One Last Stop just fell short for me. The characters felt rushed and I didn’t feel like they were thought through. I see where this this author was going, but I think she fell flat with this one. And it was definitely 100 pages too long. I still need to read RW&RB. I’m sad this one didn’t work.

Oh my - where do I even begin with One Last Stop? Casey McQuiston has managed to create a new story that is sure to appease those that fell in love with their writing through Red, White, and Royal Blue, and OLS manages to stand strong on its own. One Last Stop has all the wit and moxie of Red, White, and Royal Blue, and is filled with characters that feel like they could be your friends (and I wish they were real people so I could be their friends). At the heart of the story is August, a twenty-something just trying to figure out her way in life, and Jane, an effortlessly cool woman who seems to defy time and space (turns out, she quite literally does both of those things). When the two meet on the subway home, August finds herself falling for Jane - but Jane's past and August's present could tear them apart before they can manage to explore a relationship. One Last Stop is about as far from the proverbial sophomore slump, and whether you've read Red, White, and Royal Blue, or you're new to McQuiston's writing, you'll be sure to be intrigued and smitten with August and Jane's story, just as I was.

I was excited to read (and listen!) to One Last Stop, as I mostly enjoyed Red, White & Royal Blue. I'll say first that I like speculative fiction, and I love science fiction, and I especially like time travel. So where others felt this book veered from what they expected of Casey McQuiston and the "New Adult" genre, I enjoyed.

The audio book speeds up the pacing of the novel, which is too slow. for me, and the narrator does a fine job conveying what August is feeling and giving a distinct voice to all the other characters, who are lively and engaging. Natalie Naudus really helps the novel move along from a slow trudge to a leisurely walk with only brief moments of dawdling.

At first, it was hard to like August, the main character. I warmed up to her some by the end. I liked Jane, and, like August realizes, I wish we could have seen more of her. A deeper look. The side characters were lovely, and the descriptions of the city and the novel's landmarks are nice. There are lines that tug at you and make you feel things. There are moments you want to read (or listen to) again.

But—the story is overwritten where it doesn't matter and, sadly, underwritten where it does. At least 1/6 of the novel could have been cut, I think. Also, Niko and Jane's characters fall flat in some ways, and it might be because it seems that the author has not lived the experiences—even tangentially—they try to write. Something rings hollow when Niko is said to be playing "Suavamente" or mentions his abuela or when Jane describes her life and her family before the train. I felt similar about the author's writing of Alex in Red, White & Royal Blue and the shallow take on what it is like to be Mexican (or half) in the United States. McQuiston does not share all of the identities that she writes, and that's fine, but when she tries to borrow those voices and convey the feelings and experiences and struggles that come with those identities, the writing comes across as inauthentic or performative in otherwise decent novels.

Thank you, NetGalley.

I requested this book because I loved McQuiston's first book, and this one did not disappoint. One Last Sop is part romance, part mystery, part supernatural fantasy. I really enjoyed the relationship between August and Jane, as well as each of the secondary characters who helped along the way. If you love a good supernatural love story with a bit of mystery, you will love this book. It reminded me of a Kate & Leopold style love story.

This was really quirky and delightful! It's crammed full of amazing characters and mid-twenties-life-crises and queer found-family!
The writing in this book is so beautiful, and honestly breathtaking!
It made me feel warmed, fuzzy hopeful but also broke my heart at the same time!.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an audio arc of this book, all opinions expressed here are my own.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston was among my most anticipated reads for this year, after Red White and Royal Blue was such a surprising five star read for me. I am not the targeted demographic. I’m a straight, late 30s, married mother of three teenagers. But I read everything because there’s always surprises waiting around the corner when you open a book.

Unfortunately something about One Last Stop just didn’t do it for me. I loved the concept of finding love out of time. I loved the settings of the diner, the share house and New York now vs in the 70s. I loved the characters, but I actually felt more connections from the side characters than I did between August and Jane. I enjoyed the narration.

Overall it was just an okay read for me this time. Three and a half stars. One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston is available on the 1st of June 2021.

Casey McQuiston is undoubtedly one of the best writers of this generation. I mean that full heartedly. I've NEVER written a book as funny as this and CASEY HAS DONE IT TWICE. No other writer can include that many pop culture references into one book and expect me to be okay with it, but Casey does it MASTERFULLY. I think you can tell when an author *thinks* they're funny through their writing versus when they're actually just knock out hilarious. I think we all know which category Casey belongs to.

One Last Stop of a heart wrenchingly sweet rom-com following "bisexual disaster" August as she meets a mysterious and enigmatic stranger on the train. Jane is a Chinese-American lesbian with a smart mouth and a complicated backstory... it turns out she's supposed to be in the 1970's. As her and August scheme to send her back to her decade their feelings develop into much more than just new friends.

One of my favorite aspects of McQuiston's esteemed debut novel Red White and Royal Blue was the chemistry behind the interactions of each character. The ease of which Henry and Alex's families combined into one through witty repartee and disparaging over the world millennial inherited. This book has all of that and so much more. August moves into an apartment and becomes fast family with her 3 roommates, her co-workers, and the drag queen down the hall. In the essence of Honey Girl, this book takes found family to the MAX.

What I love about this book is the way millennial characters are written... for lack of a way to put this lightly, not annoyingly. The internet cartoon of the Buzzfeed millennial has become WAYYY to common in literature and it's been seeping into YA literature from millennial writers who think teenagers are just like them. This book teeters somewhat between the millennial and Gen Z generations. The dialogue is hilarious, absolutely NEVER cringy, and still /very/ internet. It's all very authentic to the New Adult experience.

The romance in this story is STEAMING. August and Jane have the sweetest, sexiest chemistry complete with pining, angst, and lots of sweet and ~saucy~ love. Through Jane we learn a lot of 70's queer history of the riots that took place in New York including some interesting intersectionality relating specifically to Chinese lesbians. It's sobering, especially as an 18 year old girl who hasn't lived like ~out~ as a queer person in the real world to learn about the struggles our people went through just mere decades ago. We have a LONG ways to go for queer liberation, but reading about some of the horrific stories from the past show just how far we've already come.

This book took me a whole month to finish. Not because it was bad, slow, or boring. It took me a month to finish because I wanted so badly to savor it for as long as I could that I limited myself to only reading it bit by bit. If I wanted to, I could've 1000% finished it all in one night. In fact, I'm sure I'm going to reread the entire thing tonight as soon as I finish writing this review. But this one in a million book was just /so good/ that it physically pained me to finish it. I just want it to go on and on and on.

All in all, this book is amazing. 5 star rating all around. Casey McQuiston is a fucking magician and I'm about to go hound them on Twitter for information on their next book. This book is just as good as Red White and Royal Blue and if I say anybody saying otherwise I will manifest bad fortune against them on my voodoo doll.

ALSO the audiobook is amazing, the narrator is awesome, and I highly recommend combining your reading experience between the two.

Ratings:
Romance: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing Quality: 5/5
"Couldn't Put it Down-ness:" 5/5
Originality: 5/5
Overall: 5/5

I had thoroughly enjoyed Casey’s Red, White and Blue and was super thrilled to receive the complimentary audiobook of One Last Stop!

August is a 23 year old ambitious girl who wants to be independent in life. She moves to NewYork, starts waiting tables at a pancake diner and shares room with quirky roommates. Only had she imagined to meet a mysterious Jane on a subway and fall head over heels in love with her. August looks forward to meet her crush everyday on the subway only to realize that there is something weird about Jane, like she is always in the same clothes and never leaves the train! Only later August figures out Jane is transported from 1970, time traveling without much memory of her past.

This book has everything, masterfully written characters who were very lovable, hot sizzling chemistry between August and Jane and the time travel element!!

Natalie Naudus was an amazing narrator who did complete justice to this beautiful book. Her narration was very crisp, with good pace and pitch of tone. She did a marvelous job of narrating the story and bringing the characters to life.

This book releases on June 1st. I highly recommend it to every fan of Casey McQuiston to get a copy to find out if Jane falls in love with August or if she can break the time barrier and be transported back to 1970’s for good!!

Thank you McMillan Audio and netgalley for the complimentary audiobook of One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

Okay, WOW.

I am actually going to struggle with this review because I am at a complete loss for words. I absolutely loved Red, White, and Royal Blue so I had a feeling I would love this book too. My expectations were exceeded beyond what I knew was possible. This book is SO much more than a romance. There is romance, there is mystery, there is some magical realism that is SUPER fun, and there is so much celebration of all that life has to offer us and how we live!

One Last Stop focuses on August, who has recently moved to New York, present day. She finds an apartment with a quirky group of people that quickly become found family. Her new ‘framily’ help her get a job at a local pancake house. One day when she is on the subway home, she meets Jane. They seem to have some instant chemistry. As they get to know each other more, August starts to have questions about Jane, who she has only ever seen on the subway and she sees her EVERY time she rides. One day she stumbles upon a picture in the pancake house from the 1970s and wait….is that…Jane!?

This book just has so much to offer. I think that every ready will appreciate at least one element of this book and then some! Run, don’t walk, to grab this book when it releases on June 1!

Thank you so much to Macmillian Audio for the ARC!!

I've been a fan of Casey McQuiston's writing since I read Red, White, and Royal Blue last year, and I have been eagerly anticipating One Last Stop for MONTHS. It did not disappoint. One Last Stop is wonderfully funny, emotional, and deliciously queer.

A word of advice for fans of RWRB: don't go in to this anticipating a book that is super similar to McQuiston's debut. At a fundamental level, a lot of things about the two are similar (snappy dialogue, fun side characters, interesting use of technology, nuggets of queer history, etc.), but they are so miraculously different. McQuiston did such an amazing thing with the release of this novel being as different as it is, they proved they can (AND SHOULD) write many different books. CMQ is not a one trick pony. This book has some magic and some crime and is a much smaller scale than that of their first book. But I loved it just as much.

This book wasn't at all what I was anticipating in the best way possible. Every chapter and plot twist took me by surprise and I loved being along for the ride. The romance was sweet and I loved this eccentric cast of characters. I loved the magic element that was included that we seldom see in romance novels. It gave it an extra layer.

What really resonates with me about this book is August herself. As someone who is an early 20s college student in New York City, I really resonated with August and all of August's feelings about the city and about her life and about her group of friends. It felt very wonderful and personal.

The only thing holding this book from a full 5 stars is that I felt like for a majority of the book the romance felt extremely one sided, and not in the cute unrequited way. Jane didn't feel like much of a love interest until the 75% mark for me, and that's just not my personal taste.

I loved the way McQuiston so perfectly captures New York City living when you're young and poor and queer. The way they describe the subway in such loving detail reiterates that NYC really is a wonderful place. It feels like the real love interest of the book isn't Jane at all, but the city and the friends instead.

I thought the narrator did an excellent job of differentiating the characters and giving them their own persona. I can't wait to reread my physical copy when it's released in a few weeks.

At last, I can say I’ve read this gem of a book!

This was my most anticipated release of 2021 by far. Actually, it was my most anticipated release of all time. I remember the exact moment when this book was announced in late 2019, when I was still coming off the high of Red, White, and Royal Blue. When the synopsis and concept art were revealed, I wanted to ascend into heaven, but I had no idea how I’d be able to wait until 2021! Now, I can confirm that this book was worth the wait. I pre-ordered a physical copy so I can sleep with it under my pillow, so I can read parts of it when I’m feeling down, so it can be my comfort read until the end of time. August, Jane, and the rest of the large, unabashedly queer cast are just everything to me.

One Last Stop is written in present tense from the third-person perspective of August Landry (23, bisexual, anxiety/depression). She’s the only daughter of Suzette Landry, who’s been searching for her brother Auggie for decades. August has always been her mom’s de facto assistant for this missing person’s case, but she’s never had the chance to discover who she really is. So, August moves from city to city, trying to discover herself but never getting there. Her next stop (well, Last Stop) on her residence tour is Brooklyn, New York, where she moves into a malfunctioning apartment with some quirky roommates, bullshits her way into a job waitressing at a pancake diner, and meets an impossible girl on the subway.

August is every ounce the protagonist I’ve always needed. I am so thankful August Landry exists within this lovely book that will be read by so many. August has always had trouble making friends, she’s new to romantic relationships, she’s a complete disaster, and she has no idea what her “thing” is in life. As a socially anxious, “late-blooming” disaster myself, I cannot properly articulate how seen and validated I felt. Everything from August’s inauspicious first week at her job to her nervous breakdown on the subway will resonate deeply with other 20-somethings who are lost in life. In a world of young protagonists who have themselves mostly figured out, August’s existence is like a breath of fresh air, and I am eternally grateful to Casey McQuiston for creating her and giving her the most beautiful, time-defying happy ending for the ages.

Jane Su (seemingly eternally 24 due to a time slip, lesbian, Chinese American) is the love interest of every sapphic’s dream. She’s been befriending strangers on the Q Train since the 1970’s, but she’s stuck there and can’t remember why. When August meets Jane, she’s having a terrible day and is covered in spilled coffee, but Jane’s kindness (well, and hotness) rocks her world. Jane won’t hesitate to punch a homophobe or a racist, but she has the softest, most earnest heart. She wears a leather jacket and ripped jeans and has countless tattoos, but she has an incurable sweet tooth and always smells like sugar. She’s constantly suave, so when she’s shows her vulnerable side, it’s everything. I dare any sapphic not to fall in love with Jane!

And the relationship between August and Jane: be still my heart! They are opposites in many ways, and when they come together, it’s pure magic. Jane is the sunshine to August’s grumpy, the punk-butch to August’s quirky-femme. Their respective romantic/sexual experiences are very different, and they never judge each other for this. But they’re both lost – August in life and Jane in time – and the way they connect over this, existing in limbo yet cherishing the time they have with each other, is brilliant. The glorious combination of insta-lust and slow burn leads to a truckload of yearning, and Jane gradually becomes much more to August than just a case to solve. Throughout their relationship development, I gasped, I sighed, I felt the warm gooey feels, and I even got the chills. Even the sex scenes, which I don’t normally care about, were exquisitely written and had my attention. August and Jane are everything, individually and together, and they’re one of my favorite fictional couples of all time.

This wouldn’t have been a Casey McQuiston novel without the glorious cast of queer characters. August lives with three wonderful, chaotic queer roommates. We have Niko, (trans guy, Puerto Rican) the psychic who always knows what’s up with you but can’t divine how to mix a proper drink. Then there’s Niko’s girlfriend Myla (queer, Black, adopted), the beautiful genius with an electrical engineering degree who decided she wanted to make weird art instead. And finally, there’s Wes, (gay, Jewish), the prickly tattoo artist who bonds with August over their shared insecurities. The roommates also have a semi-nocturnal poodle named Noodles who I also adored! Across the hall, there lives a partygoing accountant named Isaiah (queer, Black) who moonlights as a fabulous drag queen named Annie Depressant (seriously, that is the best name ever!). Rounding out August’s newfound social circle are her prickly-yet-kind Czech boss, Lucy, and fellow waiter Winfield (pansexual, Jamaican), who has lots of interesting hobbies.

This book is about family as much as it’s about romance. First and foremost, there’s the incredible queer found family August finds with everyone she meets in NY. Niko and Myla are parental units to August and Wes, and it’s hinted that the four roommates can’t imagine life without each other. They celebrate their queerness at drag shows and parties and are always supporting one another. But there are also themes regarding immediate families: the complicated relationship between August and Suzette, the black cloud of Auggie’s disappearance that hangs over August and Suzette in different ways, the particular hell of growing up with rich parents who don’t actually care, Myla’s Chinese adoptive mother whose culture Myla loves sharing with her roommates, and the family that Jane left behind in the 1970’s.

Once again, Casey McQuiston’s writing style is enchanting and has its own brand of magic. There are so many poetic passages that hit me straight in the heart, and I’ll be highlighting my favorite lines upon reread. I know this book is technically a rom com, but I think it almost has a literary feel to it. Likewise, this book is constantly laugh-out-loud funny and is perfect if you need an excuse to smile. Ridiculous predicaments, comically elaborate metaphors, instantly memorable one-liners – this book has it all. There’s a reason Casey McQuiston became one of my favorite authors after just one book: their talent for writing transcendent queer love stories is unparalleled.

Lastly, the narration! Natalie Naudus is now one of my favorite narrators. Her comic delivery and range of emotion are spectacular, not to mention she just has a very nice voice! The different voices she does for the characters are sublime: Jane’s smoky drawl, Niko’s half-stoned sounding voice, Myla’s peppy voice, Wes’s grumpy-yet-nasal voice, Jerry the cook’s Brooklyn accent, and even Lucy’s Czech accent.

Tl;dr: Trust the hype; One Last Stop is incredible.

August Landry just arrived in New York, in her search for apartment she found the more quirky and entertaining roomies. Soon, she will find something else. One day traveling on the subway she meets Jane, who seems cool, mysterious and interesting; they meet every day at the same time and in the same car. Coincidence? It is not. Jane has been trapped in the wagon since 1970.

Such a fun and good story. The characters, were amazing, I want a group of friends just like this. They are fun, eccentric, kind and very important, they listen to and support each other. This is not only about romance, it's about friendship and finding your place.

The romance was great, August and clicked instantly, the more time August spends with Jane, the more she likes her and wants to know her, also to understand why she is trapped and how to help her get out of the loop.
Jane doesn't remember why she's on the train and what happened to her, August and friends will investigate until they find answers.

I loved how music is integrated in this book and how LGBT society is represented in two time period, society has advanced since the 70s (although there is still a way ahead). We see it through Jane’s eyes and experiences. She is not shy, she screams, protests, validates her own opinions and fight for her rights.

Overall, this is fantastic, it has a great balance between different types of love, friendship and acceptance, the cast was so diverse, not only about their sexual preferences or identity, but also racial. The plot is very different from Red, White, & Royal Blue, but with the same type of charismatic characters, very real and unique.

Probably closer to about 3.5 out of 5?

There were things I super loved about this book. I loved the characters, I adored the found family. I love Billy's but there was something that was just a miss. I cant exactly put my finger on what it was that didn't quite connect with me. I think it would have prefered it if it leaned for into the time travel aspect, or if it had be strictly contemporary, but maybe it was how the two were blended that didnt quite sit right for me.

Over all I think this was still super fun, and will continue to read anything Casey writes.

Thank you for a chance to read/listen to this fabulous book. I went into this book completely blind and I was blown away by how wonderful this story was. June and August are a fantastic pairing, their relationship was such wonderful gem. All the characters where so relatable and at times laugh out loud hilarious. No spoilers but this book was nothing what I assumed it would be, great listen, great narrator, wonderful queer story.

Thank you to Netgalley, for proving me with a copy of this audiobook. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book brings so much queer joy! I am so in love with August and Jane's story. In fact, all of the characters in this book are extremely lovable and unforgettable, and they will hold a special place in my heart for all of time.

I truly enjoyed the plot, concept, and narrator. A wonderful experience overall!

I have been waiting for this book from the moment it was announced, especially when it was originally described as queer Kate and Leopold. I was very sad when I wasn’t approved for an ARC of the book but was thrilled when I received an advanced copy of the audiobook. The moment I was approved I downloaded it and started listening. For four days this book replaced the podcasts that usually keep me company during less intense moments of work.

I fell absolutely head over heels in love with both Jane and August. I really identified with August. I’m prickly and literally work in private investigation. I thought Jane represented a very interesting moment in history. She was pulled out of time at the end of the women’s liberation movement and in the midst of the queer movement. I loved that the pair were able to connect over music. The book is single POV from August’s perspective and I think it fully works with the singular POV. However I would love to have a bonus story from Jane’s perspective of her reacting to certain aspects of modern life.

I also adored the wonderful cast of side characters. I loved August’s roommates, her co-workers, and all their friends. The community that was created was beautifully diverse and supportive. Not that Casey has a desire to return to write more in this world, but I would happily read a short story or two or a thousand featuring the roommates.

I thoroughly enjoyed Natalie Naudus’s narration. The voices she used were distinct and I could always tell who was talking. I did struggle with the pace of the audiobook and switched to 1.25 speed about a third of the way through and then to 1.5 speed at about the half way mark. I don’t think that’s a reflection on the audiobook, but rather a reflection the fact that I’m a very fast reader and wanted to know what was going to happen at a pace similar to how fast I read. I will have to read the book again when it is published because I know there’s pieces I missed by listening at the speed I was.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Content warnings: arson, missing person, death, bones (of frogs), off-page homophobia, off-page racism, off-page transphobia]

* tl;dr: 23yo disaster bi + 24yo chinese american displaced from the 1970s; a lot of chaotic, mostly queer 20-somethings in nyc

One Last Stop is pure joy. CMQ has crafted a beautiful romance with a full cast of the loveliest characters ever existed. It is a perfect story of love, found family, connecting to one’s heritage, and finding oneself.

August Landry (23, bisexual) grew up trying to solve the missing person mystery of her uncle with her mom. At 23, she moves to NYC for college, hoping to finally find a home, only to end up in a sketchy apartment. But soon, she finds out that her roommates are incredibly friendly. Automatic friends. When she meets Jane Su (24, Chinese American) on the Q train her first day of school, she couldn’t get the friendly hot butch in a leather jacket and ripped jeans out of her head. And when she finds out Jane is stuck on the subway without much memory of her past, August decides to help Jane piece out the mystery and maybe send her back to the 1970s. But as they spend more time together, August isn’t sure she wants Jane to disappear in time again.

The story opens with August moving to a new city and her encountering with potential roommate Niko (24, trans, Latino), a tattooed young man with one dangling earring and a toothpick in his mouth, asking if he could touch her, but not in a weird way. He is a psychic and wants to read August’s energy. August doesn’t believe in that but lets him anyway. And that’s all it takes for them to become roommates.

It was a perfect opening for a story about the space-time anomaly that is Jane. Not only are we introduced to supernatural elements in the first chapter, we also get to meet the quirky roommates. So when August has a meet cute with the mysterious Jane on the Q train, the scene and feels are already perfectly set up. I also love that this is a new adult romance and that August is a complete disaster because, yes, that is very relatable.

Every single character in this book is wonderful. It’s wholesome and chaotic and amazing. There are no villains, only the sci-fi glitch that had Jane stuck on the Q train. Told entirely in August’s point-of-view, we have an unobstructed view of her thoughts. She is very dramatic and an absolute disaster. Set in 2020 and a world without the pandemic, Jane, always looking cool and forever kind, brings in pieces of historical fiction elements, the good and the bad of the past, the fights for queer rights, etc.

CMQ is unbelievably good at creating important, lovable, and delightful secondary characters: Niko the psychic, Myla (Black, with a Chinese adoptive mother) the sculptor with a degree in electrical engineering (as someone who also has degrees in EE, I am so happy to see this), Wes the brooding tattooist and architecture school dropout, and Isaiah/Annie the drag queen who is an accountant.

One Last Stop is the book that feels like drag shows and pride parades, where everyone is comfortable in their own skin, having fun, and mostly happy. The beautiful found family in which August finally feels she belongs in makes my heart soft.

I love everything about the mundane things the characters—not just August but also her flatmates—want for life. The little descriptions, the hope, the smallest dreams of wanting, of wanting to belong, of wanting love. It is these thoughts and comments that make the story so utterly pure. They live for joy, Niko and his psychic abilities, Myla and her obscure sculptures, Wes and his art. August started out as a non-believer of supernatural events and also cynical person who is socially awkward and doesn’t have friends. She probably didn’t even believes in friendship. But the queer found family she has of her roommates makes her believe again. It makes her believe that she deserves something nice, too, that she deserves love.

And places play important parts in the book, too. It isn’t just the big city of New York, but also the more personal locations, like the Q train, Pancake Billy’s House of Pancakes, the Brooklyn apartment above a Popeye’s where August, Niko, Myla, and Wes live. There is a heavy emphasis on space, time, people in the story, and every single one of the elements is vividly presented throughout the writing.

Even though One Last Stop is mainly a romance between August and Jane, there are so many other important relationships, too: August and her mom Suzette, Suzette and her brother Auggie, Jane and her family, Wes and his estranged rich family, Niko and Myla, Wes and Isaiah, the employees at Billy’s, etc. All of them are complicated and real and intertwined.

I laughed so many times while listening to the audiobook and teared up from happiness. But most of the time, I just smiled as I listen to everything playing out. Everything is so cute and I badly wished these characters were real. And there is August and Jane. I love their dynamics of being tender yet passionate and playful, too. Oh, and the yearning. Fuck.

The incorporation of Jane’s Chinese heritage was very well done as far as I could tell. There are brief mentions of having fah sung thong during the new year, congee for breakfast, Chinese zodiacs, and a throwaway joke that makes sense in Chinese. Having all these details made Jane’s character even more solid, and I love everything about that.

Naudus did a superb job of bringing the story to life. For me, audiobooks are like movies but several hours long, played in the head however you wanted it to be played. And this audiobook built gorgeous scenes, each tiny detail registered, every hitch of breath audible.

One Last Stop has made me feel more alive than ever, to be here, now, tethered to this world. There are so much hope and dreams and it’s just beautiful from the beginning to the end. The love between August and Jane is phenomenal—it transcends time and space—and I want Niko and Myla to unofficially adopt me, too. It is a tribute to all the gay rights activists, queer disasters, and everyone in between. It is about feeling stuck and gathering the courage of getting unstuck, the process of slowly figuring things out, one step at a time, and it’s okay if nothing is certain, it’s okay if the present is the only thing you have. One Last Stop is so full of life and everyone has the purest soul. And one last warning: the Q train will never feel the same again after reading this story.

I am definitely going to be the unpopular opinion here. One Last Stop was a perfectly charming read, or rather, listen. It has so much diversity, LGBTQ+ rep, a paranormal time-slip aspect. Throw in the fact that this author wrote the beloved RWARB and it should have been perfect, right?

I think my issue was the pacing. This seemed to drag on for much longer than needed. I kept checking the time on my audiobook, dismayed that it felt like things were barely moving along. The repetitive environment of being stuck on a train might have added to that greatly. This could also have been due to the audiobook, while the narrator did a great job changing up her voices and expressions, there seemed to be a buzzing or some vibration coming off from the microphone she recorded into, sort of adding this robot vibe to her voice.

One Last Stop had an average amount of steam and if you have read McQuiston’s previous novel, you’ll know what to expect. It also has a found family trope that I tend to love.

There was an odd combo of too much going on in the background of this novel and too little progress in the main conflict.

Like I said, I will undoubtably be the odd one out here. I think this novel with delight many and check off all of the boxes they desired. I hope others enjoy this much more than I did!

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this review audiobook.

WOW. This isn’t a book I would normally read and I went into it with zero expectations. After finishing, I have to say I’m not disappointed in the slightest. This story is magical and special and I can’t even begin to express how much I enjoyed it. There was so much to love from the queer representation to the beautiful friendships to the reminder that we choose who we are in life. My suggestion is to go into it with as little knowledge as possible and let the pages speak for themselves.

Regardless of where you are in life, I think everyone can find little pieces of themselves in August and Jane. And if not in them, then definitely in the heap of secondary characters that were extremely fun and quirky.

This book was beautiful and funny and heartbreaking at times and so deliciously weird that it bordered on literary genius. Casey Mcquiston is a brilliant writer and their talent shines bright throughout this book. If you were on the fence about reading this, hesitate no more. It’s definitely worth your time and you won’t be disappointed.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how WONDERFUL the audiobook narration from Natalie Naudus was. If you have the chance to get the audiobook, please do just!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio who sent me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The narrator did a great job with this audiobook! Okay, so the story. I was excited because I loved Red, White, and Royal Blue. Don't get me wrong, this book was good. I was really interested in the beginning but then I thought it started to get a little boring and repetitive. And I understand, one of the main characters is stuck on a subway train, that makes it a bit tricky. I really enjoyed all of the characters, and especially the side characters.