A review by darlingbudsofrae
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

4.0

"Hey, Coffee Girl."
"Hey, Subway Girl."

I absolutely ADORE this book (yes, capital a-d-o-r-e adoooore). I had huge expectations for this because of RWRB and I can tell you now that this book went beyond that. Charming, diverse, funny, and an exhilarating page-turner, it's just absolutely marshmallows on top fantastic!

The chemistry between August and Jane is just ugh. This book is honestly just setting the bar way too high. Jane's nonchalant and reckless nature is a good contrast to August's calculating and skeptical personality and if there's one unprompted thing you should know about me, it's that I'm an absolute sucker for opposites attract. It's like, the best trope there is (and that's on facts). Jane and August are just so perfect, so, so in love and it's just everything. Everything.

The only reservation I really have for this book is the world and settings. I guess I shouldn't be surprised because RWRB is set in an idealistic universe but I kind of expected more from One Last Stop, if I'm being honest. I mean, sometimes the way the world in this book is shown through some romanticized filter pulls me out of the story. Also, since majority (and by majority i mean like 99%) of Jane and August's interactions happen on the train, I just found it weird how they could get away with a lot of stuff (i mean, i know it's for bonding but still (like, i remember eating a burger once in an LRT and people glared at me like i committed a crime (granted, it's bad commute etiquette (still, i was starving okayyy, yes it cannot wait)))).

Overall, this was ah-mayy-zing! It was very addictive and I fell really in love with the characters, especially August's roommates. If there's another unsolicited thing you should know about me, I'm also a sucker for found-family tropes (i change my mind, this is the best trope in existence) and August and her roommates really just give this wholesome found family vibes and I love every second of it. Love, love, love. Myla, Niko, and Wes are just written so entertainingly well and I'm glad that they have their own stories (altho they weren't really expanded on) and weren't just written there as a filler outside the plot. At some point, I was just as invested or maybe more to them than the main plot. Still, (again) I really had fun reading this one and if you can vibe with my aforementioned tidbit above, I think it's a pretty solid read.

PS.
I really appreciate the side characters oh my gods I need a spin off of Myla and Niko getting married and adopting cats, or Wes and Annie/Isaiah being adorable ugh. Like these fellas are page-stealers and oh my gods I just love them all.
PPS.

Spoiler

This is probably a me thing but I was honestly underwhelmed with August's secret (or sum like that), like the book built her up like Neil Josten (i'm sorry, it was the knife and the minimalism thingy (plus i don't know how else to describe it)) so when it was revealed what the fuss was all about, I was kind of meh about it, but it gave us Myla and August and honestly they're just an underrated duo that needs more pages together ugh.