. The characters, the romance, the friendship, the probably impossible science, and everything else. There is no other author out there like Casey. Casey is one of my favorite author's and I know that they will never disappoint. I love their writing styles and I adore their comedy and sense of humor as well as their pop culture references. I will absolutely be recommending this book to everyone I know, I can't wait for my physical copy to come so. I can read it again. June can't come soon enough.

A million stars. More. I didn't know if I could possibly love this book as much as Red, White, and Royal Blue, but I should never have doubted. One Last Stop, Casey McQuiston's sophomore effort, solidifies her as an auto-buy author in my book. A love letter to queerness, friendship, and New York City, One Last Stop gripped my heart and squeezed tight, refusing to let go. It is NOTHING like RWRB, but that's part of what makes it (and McQuiston) so amazing. As an author, she refused to let her runaway debut define her. While One Last Stop embraces all things queer with abandon (like RWRB), that's where the similarities end. This one felt more personal, rawer, with such heart that water leaked out my eyeballs. Rude. (And that twist!! Did NOT see that coming!)

So what happens? August falls in love with a girl on the subway, and then things quickly get...complicated. I refuse to give spoilers, so I can't go into specifics, but good grief, if you haven't already preordered this book, what on earth are you waiting for?

Thank you so much to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for my complimentary e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was elated to receive an ARC of One Last Stop. Admittedly, McQuiston's other book Red, White, and Royal Blue is one of my comfort novels. And I highly suspected this would be too.
One Last Stop follows August, a young bisexual who's moved to New York City for a fresh start. August manages to find a flat and a job, but she still feels a little lost. Then she sees Jane Su, the strikingly badass but sweet woman who's always on the Q train. She adjusts her schedule to start riding with Jane, but eventually realizes that Jane has problems of her own. She's literally from the 70's and she seems well and truly stuck on the subway.

This book was a little bit of everything - love story, sci fi, detective fiction. But it was absolutely worth the read, and will absolutely become one of my comfort stories. From the first few pages, there was no doubt that I was going to love this book. McQuiston is a master of creating characters that feel so real they may walk out of the page.

Besides the powerful character creation, and striking love stories in McQuiston's work, there another detail I've noticed features in both works so far. McQuiston is from the south, specifically Louisiana, like me. And not only do these book feature amazing characters from this state, they always feature this deep love and hope for the south. It can be a rough place to live, especially if your politics or existence don't align with the deep red views down here. But it's always nice to be reminded that the south isn't a lost cause.

With a heavy heart I'm DNFing this book at 42%. I tried my hardest to get into the story and characters, but just couldn't. I don't even think that the books is to blame, it's rather me who is not clicking with the writing. I wished I had better news. This book was one of my most highly anticipated books of 2021. And accepting defeat is something I'm not doing lightly when it comes to this book.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis:
August is kind of a drifter, but not in the cool rock n' roll kind of way. She's just trying to find a place that fits her. Hoping the stereotypically cold and busy NYC will swallow her up in anonymity, she finds an apartment. She expects to keep to herself but that proves impossible with her new eclectic roommates in Flatbush, mysterious co-workers, and her instant attraction to a gorgeous chick on the train named Jane. August's infatuation with her doesn't even seem to falter when she discovers that Jane's collection of cassette tapes isn't a quirk. Her crush is from the 1970s and can't seem to leave the train. (So much for going on a date!)

Armed with the investigative skills that her mom taught her, August makes it her mission to figure out how Jane got here and how to get her back.

Review:
Casey McQuiston somehow delivers an adorable love story, within a story of friendship with a supernatural twist without making it cheesy. I'm very impressed! Each character is unique, endearing, and funny. They are a chosen family and I found that comforting. I enjoyed learning more about August's backstory throughout the book and the glimpses into her roommates' backgrounds, too. If McQuiston writes a book from any of their perspectives, that will be an immediate must read for me! I almost felt like I was part of their crew as I read.

Something that sets this book apart from books I've read lately is that the ending didn't leave me with a bunch of questions about what August decides to do with her life or fast forward by a year or more in an epilogue. I have nothing against epilogues, I just found this ending to be unique and satisfying.

Verdict:
If any of what I shared above was intriguing to you, then you'll probably want to get this book. Will I reread it? Probably. This is a great book for those who are looking for a queer romance with a twist.

#Romance #Supernatural #YA #Diverse #WLW #Bisexual #Queer #Mystery

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
Publisher - St Martin’s Griffin
Publish Date - 1 June 2021
Rating - 4.5/5

***Thank you to Netgalley, St Martin’s Griffin, and of course, Casey McQuiston, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

ARE YOU EXCITED? YOU SHOULD BE! Casey McQuiston is back with another solid and BEAUTIFUL love story! I adored Red White and Royal Blue (of course!) and knew I would love this one, but to what level, I wasn’t sure. ONE LAST STOP broke me! It is so beautifully written and I am so lucky I was able to get an ARC of it ahead of publication.

In an alternate reality, August, a 23-year-old bi university student has moved her entire life. Lost in her mother’s world (who is fixated on a missing person's case from the 70s), August has always wanted to find her true self, where she belongs. After making it to NYC, she begins that journey. We meet her amazing roommates - who i adored and found perfectly showed off the power of chosen family and explore the NY drag scene. On August’s first day of school, she catches the Q subway line after a morning of bad luck - until it all changes. Jane - oh where do I begin with JANE! A Chinese lesbian who has been displaced from the 70s in some magic-like time warp where she cannot remember much from her past and only has a book bag to her name. August, not being able to stop thinking about the girl she sees day after day on the same train at the same time, takes it upon herself to help solve the mystery of Jane’s past (a hint back to her mother). What ensues is a beautiful love story that leaves you emotionally drained from the beauty.

The romance in this book is a tier above. The steamy steam was very much present and also top tier. In general, One Last Stop was so sex-positive, it made me smile. When you are in your early twenties and learning - it should be like that!

The way Casey is able to communicate her characters, romance, humor, and prose are truly unique and extraordinary. With her first two novels, she has opened the world of Romance well beyond its heteronormative world. Yes, LGBTQIAP+ romance novels have existed before, but Casey has the ability to bring these stories to every corner of every community.

I cannot recommend this enough, and I cannot wait to see what Casey has up her sleeve next!

This book! Seriously though this book! I knew I was going to love it I mean Casey McQuiston writing a saphic book yes sign me up! I was so excited when I heard about this book and then when I got an early copy I actually danced with joy and this book lived up to it all!
I loved everything about this story! I loved the characters, the plot just everything. This book filled me with so much joy I couldn't put it down! I want everyone to read and love this book like I do and I can not wait to be able to recommend this book and put it in people's hands!

I received this book complimentary from NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

Oh, this is a delight of a book. August, Jane, Niko, Myla, Isaiah and my personal favorite Wes. Every single character leapt off the page with joy and passion and oh the beauty. This is a lovely book. I loved the setting. I loved the story and plot. I love the details. Oh what a sweet sweet book. You must read this. If you liked RWRB, you will love this. Oh I’m in book-finish-lala-land. This is a dream of a book. So easy to plow through but you don’t feel like you are moving too fast. It is wonderful.

I was THRILLED to receive a copy of this book after absolutely adoring Red, White and Royal Blue. That was a full five star read for me.

I picked this book up when I needed something light, but couldn’t quite get into it due to, what I thought was something going on with me at the current time. However, after picking the book up the second time around, I see that wasn’t the case. I just didn’t enjoy this book.

The plot was a little out there and a bit too unbelievable. I wasn’t into all of the descriptions of the train and the investigative work, including the “news/looking for” ads at the beginning of chapters. I just didn’t find the characters authentic.

What I did appreciate about the novel was such a diverse cast of characters and so many areas of representation across the board. If there had been some believability behind it all (even with the mom!) this has the potential to be a slam dunk.

I DNF at 40%. 2.5 stars. Many may adore this book, I just couldn’t.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved Casey McQuinston's writing. This book was long but i love the Kate and Leopold reimagining, Loved the found family, the mystery, the diversity of the cast. This book had everything.

Casey can't do no wrong.

This was a fun and distracting read in the times of COVID-19, although I did not enjoy it as much as the author's first book. The writing was tighter and more succinct, which I appreciated, but the plot was a bit less capturing. I don't have anything against magical realism, but this book felt sort of half-in half-out of the genre. Having the psychic elements was either too little or too much - I felt the book should have leaned further into the side-plot magical realism aspects of the novel (i.e. those existing outside of Jane's life trapped on the subway line), or let that go entirely.

The romance was sweet and unassuming. It made me smile and had a type of innocence to it that I really enjoyed. I loved the cast of side-characters and the representation of LGBTQ+ relationships. All-in-all this was a fun and diverting read that made me smile on a cozy Sunday.

It took me a little while to really get into the swing of the story but I ended up falling in love with August and Jane and the whole wonderful found family cast of secondary characters. I think some people who loved the straight-up contemporary romance of RWRB might have trouble with the speculative time slip element of this one but I personally love a time travel shenanigan (thank you, college Doctor Who phase). There was a lot going on subplot-wise that I think could’ve been tightened up a little but overall I really enjoyed this ode to love and the queer community.

“Remember the rules. Number one— Us versus everyone. And number two— If they’re gonna kill you, get their DNA under your fingernails.”

This!! book!! blew my mind!!! Our girl August—well let’s just say there’s nothing not to love about her. She’s a 23 year old bisexual bouncing from city to city, trying to find somewhere that sticks. Looming student loan debt is the only future she can imagine. She embodies that early 20s terror of realizing that at some point you have to decide what to do with your life. What’s she going to do if she doesn’t even know how to make friends? What can she believe in besides the weight of her pocket knife? “Should she be worried about frog ghosts?”

August might be running from something, but she’s got no idea what she’s running to until she finds it. In a plant-filled apartment above the streets of NYC. In a filthy subway car beneath the city. At a party bursting with pancakes and drag queens. One Last Stop is a love letter to the people that burrow their way into our hearts and make a home when we least expect it.

I’m obsessed with the all-star cast of this book. August’s misfit roommates are every queer’s dream found family (at least mine anyway). I loved that there were so many more characters to enjoy than just our iconic lovers. August’s roommates felt like family from the very beginning and they’ve got robust personalities. It was never hard to keep track of who was who because they were all so real and lovable.

“Now she wants a home, one she’s made for herself, one nobody can take away because it lives in her like a funny little glass terrarium.”

Right, so there’s also the time-traveling element to this story. And a caper that needs solving! August loves nothing more than a mystery. Except this time that mystery has a smiling face and irresistible laugh. Enter Jane, who is absolutely wonderful! Jane is bold and brave, kind and generous, and it’s easy to love her almost as much as August does. She exists as much more than just a girl out of time. The difference between the realities of August and Jane is really compelling. Contrasting the 70s with today reminds us of how far we’ve come since the queens at Stonewall demanded respect. Jane is one of those fighters that marched in Pride when it was still far from safe to do so. Jane is one of our queer heroes, and she can hardly believe it when August explains that she won’t be arrested for being gay in public anymore. Jane’s story broke and mended my heart over and over. One Last Stop is so special because it follows that beautiful thing we call queer family across seven decades. August finds all these bits and pieces, thank you notes and photographs, evidence of all the ways that Jane touched people’s lives just by being herself. Jane is the kind of queer that I want to be.

“You’re always kind but never easy, and you won’t let anything take that away from you.”

There’s a lot of things to love about this book. My favorite tho, is the way Casey writes about queer spaces. There’s something incredibly special about an all queer space—a place where anyone can be and feel accepted. A place that goes way past tolerating difference to embracing it. I love how Casey takes the time to write about that. When August goes to parties and drag shows she describes the people there. She describes the kaleidoscope of colors, lipsticks, feathers and glitter. She describes feeling the magical unstoppable force that is queer love.

August’s journey is about learning to be loved, growing out of someone you used to be, living with pain and hoping—believing—it can get better. Casey has done it again! I LOVED this book!!!
Thanks SO MUCH to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC to read!

Knowing the author's previous book, Red, White & Royal Blue, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I jumped at the chance to read One Last Stop. What a delight this book was. Casey McQuiston brings a cast of lovely, diverse characters to life and I wish I could be friends with all of them. This is a solid rom com with a mystery, well, two mysteries really, that keep you wondering what will happen and how it will all end. Unique, fun read!

I'm between 4 and 4.5 stars on this. I, like many reviewers here, adored Red, White & Royal Blue, so I was delighted to see that McQuiston was coming out with a new romance novel. Admittedly, some of the science fiction / time travel elements didn't quite make sense to me and took me out of the book a bit. but McQuiston's flair for compelling, witty, adorable dialogue shines through here just as much as it does in RWRB. Chances are, if you're a fan of McQuiston's debut novel, you'll like this one too.

Here's the thing about Casey McQuiston. Each word she writes is this deliciously heavy piece of lead that submerges a writer deeper into a story the more you read. Whether it's a Trumpless world in Red, White & Royal Blue or one devoid of COVID in One Last Stop, McQuiston knows escapism. She more than knows it. She cultivated her own version of it that brings you back to the safe pages of her books with fantastic worlds and comforting characters. Her stories are like warm hugs that you didn't realize you craved. They're a piece of driftwood keeping you afloat when you're stranded at sea. A glass of water quenching your thirst. A gift from god herself. One Last Stop is an absolute page turner and I can't wait to get my physical copy to read and reread and annotate and then read again come June.

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop surprised me—it went in a direction that I was *not* expecting—& it makes me so excited to see what exactly McQuiston might write next.

August Landry moved from New Orleans to Brooklyn w/ a couple of pit stops along the way because she hasn’t found *her* place yet. She’s left behind her mom & the decades-old mystery that her mom’s obsessed with: the disappearance of August’s uncle.

On the subway August is instantly struck by the sight of Subway Girl; Subway Girl gives her her scarf when August—teasingly christened Coffee Girl by the stranger—spills on her shirt.

Later, August can’t stop thinking about Subway Girl, Jane, for many reasons. Over time, as they continue talking, & gazing, & flirting, August realizes that (1) Jane is *always* on the subway when she is; (2) Jane doesn’t actually know who she is & most of her memories are gone, only slowly revealing themselves when prompted by something August says or does; & (3) Jane’s last real memories before being on the subway are from the 70s, when Jane appeared exactly the same age.

Wow, what a concept. & despite the fact that I knew there could be no “perfect” ending whereby Jane ends up unscathed, McQuiston pulls it off in a way that ultimately feels hopeful.

That hopefulness also comes across in Jane’s consideration of the setting itself, since, as Jane reminisces, it’s a pretty different world for LGBTQIA people in modern Brooklyn as opposed to the 1970s (though not entirely without its challenges or difficulties, obviously).

The relationship between August & Jane is lovely to watch unfold, as is that between August & her winsome & quirky roommates. I love how this is a story about friendship & found family too, in addition to offering lots of laughs & a couple of moving mysteries that August wants to solve.

There are a couple of moments when I personally got a little bogged down by the technical details of time travel, etc., but I think that was more of a mood thing.

Either way, this is a fantastic romance that I’m feeling nostalgic about even now.

5 ⭐️. Release date: 06/01

You guys when I say this could be the biggest disappointment of 2021. I dnf’d at 38% simple because for two whole weeks I fought tooth and nail and still didn’t love it. The only reason I’m giving this one star is because Myla. Everything else just was too much for me.

This book was absolutely nothing like I expected it to be. If you told me the actual plot of this book before I read it, I probably would have said "Nope.. not my thing..", but yet.. I loved this book! It sucked me in from the first few pages and didn't let go. It was actually the opposite experience of when I read RW&RB, as that one took me a LONG time to get into, but it won me over in the end.
This story has a bit of everything.. Romance, Sex, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Comedy.. but really, I just loved it with my whole heart. My only complaint was sometimes the scenes with the side characters felt a bit drawn out. The side characters were all lovable and interesting, but I really wanted to get back to Jane and August!

I fell in love with August and Jane. August is searching for a place to belong. Unsure of her future, wanting no part of her eccentric mother’s obsessive behaviour, she becomes a minimalist. I could relate to that restless uncertainty in my twenties. Where do I go from here? Where do I belong? Instead of disappearing in the biggest city she could find, her world becomes her Flatbush apartment, her daily commute on the Q train and her night shifts at Pancake Billy’s House of Pancakes. Her friends make her apartment an oasis. Meeting Jane on the Q train is life changing for August. Jane has it all together. Sexy in her black leather jacket and chivalrous enough to lend August her scarf to cover a coffee stain on August’s first day heading to Brooklyn College. It’s love at first sight though neither is willing to admit this. They bond over music. Their connection helps Jane begin the slow process of remembering her past and wishing like August that she could end whatever has kept her trapped on this subway for forty five years.

This book started slow but grew on me and has left me with a massive book hangover. It’s that good. On the surface One Last Stop is about a loner hoping to disappear and instead falling in love with a woman caught in time, trapped since the ‘70s on the Q train in New York. But there is so much more to this new adult romance. It’s an homage to the friends you meet along the way, of finding a home, a found family, a place to thrive. It’s about the loss of neighbourhood meeting spots and the fight to push back urbanization to keep the soul of the community alive.It’s about giving today’s queer community a better understanding of events in the past which helped shape the freedoms we enjoy while also showcasing the challenges still faced by BIPOC queers.

The writing is gorgeous. I couldn’t stop highlighting passages. The dialogue is machine gun rapid and crisp. The characters are drawn so well. Their quirky careers and hobbies, their trust, their anxieties and hopes. I loved the diverse characters who form a family of acceptance and love. The LGBTQIA and BIPOC representation is refreshing. There are even drag queens. Be still my heart.

This is my favourite read of 2021. McQuiston packs so much into their writing you have to pause and appreciate the beauty of it.

ARC received with thanks from St Martin’s Griffin and Netgalley for an honest review.