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caseythereader's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
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? No
5.0
Thanks to St Martin's Press for the free advance copy of this book.
๐ You probably knew it was coming with this review, but basically my review is QUEER SCREAMINGGGGGG!
๐ Jane and August are a couple for the ages - opposites attract, and the chemistry leaps off the page. They feel completely distinct and real and whole, and also meant for each other.
๐ ONE LAST STOP is also very much about love and family, especially queer found family. August's roommates and the others in their orbit are the kind of people who make being queer so great.
๐ It's also about the wonderful incidents of serendipity that can happen when one lives in a big city, which I loved. The corner of New York occupied by Billy's and its family was the kind of city institution that feels like a decades-long hug.
๐ Even knowing that this was a romance novel and thing were going to turn out okay, I still held my breath through much of the book, and cried more than once at the idea that things MIGHT go sideways for August and Jane. Oh no, I'm crying thinking about it now and I've read the dang book!
๐ You probably knew it was coming with this review, but basically my review is QUEER SCREAMINGGGGGG!
๐ Jane and August are a couple for the ages - opposites attract, and the chemistry leaps off the page. They feel completely distinct and real and whole, and also meant for each other.
๐ ONE LAST STOP is also very much about love and family, especially queer found family. August's roommates and the others in their orbit are the kind of people who make being queer so great.
๐ It's also about the wonderful incidents of serendipity that can happen when one lives in a big city, which I loved. The corner of New York occupied by Billy's and its family was the kind of city institution that feels like a decades-long hug.
๐ Even knowing that this was a romance novel and thing were going to turn out okay, I still held my breath through much of the book, and cried more than once at the idea that things MIGHT go sideways for August and Jane. Oh no, I'm crying thinking about it now and I've read the dang book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Grief, Sexual content, and Vomit
Moderate: Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, and Racism
liteartha's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
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
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
Content Warnings
Minor: Antisemitism, Homophobia, Racism, and Death
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