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ambrosiablue's review
adventurous
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Have you ever borrowed a book or read an ebook/audiobook that you immediately knew you had to own? So you can reread it whenever you want, loan it to a friend, write in the margins, or really, just to know something that beautiful is in your home in easy reach. This was that book for me. I read The Pairing as an advanced reader's copy, and preordered the hardcover before I even finished because I had to physically own a book this perfect.
Theo and Kit are two bisexual disasters on a romantic European food and wine tour-- only four years and a nasty breakup too late. Stuck together on what was once the vacation of their dreams, they try to keep it from dissolving into nightmare by having a "friendly-but-horny" competition to see who can seduce more locals. The book ends up being part romantic comedy, part traveloge, with so much loving detail painting each city, dish, and drink that you're completely transported. August 6th cannot come soon enough!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol and Sexual content
Moderate: Cursing, Blood, and Grief
Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Ableism
casey_sunshine's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book killed me. It’s Casey McQuiston’s best, by far.
No shade to RWRB, but this book is on another planet.
Thanks, NetGalley and the author, for the ARC.
No shade to RWRB, but this book is on another planet.
Thanks, NetGalley and the author, for the ARC.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Alcohol
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
hmatt's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
CMQ knocked it out of the park. Wow, I love this and am working on describing how much.
For the first third or so of the book, I was telling friends it's a fun romp of a Eurotrip. After that, it's not that it becomes any less of a romp, but things get deeper and we really get to know Kit and Theo (and their baggage). And I love Kit and Theo and their baggage and Fabrizio and the Callums, etc. etc. I feel very mushy and privileged about getting the opportunity to meet these characters ahead of publication - it feels like I've had a private moment to get to know them before the (warranted) buzz surrounding this novel picks up.
I would challenge anyone who says there's any other book quite like this out there. Somehow it rolls some pretty advanced gender and sexuality discourse into a wild ride of a rom-com, but also there's an element of self-discovery, and AND there's a lot of hot smut. Also, discussions of medieval architecture. Like, well done. Round of applause.
When I remember to document my favourite passages, I like to share some. So here are a few:
For the first third or so of the book, I was telling friends it's a fun romp of a Eurotrip. After that, it's not that it becomes any less of a romp, but things get deeper and we really get to know Kit and Theo (and their baggage). And I love Kit and Theo and their baggage and Fabrizio and the Callums, etc. etc. I feel very mushy and privileged about getting the opportunity to meet these characters ahead of publication - it feels like I've had a private moment to get to know them before the (warranted) buzz surrounding this novel picks up.
I would challenge anyone who says there's any other book quite like this out there. Somehow it rolls some pretty advanced gender and sexuality discourse into a wild ride of a rom-com, but also there's an element of self-discovery, and AND there's a lot of hot smut. Also, discussions of medieval architecture. Like, well done. Round of applause.
When I remember to document my favourite passages, I like to share some. So here are a few:
“I like reading E. M. Forster because it’s always gay, even though this one is about a man and a woman,” he says. “Do you know how sometimes when you read or watch or listen to something, there’s a . . . resonant homosexual flavor? Not even in anything the characters are explicitly doing or saying, but in the voice, or how the flowers are described or a character looks at a painting, or the way they see the world. Like when Legolas and Gimli walk into Minas Tirith and immediately start criticizing the landscaping."
For me, it’s more that I like different genders from within different parts of me. Like I turn to face the light from a different direction every time.
Theo is just—Theo is cool. I’m so proud to know them, to have the privilege of being important to a person like them. I want to be by their side forever. I want to build something with them. Something new, something we could only make now. I want to invent it with them and trust them with it.
I tell her everything that happened on the trip—even the horny parts, which are more interesting to her than the parts where I experience new heights of human emotion while staring at old churches.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Cursing, and Sexual content
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, and Blood
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