Wow. My love for One Last Stop far exceeds that of Red, White & Royal Blue and that is saying a lot! This book was utter perfection. It was so soft and romantic, funny and sexy. Sweet and spicy. The entire array of characters had my heart and I could have continued reading this book for several more hundred pages. I love books with a speculative spin and this one was so well done and kept me riveted and unsure where it would lead. This author is not only a masterful storyteller but a phenomenal writer as well. I can't wait for book 3.

One Last Stop: 5/5

Thank you, St. Martin's Griffin and NetGallery, for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review

"That's the way it happens on the subway-you lock eyes with someone, you imagine a life from one stop to the next, and you go back to your day as if the person you loved in between doesn't exist anywhere but on that train. As if they never could be anywhere else."

This is the kind of book that makes you re-evaluate the meaning of five stars. This is the kind of book that every book must now live up to. It was complete and utter perfection.

Premise:
One Last Stop follows a girl named August. Age: 23, sexuality: Bi. She has repeatedly moved universities and states, careful never to have too many belongings, as she searches for a place in the world that feels like home. This is largely due to her mother, who is has been obsessed with solving a missing person case from the 70s and expects August to follow suit, but all August wants is to find her own path.

The book opens with August moving to New York City and starting, yet again, at a new university. She gets thrown into a questionable apartment thanks to a well-placed roommate advertisement and finally starts to think, maybe this is where she belongs. On her first day of class, August decides to take the Q train, where a girl with short dark hair, ripped jeans, and a leather jacket catches her eye, after promptly giving August her red scarf after August spills coffee on herself. This is a missed connection until August sees the girl, Jane, day after day, on the same Q train, in the same train car.

Little do we know, Jane is displaced from the 70s due to a magical time slip and lost her memory. August takes it upon her sleuthing self to solve the case of Jane and return her home. Unless feelings get in the way...

"It’s probably going to break my heart, and it’s still worth it."

Writing & Plot
Wow. I was a huge fan of Red White and Royal Blue and really enjoyed McQuiston's writing style. This was no exception. McQuiston knocked it out of the park with this one. The plot, banter, characters were executed flawlessly. This book is by no means sad, but I cried throughout the last 70% of it because it was so emotional.

One Last Stop can't even compare to Red White and Royal Blue because it is so different, and I really appreciated that. McQuiston is probably now one of my top five favorite authors ever.

Not only does One Last Stop touch on important and topical, current issues, but it pays homage to the people who have fought so bravely in our past to have a better future. She beautifully paints the picture of BIPOC LGBTQIAP+ people and their immense sacrifice and contributions to the inclusivity we see today. I don't think this book could have come at a more impervious time.

"The assurance that the other person is right there in your orbit, always waiting to be tugged back in."

Characters:
Flawless, truly. The roommates are all so special to me, and I think I'm in love with them all. The diversity in this book is such a breath of fresh air. We are met with an extremely diverse cast of characters, and it made the book all the more engaging.

If you want a found family trope, here it is:
Niko: Transgender Latino psychic and bartender
Myla: Queer Black artist with a background in electrical engineering. (Also Niko's soulmate)
Wes: Queer tattoo artist who needs to learn to love himself

Genuinely I fell in love with each of these characters with all my heart and soul. Don't even get me started on Jane. She is probably one of my favorite characters of all time.

Jane: Chinese Lesbian from the 70s, repeatedly described as "God."

Jane is one of the most dynamic characters I have ever encountered in a book. She is funny, complex, romantic, everything you could ever want. As Jane's story unfolds, so does your heart. Be warned.

The romance between Jane and August is godly. Not only is it swoon-worthy, but the buildup and slow-burn actually made me cry. It is so emotional and heartfelt; this is romance at its peak. The sex scenes were so tasteful, and their range kept it interesting and engaging. It wasn't just there for smut, but it was there because the romance needed it. It was sexy, realistic, romantic, and everything you could want in a sapphic romance. This is perfection, and I don't say that lightly.

"I fell in love with you the day I met you, and then I fell in love with the person you remembered you are. I got to fall in love with you twice. That's - that's magic."

Conclusion:
This is exquisite. Superb. I don't know how else to describe it, except that this book feels like home. I think everyone can benefit from reading it, and if you haven't pre-ordered it already, what are you doing.

This is my top read of 2021 thus far.

God I loved every word of this magnificent time-loop WLW romance so much. I can’t believe I let Casey McQuiston ruin my life like this.

Here’s what I loved: everything. The protagonists. The side characters (Myla and Niko are the absolute lights of my life). The subplot. The plot! How absurdly funny it was. How sad it made me. The found family. The ode to New York City. All of it! I loved everything about this book.

People expecting this to be a redux or Red, White, and Royal Blue may find themselves disappointed, but I felt like the best elements of Casey’s debut come forward in this one- the side characters, the intense queer longing and careful documentation of queer history, the way the internet and pop culture is woven into every line. This book rectified what I found most annoying about the debut— the weird politics and the sloooow conclusion.

I loved it I loved it I loved it!!!!

Thank you to the publishers + NetGalley for the ARC!

I read and listened to the author’s first book “Red White and Royal Blue” and thoroughly enjoyed it. I I was looking forward to this book as I thought it would be just as good. I am sad to say that I did not enjoy this book and struggled to finish it.

This book was a bit of a rough start at first. I went in blind and was turned off once I realized there was a paranormal-aspect, however... I decided to push through and found myself so pleasantly surprised! It was very, very different from RW&RB but it held a lot of the same charm. Every character, from our primary MCs to the roommates to the neighbors, were absolutely exceptional. I loved that they (similar to Alexis Hall's writing style) bordered the line of being realistically quirky and unrealistically strange. I could picture each and everyone one of them and would have loved to have befriended them all. Bonus: the diversity of the cast and the normal way it was handled (especially Niko's being trans) without showboating the diversity of the characters, but rather showcasing them. Eventually I was so won over by the book and invested in the Jane's story and our heroine's journey to self-discovery that I went from reading the book in starts and fits to bingeing the remainder of the book in one night. And isn't that all we want from a book?

August Landry has recently moved to New York City to attend Brooklyn College for her last few terms. She begins to get into a rhythm in her new city life, with her motley crew of roommates and her new diner waitressing job. That rhythm is thrown askew from the moment she sees, Jane, a mysterious and sexy woman on the subway. Day after day, she runs into Jane on the train and eventually their conversations turn from a comment here and there to full on get-to-know-you conversations. August finally works up the nerve to ask Jane out and Jane has to decline. Their relationship will be impossible - Jane is displaced from the 1970s. But August is determined to help her figure out what's going on.

I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH! It had some major Outlander and Time Traveler's Wife vibes and those are two of my all-time favorite books. I love the idea of a love story that is up against an impossible hurdle of time constructs. The concepts of Jane's displacement in this book is outlandish, mind blowing, and it totally works!

Casey McQuiston does a fantastic job of writing a book with a diverse set of characters. They are all colors of the ethnic rainbow and the LGBTQ rainbow and they were a beautiful melting pot. The big group scenes in this book were hilarious! They are all quirky, a little crazy, and wildly inappropriate and I loved every single one of them.

Jane is such an enigmatic character. She is mysterious, smart, charming, sexy, and she had great energy. It's no wonder that a lot of people were falling in love with her as she traveled on the train every day. Only someone as cool and collected as Jane could endure the time displacement with the grace and humor that she did. The chemistry between August and Jane was intense and I loved every moment of them together.

Bravo to McQuiston for writing an original and imaginative story with so much heart and humor!

Steam level: 🔥🔥🔥
⚠️: homophobia, death of a relative

***ARC Review***

Casey McQuiston took New York and turned it into a book. Every page filled with the sights and sounds and smells and feelings. And, perhaps most importantly, people. Turn a corner and find a little coffee shop or pancake house or an apartment filled with wacko roommates (who make the story brighter in every possible way) or a club stuffed with drag queens eating aforementioned pancakes. There’s a soundtrack essentially written into the book (seriously, the music references are awesome) and constant descriptions of food that made me hungry while reading (I want to make literally every recipe mentioned in this). It really feels like the author wrote a story filled with everything they love about an amazing city and it’s such a wonderful book to read.

One Last Stop has the vibes of Red, White, & Royal Blue— but from Henry’s perspective crossed with The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue— but from Bea or Sam’s perspective which is just literally the best possible combination ever.
That being said, it is NOT either of those books and absolutely stands on its own as an equally incredible story, for those who are wondering how it compares to McQuiston’s debut. (Also, this is much less fan-fiction-esque, the author’s writing style has improved a lot)

The characters in this book are beyond incredible. While there are, of course, two main characters whose story this is, the cast is really an ensemble of amazing and unique characters with their own stories. From August’s roommates to family members to coworkers to people lost back in time, every single one has a story and a life that is beautifully integrated into August’s story and it is truly a joy to read. Also, all of McQuiston’s characters are (lovable) idiots, it seems, and they will most definitely make you laugh.
In terms of the main characters, they’re amazing, to say the least. I love the contrast between Jane and August and their chemistry is perfect. I loved following their stories as both distinct individual characters and, of course, their love story. They will send you on an emotional rollercoaster that will tear at your heartstrings and make you laugh so hard your stomach hurts. Theirs is the kind of love story you never want to stop reading.

Aside from the romance, the plot is intriguing and full of more twists than one would expect from a rom-com. With multiple mysteries and a constant hunt for an answer, the rush of a case, interspersed with multiple adorable love stories, friendships, moments of life that simply fit into place, and the buzz of NYC, there is never a dull moment on these pages.

All in all, this book is truly stunning, well written, atmospheric read that will transport you to New York City and make you never want to leave.

I’m crying the happiest of tears, what a book. This is the sapphic romcom time slip story I never knew I needed this much.

ONE LAST STOP is a book I want to live in, that I want to wrap myself up in. The queer found family is everything and authentic. The bi rep is spot on, the song references have prompted me to make a Spotify playlist in between reading sessions so I can listen and dream even more about this book. I can’t wait for this book to be out in the world, and I’m especially excited for the world to fall in love with August & Jane as much as I have.

Thank you to St Martin’s and NetGalley for the digital ARC.

“there’s a kindness she doesn’t understand and evidence of things she convinced herself weren’t real. and worst of all, for the first time since she was a kid, she wants to trust in something.”

the only way i know how to start this is by talking about red, white & royal blue. i know red white & royal blue very intimately, with a lot of it committed to memory. i would know casey mcquiston’s words anywhere.

from the first few pages of one last stop, i knew this familiar voice: singing a new song, spinning a new tale. it felt like coming home, even though i've never been here before.

there's a risk that comes with anticipating reads. when you have expectations and hopes. what if it doesn't live up. what if you hate it. what if you let yourself down?

for me especially, loving red white & royal blue so much. for that book to be my favorite book of all time. for that book and the characters in it meaning so much to me to the point where i say it changed my life.

reading one last stop left me with an overwhelming sense of joy and relief. this book i have been waiting to read for so long met every expectation and soared above it.

one last stop is the story of august–a 23 year old who has just moved into a new york city apartment with people she's just met, leaving behind the mystery her mom is chasing. she doesn't believe in magic. but then she meets jane on the subway–an impossible girl who seems to have been displaced from the 70's. so maybe there is magic after all.

in the span of one novel, casey mcquiston has crafted the most incredible cast of characters. while august and jane are our two leads, they are framed with a diverse group of friends. sometimes i read books and by the end i still feel like i don't even know the love interest or the narrator. here, i felt a connection to every character. and i loved all of them so much. i was invested in every background plot. i could read about them forever.

casey dedicates this book to queer communities past, present, and future. this book is definitely a celebration of that. it is an ode to the queer folks who came before us. it's about how they fought for everything we have now. how we continue to fight for the kids who will come after us. it's about being a twenty something who doesn't have it together, but living with your friends that you love like family. about how you could all be so different, but you share your queerness and you build your community around that. because sometimes that's the thing the world wants to take away and there is strength in standing against the world with those you love.

this book is about feeling. feeling magic, feeling love, feeling friendship. allowing yourself to feel sadness because it deserves to be felt. you learn to understand why you close yourself off, and you become brave enough to let others in. you realize the only reason why the walls are up is because you put them there.

this book is about home. about new people and new places becoming home. about your home being a diner that needs to be saved, an apartment where the floor isn't level, a train where every time you get on you see the one person who matters most. about how one of the biggest, wildest cities in the world becomes home after years of searching for the place you belong.

this book is so extraordinary. it's gonna stay with me for a long time. i'm so glad it exists. i'm so excited for the world to read it. i'm trying to hold myself back from rereading it right this moment. I want to wait until i have the finished copy in june.

Loved the book and Loved the characters! The relationships between the roommates were amazing - the Kate and Leopold story line did not really do it for me, but as a study in characters this was perfect!

I love all the characters in this book. I didn't read the whole synopsis before starting. I like everything about the book except the whole time difference thing. I wasn't a fan of that and tried to wrap my head around it. I know it is the focal point of the book but i had powered thru it. I loved red, white and royal blue and was hoping it that same direction ish. Still good :)

Thanks NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book and while I was so excited to recieve an ARC of it, I also was nervous to begin. You see, Red, White and Royal Blue was by far one of the best books I've ever read. In fact, since initially reading it in Fall 2019, I've listened to it at least 4 additional times because I love it so much. The writing is beautiful and captivating and I feel myself floating away into Alex and Henry's world every time I listen.

So when I opened One Last Stop, I was immediately reminded of the beauty that is McQuiston's writing. It is absolutely a joy to read and her details are heartfelt. I am pretty sure I would read anything she wrote. The problem I had is that I never really connected with August and Jane. I can't tell you specifically why or what about it I didn't connect with but I couldn't. I just didn't feel the love and it made it a struggle. I did love the complexity of the characters and the diversity of all involved-- I think the problem was that there was nobody I really could "connect" with and it made me struggle. Without spoiling the book, i wish it had ended at about 89%. I think I would have been more satisfied with the ending there then I was with the actual ending.

One of the most brilliant parts of her writing is her writing of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals. The way she identifies that they are transgender is simple and non- dramatic, which I think makes it more powerful. These characters are people and whether they are transgender or not is not as important as who they are--- which i think is brilliant.

Overall, I would definitely recommend someone checking this book out, but meanwhile I might be re-reading Red, White and Royal Blue for the 5th time...

Overall, I think its a beautiful book

This delightful new-adult story will always have a special place in my heart because Casey McQuiston made me fall in love with her entertaining writing style and her vivid descriptions of New York City in all of its quirky and messy glory. I’m a huge fan of stories that feature a variety of characters from the LGBTQIA community and I must say that I was living my best life when I tagged along with August, Niko, Myla, Wes and Annie while they were throwing awesome parties and doing everything in their power to help Jane. Without a doubt, this novel is definitely a literary treat because this author has skillfully blended a budding romance, witty banter and an unbelievable time-slip with a dash of magic thrown in for good measure. Plus, I think this book cover is super cute and I can’t stop smiling every time I look at it!

Wow! Casey McQuiston's second novel is nothing like I expected but was delightful and wonderful. Two 20-something girls meet on the NYC subway, and sparks fly. As protagonist August navigates being an adult on her own, she realizes she actually has a lot of people who love her. This is a delightful story of people choosing their own family and making their way in the world, and has a surprising space-time element. Like McQuiston's first book, One Last Stop will leave you feeling warm and fuzzy and in your feelings in the best way.

Completely swoon worthy queer romance! It's fun with a little bit of a sci-fi twist. I liked how much Casey explored the history of the queer community without it feeling like a lesson. Very much enjoyed!

This was such fun! As with Red, White & Royal Blue, McQuiston delivers a charming, funny, and steamy queer romcom with endearing mains and side characters alike, only this time there are sapphics and sci-fi in the mix. This book packs so much love, queer history, and disaster bi energy into its >400 pages. There's an absolute wealth of thoughtful and varied representation in the characters, including a vocally bisexual protagonist, which my heart will never get enough of.

August is a somewhat prickly lead. She's the largely friendless, restless, minimalist daughter of a single mother hellbent on solving the mystery of her own brother's disappearance nearly fifty years ago. August has grown up isolated from her peers and locked into a walking true crime story. At twenty-three, she's spent the last few years bouncing from city to city, university to university, trying to carve out a life for herself that doesn't revolve around the search for her Uncle Augie.

When she arrives in Brooklyn, August quickly falls in with lovable new roommates, continues working on her degree, and lands a job at a breakfast place, a local institution. Enter Jane, the hot butch girl August meets on the subway, crushes hard on, and incidentally seems to have the exact same commute as her. As they get to know each other better, August's investigative upbringing leads her to think things aren't quite as they seem with Jane and with the help of her roommates, begins to get to the bottom of things.

I will say that there's quite a lot of PDA (not my thing), of-the-moment slang and turns of phrase that might make this hard to read in even a few years, and enough references to make your head spin (including two throwaway mentions of Harry Potter that I thought were in poor taste for a queer book released post-2020), but on the whole McQuiston's charming character work, believable dialogue, emotion and humour alike really shine through and make this book a very solid four star read for me.

TW: recounted homophobic violence, mention of racism and antisemitism, off page death

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing this advance copy

I read and loved RED, WHITE AND ROYAL BLUE, and immediately dove into my copy of ONE LAST STOP, which did not disappoint. Author Casey McQuiston knows how to deliver a fun, trauma-free, gay romance. Involving a Groundhog Day-like time loop on the subway, I loved the supernatural elements of this novel. McQuiston deftly walks the line between over-the-top fantasy and reality to create a really satisfying mystery-inside-a-romance. I'm so glad to have found this author!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the ARC.

Twenty-three-year-old August has just moved to New York to finish college and finds herself with a new life. August has a new home, new roommates, a new job, a possible new girlfriend, the mysterious Jane, who she meets on the subway. There is only one problem, the more time August spends with Jane, the more she realizes there's something different about Jane which may make it impossible for them to be together.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. McQuiston's first book was an adorable rom-com, and I was expecting her follow-up to be similar, but it didn't live up to my expectations. The premise was original, but the way the story played out felt familiar. August had the potential to be a great main character, but I never felt like I got to know her. Plus, her relationship with Jane went from attraction to love without being developed on the page. The best part of this book was the August roommates. I would happily read an entire book about Niko and Myla or Wes and Isiah. One Last Stop was entertaining and did have some fun moments, but it never lived up to my expectations set by the author's first novel.

WOW. WOW. WOW. This book has it all - queer love, magical realism, mystery, amazing wlw sex scenes, and a heist. I laughed out loud. I cried. This book was an outpouring of love for queerness, chosen family, and New York City.

I really liked the last book I read by this author, Red, White, and Royal Blue. It was a very entertaining and enjoyable read. This current book was even more entertaining.

I loved the NYC setting. Parts of the story took place on a subway and others part in a crowded Brooklyn apartment with four diverse and interesting roommates. There was August who recently moved to NYC to finish her college degree. She was overly cautious and never felt like she belonged anywhere. Niko was a psychic and also trans whose Catholic family supported him being trans but not being a psychic, and in their view, a devil worshiper. His girlfriend Myla was brilliantly creative and an intellectual. Wes came from money but was cut off and disowned when he went against his parents’ career choice to take over the family’s architecture firm. Wes was also in love with their neighbor, Isaiah, an accountant by day and drag queen Annie Depressant by night. Then there was Jane. She was the love interest of August. However, there was one major problem with Jane. She was stuck on the Q train, and has been for about 45 years.

I love how the connections were made between the past and present and how it came together so smoothly. The dialogue was witty and humorous but nicely balanced by their serious realistic conversations such as not fitting in, being disowned by family, money problems, and finding someone to love and then being brave enough to say the words.

I also loved how these characters evolved throughout the story from strangers to a tight knit group of very supportive friends who formed their own family and a place where they all belonged.

This well written rom-com was thoroughly engaging from start to finish.

An ARC was given for an honest review.