I genuinely wanted to finish this because I love CMQ’s work so much but found myself terribly bored halfway through because its the same thing happening every. single. chapter. and it gets old fast.

The Pairing was one of my most anticipated reads for the year, but unfortunately I didn’t love the book. All we’re told in the beginning is that Kit and Theo were friends as kids, started dating and something happened four years ago that caused them to break up. We were not given enough backstory and scenes between the two early in the book to make me understand why they should be together or why I should be rooting for them to end up together. I seriously considered DNF’ing this book about a third of the way in. Both characters felt very immature to me (despite their current ages) and their friendship after their breakup/not seeing each other for years felt strange to me (like… there are other people on this tour, you don’t have to hang out with each other). I also did not understand their rules for hooking up and I felt the majority of the book was about their hookups rather than character building or developing the plot further than eating and drinking a lot of alcohol. There was a sweet moment between the characters later in the book, but it wasn’t enough to redeem the entire story.

2.5/5 stars

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

You know those movie screenings where they give you food and drinks represented within the film? I need that for this book. Yes, it may take days, but I will gladly sit through it. The descriptions in this book were absolutely divine throughout, but the food and drinks? I was salivating, begging, wanting to immediately hop on a plane to experience all of these myself. My Taurus heart was happy.

I loved this with every fiber of my being. I was immediately hooked by Theo's voice and storytelling, flowing between past and present. Second chance is one of my favorite tropes, but it's also one that can be a complete miss with a lack of truly feeling the history between characters; this was the absolute opposite of the case here. The way Theo absolutely ached for not just the relationship but the friendship they had with Kit bled through each page, each word, and I was aching right alongside them. The switch halfway through...even more so. I loved every step through this plot and the character development I was able to witness. I gobbled up the writing style, the way McQuiston wove this story in such fine threads that created an elaborate, detailed picture. It was beautiful, it was intimate, and it was the romance that I feel like I've always been seeking.

Mixed feelings. I loved the first half that was from Theo's POV. The shift to Kit's POV felt abrupt and unnecessary. Almost like I was starting another book. His voice didn't feel quite as developed as Theo's and I found myself imagining scenes from Theo's POV instead. Regardless, it was a sweet and tender story with way more bisexual representation than I've ever seen elsewhere.

First off, this book is a wonderfully queer friendly book with representation from the community throughout. I loved the naturalness at which queer characters were included - never just a caricature. Theo and Kit are lovely people and truly love one another. I enjoyed McQuiston's writing and attention to detail of character development. For that, this book deserves praise!

Where the book lost me was all of the meaningless sex with other people while they were clearly pining for, and in love, with one another. Maybe at first the bet was silly, albeit a bit immature, but a reflection of their insecurities around one another and not knowing the depth of the other's feelings. But once the two of them started to come together and their feelings started to be obvious to the other, the shenanigans continued and it just created an ick factor for me that I couldn't get past. I didn't enjoy read about Kit kissing another person in front of Theo and that was the name of the game for a good portion of the book. Their juvenile competition didn't make me committed to hoping they would find a happy ending together. It truly ruined the romantic notions I had for these two and their trip through Europe.

Well written and developed but just not the plot development for me.

One of the better romances I've read this year. I felt like the problems were more realistic and reasonable than past romances novels I've read. Absolutely loved the descriptions of the European cities they were in and the mouthwatering descriptions of the food. I was reliving my trip to Italy! While this was enjoyable and a great summer read, I think I still love Red White & Royal Blue the most from this author.

Casey does a good job of writing people and their mental/ emotional states. This continues with this series but still doesn't bring back the magic I felt reading red white and royal blue for the first time. Will continue to support them

Casey McQuiston has done it again! Another cute romance tale of Kit and Theo. I love how McQuiston writes with such an open and honest take on dating and romance in the modern era in the day and age of hook up culture. Another can't miss book! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press Books for a copy of this book for an honest review.

Loved this book! As always Casey McQuiston does a wonderful job of making the reader care just as much about the side characters as they would for one of the leads. It is very clear that research was done for this book, each chapter felt like a travelogue giving recommendations for each city. My notes app was constantly open writing down everything they mentioned. Can’t wait for all my friends to read this so we can plan our European food and wine tour.

I enjoyed the Pairing a lot. Although I couldn't always relate to the characters and their decisions, somehow I felt for them, a sign of good writing! Theo and Kit were childhood best friends, turned into lovers, then suddenly broke up. In the second chance romance trope, they booked a tour together and 4 years later, it was expiring, so they both separately decide to take it and reconnect. Theo and Kit are unabashedly queer, sexual, and competitive with each other, and also clearly love each other. You find out more about their pasts as the book goes on. I loved their relationship but also....how do I sign up for this tour? It's a 3 week food and drink tour through France, Spain, and Italy, and I was so jealous of every stop on this tour. The food descriptions and mouth watering. I have no idea how all these gorgeous fit people managed to eat so much. Also all the other characters on the tour were just delightful. A fun read.

This is McQuuston’s absolute best novel. The perfect summer read! there are a ton of steamy scenes and great dialogue that perfectly encapsulate love and life traveling abroad. Mcquiston teaches us so much about food, wine, culture and love! Bravo! The best non binary representation in literature this reviewer has seen yet!

I almost DNF’d a few times. There was SO MUCH description of food and scenery and art- very sensual which is the point but SO MUCH that I skimmed whole pages until I got to some dialogue. And if you are not into open door romance beware- this is open door with a pair of binoculars under a microscope. I will forevermore slice my peaches before eating them. 🤣
Main characters were developed slowly and I don’t think delved enough into them to give you a sense of connection. Side characters had so much potential but we only got a surface level intro to most.
I have read all of McQuiston’s books- and I’ll continue to read what she puts out- but nothing has quite captured the magic for me like Red, White, and Royal Blue. Also- I am not a queer person, so I realize that my perception can be skewed by that.
3 stars bc ultimately it captured my interest enough that I wanted to see how it all ended- but I don’t need to read a description of a pastry for a while.
Thank you NetGalley for my advance copy.

ℝ𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 𝔽𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕒𝕥: 𝐸-𝐵𝑜𝑜𝓀 & 𝒜𝓊𝒹𝒾𝑜𝒷𝑜𝑜𝓀

ℝ𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨: 𝟐.𝟓 ⭐️ 𝐈 𝐚𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤—𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐬 (𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬) 𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤-𝐮𝐩—𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐜 𝐢𝐭𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒇’𝒔 𝒌𝒊𝒔𝒔 (𝐩𝐮𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝). 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐨𝐫, 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐣𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 (𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲) 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐱. 𝐘𝐞𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐚 𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐮𝐩 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞, 𝐬𝐨 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐱 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲.

𝐈 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐭 𝐬𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐊𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐟 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 (𝐚𝐧𝐝, 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞, 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐆𝐁𝐓𝐐+ 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭), 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐭𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠.

𝒯𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓀 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝒞𝒶𝓈𝑒𝓎 𝑀𝒸𝒬𝓊𝒾𝓈𝓉𝑜𝓃, 𝒮𝓉. 𝑀𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒾𝓃'𝓈 𝒫𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓈, 𝑀𝒶𝒸𝓂𝒾𝓁𝓁𝒶𝓃 𝒜𝓊𝒹𝒾𝑜, & 𝒩𝑒𝓉𝒢𝒶𝓁𝓁𝑒𝓎 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒜𝑅𝒞! 𝒜𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝓅𝒾𝓃𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓂𝓎 𝑜𝓌𝓃.

4*

McQuiston is an expert in their field and I loved the story they brought to the table.

From the glorious cities of Europe, to food and drink and friendship and romance, they explored the stories of Theo and Kit with wit, grace, heartache and love.

I appreciate their representation of queerness in this book, of found family, and self discovery.

3.5 rounded down

After loving the author’s Red, White & Royal Blue, I was excited to read this book. However, it fell pretty flat for me. One thing I think caused part of that, was that we didn’t get to see the whole falling in love story to begin with. (Besides the couple short chapters at the beginning.) So I didn’t get a whole lot of romance from it but just pure spice. If you’re a fan of spice, this book has it in heaps. I’m a fan of it when it advances the storyline, but it didn’t feel like it added to it in this case. I felt more love being described when they ate food than anything else. I really wish I had enjoyed this one more, and I’ll still read McQuiston’s work in the future, but unfortunately I can’t give this any higher stars.

I read 65% of this book before putting it down for now. While this was not the right book for me right now, I can see it's merits and recommend it to any reader who is interested in the plot. The descriptions of food and art were exquisite, I could experience this book with so many different senses. McQuiston successfully took their reader on this journey along with the main characters. The exploration of the character's queerness and gender expression was very well done and thoughtful. The reason I could not continue with this book is that I found the main character's motivations and actions to be quite frustrating to read about and found myself getting irritated by their misunderstandings, communication, choices, and inner lives. Theo and Kit were meant to be uber charming and the way they moved through life turned me off.

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

I feel like the more books Casey McQuiston writes, the gayer the books are and I am HERE for this journey. The Pairing is a chaotic, queer, fever dream. At first, this was a solid 3-star read for me, but the last 25% of the book really pulled through. Also, I cried for our two dumb bisexual idiots. The dialogue, both spoken and internal, is so heartbreaking and beautiful. I had secondhand angst reading.

The book opens with Theo and Kit breaking up in an airport. Three years later, the vouchers for their canceled European food and wine tour are expiring and of course they both redeem their vouchers for the same trip. Of course, there is instant tension but also appreciation as they both realize how much the other has grown. Theo has a new kind of confidence and has really settled into their skin. Kit is still a manic panic pixie dream boy, but he is finally realizing how his actions affect others. Of course, they're both still hot and hot for each other, so out comes a friendly competition. Who can bag the most orgasms during their tour wins. Only they aren't over each other and they find themselves pulled closer and closer together. Queer chaos ensues!

The biggest reason this isn't a 5-star review for me is because I HATE the miscommunication trope and there is so much of that here. I get that it drives that tension, and it is sexy as hell in some places, but I also think it can be lazy. Theo and Kit have grown so much, and they were best friends from childhood, but they still can't communicate! Ugh.

The plot was cute though and the tension between Kit and Theo is erotic at times. The way they describe each other is swoon-worthy. Also, I love that this book describes different kinds of queer sex. Too often we get caught up in the idea of heteronormative sex and this book shows how much enjoyment two people can get out of each other without penetration. More normalization of that, please.

If you like Casey McQuiston's other novels I'm sure you'll love this!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced reader's copy. All opinions are my own.

So good! Very sweet. Different than Red White and Royal Blue but the same depth of character and quick witty dialogue.

Ah, friends! My streak of totally awesome June books continues with THE PAIRING, Casey McQuiston’s August 6th release.

I sorta saw this one coming. I’ve loved all McQuiston’s other books to a pretty absurd degree. We’re talking giggles and sighs and wretched sobs territory here. THAT. And yet, I’m still the best kind of surprised-delighted by how very, very screechy I am about this tale of two BFFs-turned-estranged-exes who slut their way across France, Spain, and Italy on the culinary tour they booked together four years ago and neither expected the other to actually take.

I always think I like road trip novels until I actually sit down and read a road trip novel, at which point I zonk out. THE PAIRING is the road trip (/culinary bus tour) novel I want but so seldom get. The plot actually progresses! The characters’ mistakes feel like THEM, not manufactured drama! The places they visit feel lived in, and they engage with both the environment and the locals in open, authentic ways!

It’s just so durned good, y’all.

And, being a culinary bus tour sort of road trip novel, it’s FULL OF FOOD, detailed in all its delicious glory with nary a hackneyed descriptor. No flavours burst on anyone’s tongue! (A flavour does BLOOM in Theo’s mouth once, but I’m gonna allow it.) Thank you, McQuiston, for avoiding this terrible phrase.

Thank you also for your punchy prose devoid of both performative purpleness and excessive use of the past perfect. You are the present tense writer of my heart.

And my goodness. The CHEMISTRY in play here. We feel not just the heat between Theo and Kit as they sleep their way around their feelings for each other but also the history, and the emotional ties, and the passion that goes way beyond the physical. They’re interesting on every level, separately and together.

In short: IT’S AWESOME. I LOVED IT. 5 STARS. GRAB IT AS SOON AS IT’S OUT.

Review copy provided by the publisher via via NetGalley.