Casey McQuiston

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From the New York Times bestselling author of Red, White & Royal Blue comes a new romantic comedy that will stop readers in their tracks... "Dreamy, other worldly, smart, swoony, thoughtful, hilarious - all in all, exactly what you'd expect from Casey McQuiston!" - Jasmine Guillory, New York Times bestselling author of The Proposal and Party for Two Cynical twenty-three-year old August doesn’t believe in much. She doesn’t believe in psychics, or easily forged friendships, or finding the kind of love they make movies about. And she certainly doesn’t believe her ragtag band of new roommates, her night shifts at a 24-hour pancake diner, or her daily subway commute full of electrical outages are going to change that. But then, there’s Jane. Beautiful, impossible Jane. All hard edges with a soft smile and swoopy hair and saving August’s day when she needed it most. The person August looks forward to seeing on the train every day. The one who makes her forget about the cities she lived in that never seemed to fit, and her fear of what happens when she finally graduates, and even her cold-case obsessed mother who won’t quite let her go. And when August realizes her subway crush is impossible in more ways than one—namely, displaced in time from the 1970s—she thinks maybe it’s time to start believing. Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop is a sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time.

One Last Stop

Rita Maia Costa

«There's no good timing in this situation.” (…) "Maybe no good timing means there's no bad timing either.”

Jess

“like a steampunk Tony Stark in a leather skirt”

"Truth is, when you spend your whole life alone, it's incredibly appealing to move somewhere big enough to get lost in, where being alone looks like a choice."

"Jane is lightning on long legs - the dark never stood a chance"

"She's leaning back, one arm slung over the back of an empty seat, and she...she's got 

A red bird curling down from her shoulder, Chinese characters above her elbow. An honest-to-God old-timey anchor on her bicep.

*INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* *INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER* *INSTANT #1 INDIE BESTSELLER* From the New York Times bestselling author of Red, White & Royal Blue comes a new romantic comedy that will stop readers in their tracks... For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures. But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train. Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all. Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop is a magical, sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time. "A dazzling romance, filled with plenty of humor and heart." - Time Magazine, "The 21 Most Anticipated Books of 2021" "Dreamy, other worldly, smart, swoony, thoughtful, hilarious - all in all, exactly what you'd expect from Casey McQuiston!" - Jasmine Guillory, New York Times bestselling author of The Proposal and Party for Two

faith hurren

"You can tear yourself apart and rebuild from scratch, bring yourself to every corner of the map, sew a new self from the scraps of a thousand other people and places. You can try and expand to fill a different shape. But at the end of the day, there's a place at the foot of the bed where your shoes hit the floor and, it's the same.

"...but I can look at the space around where I sit in the world, what creates that shape, and I can care about what it's made of, if it's good, if it hurts anyone, it makes people happy, if it makes me happy. And that can be enough for now."

"None of us know exactly who we are, and guess what? It doesn't fucking matter."

He's sweating like a fucking hard cheese on the A train. 

"Sometimes the point is to be sad, August. Sometimes you just have to feel it because it deserves to be felt."

alexia

August had the sexual prowess of a goldfish and the emotional vocabulary to match

"Not to be a buzzkill, but Mercury is in retrograde for another week, which is... not optimal" 

"I wish I were never born," August moans into the floor. 

What if I get out there and end up realizing there's not a dream for me, or a purpose, or anything—

It’s nuts that we all start out having these vague ideas of what we like to do, hobbies, interests, and then one day everybody has their thing, you know? They used to just be a person and now they're a-an architect, or a banker, or a lawyer, or-or a serial killer who makes jewelry out of human teeth. Like, things. That they do. That they are. What if there's not that thing for me?

archie

Brionna Palm

i love girls who love girls and books about loving girls that makes my heart all warm and fuzzy because i !!! love !!! girls !!!

Kaylee Ray

IM CRYING this book is absolutely incredibly well written. the characters are so lovable and i’ll never get over august and biyu.

i got genuine anxiety for the last 100 pages hoping for a happy ending so thank god the lesbians were reunited and lived happily ever after

kayla 

Isabella 

This was such a fun, cute book!! I loved every character in it; they were all unique and interested. The characters were well-developed. Everything about their relationships was a strong point in the book. A great execution of a found family, and I love the found family trope! The plot is interesting and the writing was beautiful. However, I felt like it was too dragging. I enjoyed the first and last part, but during the middle part, I got slightly uninterested. Overall, this book was still a nice read.

Allison Dempsey

Despite reading the synopsis of this book, I still ended up surprised and confused at the extremely bizarre take on NYC public transit. A quick read but I just didn’t like it as much as Red, White & Royal Blue.

me when women🤓👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩☺️ i’m a sucker for the found family trope and this was right up my alley. i really enjoyed reading it, the characters are lovely and the little community august found are very endearing. i love myla and niko! wes is ummm let’s just say he’s an aaron minyard to me. love Jane she’s everything to me... i deserve her!!!! anyway this was a nice read that lived up to my expectations. casey get writing i need a sequel stat

From the New York Times bestselling author of Red, White & Royal Blue comes a new romantic comedy that puts a queer spin on Kate & Leopold. A 23-year-old realises her subway crush is displaced from 1970's Brooklyn, and she must do everything in her power to help her - and try not to fall in love with the girl lost in time - before it's too late . . .

Julie Rubens

Omfg is all I can say. 

This book has, tied with Evelyn Hugo, become my favorite book of the year. It’s so good! I literally loved ALL of the characters, I loved how inclusive and relatable they all were. 

The storyline was also just *chefs kiss*. There were plot twist everywhere and I honestly could not figure out what would happen until the final pages. GO READ THIS BOOK!!

chloe rae

This book was SPECTACULAR. 
An absolute blast of a read! Full of so much love and friendship and ~romance~. I had no idea what the story would be about going in (it’s not anything I would’ve expected!) and I just had the best time figuring it all out along the way. Reading books that take place in NYC while also BEING in NYC is just some special kind of magic. Now I have to read everything she’s written!

❓ #QOTD If you could live in a different time and place, when and where would you choose? ❓

🦇 August expects moving to New York will only prove her cynicism right. The only way to live is to do it alone. That is, until a mysterious girl on the train hands her a scarf, sparking not only a major subway crush on the Q, but an adventure that will alter August's perspective of the world forever.

💜 Oh. My. Goddess. This book. THIS BOOK. This book hit me like a freight train (yes, yes, I see the pun). It's been a month since I read it because I couldn't find the words...I still can't. But I'll try.

💜 This. Book. Why did NO ONE tell me about this book?!

💜 From page one, this book is a childhood friend reaching out and tugging you into a warm, solid embrace before lifting you off your feet, spinning you around, and causing the word to blur. Casey McQuiston's narration is familiar, inviting, intimate. I couldn't stop annotating. August is raw and vulnerable and real, but still figuring out who she is away from her mother and messy childhood. We're only lucky enough to discover the woman she is alongside her.

💜 I don't want to spoil this story for anyone who hasn't read it yet, because there's a moment that changes EVERYTHING -- the genre, the plot, August, EVERYTHING. It's executed so well that I still feel the impact. WHY am I tearing up writing a review for this a MONTH later?!

💜 The micro-messages in this story are so heavy and impactful, yet written with such ease and grace and respect. There's:

🚇 Beautiful representation and discussion about virginity 

🚇 Exploration into New York's queer history

🚇 A Chinese lesbian displaced during the 70s

💜 Beyond that, there's a beautiful sapphic ship, quirky cast of queer side characters, and sense of found family that's beyond heart-warming. I'm completely onboard for whatever Casey McQuiston has planned next.

🚇 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Romance (2021)

🚇 RUSA CODES Reading List for Romance (2022)

🚇She Reads Best of Award Nominee for Romance (2021)

🦇 Recommended for all readers; namely fans of Delilah Green Doesn't Care, She Gets the Girl, and Imogen, Obviously. This book is absolute magic. I read this in February but I can already say it's one of my top reads for the year. Yes, I'm still tearing up. What is wrong with me?

❝ Truth is, when you spend your whole life alone, it’s incredibly appealing to move somewhere big enough to get lost in, where being alone looks like a choice. ❞

❝ August looks at her as the train reverses past Gravesend rooftops, this girl out of time, the same face and body and hair and smile that took August’s life by the shoulders in January and shook. And she can’t believe Jane had the nerve, the audacity, to become the one thing August can’t resist: a mystery. ❞

❝ "Your friendly smile of acceptance—from the safe position of heterosexuality,’” Jane reads aloud, “‘isn’t enough. As long as you cherish that secret belief that you are a little bit better because you sleep with the opposite sex, you are still asleep in your cradle … and we will be the nightmare that awakens you.’” ❞

❝ August laughs and wants so badly to know what it feels like to show off the person who’s yours from across the crowd...Maybe what she really wants is to be the person across the crowd who belongs to someone. ❞

❝ “The attraction between you two is literally a spark, and it’s the same spark that’s bringing her back into reality." ❞

❝ “I fell in love with you the day I met you, and then I fell in love with the person you remembered you are. I got to fall in love with you twice. That’s—that’s magic. You’re the first thing I’ve believed in since—since I don’t even remember, okay, you’re—you’re movies and destiny and every stupid, impossible thing, and it’s not because of the fucking train, it’s because of you. It’s because you fight and you care and you’re always kind but never easy, and you won’t let anything take that away from you. You’re my fucking hero, Jane. I don’t care if you think you’re not one. You are.” ❞

Jazelle H

🦇 Book Review 🦇

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

❓ #QOTD If you could live in a different time and place, when and where would you choose? ❓
 
🦇 August expects moving to New York will only prove her cynicism right. The only way to live is to do it alone. That is, until a mysterious girl on the train hands her a scarf, sparking not only a major subway crush on the Q, but an adventure that will alter August's perspective of the world forever.

💜 Oh. My. Goddess. This book. THIS BOOK. This book hit me like a freight train (yes, yes, I see the pun). It's been a month since I read it because I couldn't find the words...I still can't. But I'll try.
💜 This. Book. Why did NO ONE tell me about this book?!
💜 From page one, this book is a childhood friend reaching out and tugging you into a warm, solid embrace before lifting you off your feet, spinning you around, and causing the word to blur. Casey McQuiston's narration is familiar, inviting, intimate. I couldn't stop annotating. August is raw and vulnerable and real, but still figuring out who she is away from her mother and messy childhood. We're only lucky enough to discover the woman she is alongside her.
💜 I don't want to spoil this story for anyone who hasn't read it yet, because there's a moment that changes EVERYTHING -- the genre, the plot, August, EVERYTHING. It's executed so well that I still feel the impact. WHY am I tearing up writing a review for this a MONTH later?!
💜 The micro-messages in this story are so heavy and impactful, yet written with such ease and grace and respect. There's:
🚇 Beautiful representation and discussion about virginity 
🚇 Kisses for evidence-gathering
🚇 Exploration into New York's queer history
🚇 A Chinese lesbian displaced during the 70s
🚇 Lost memory
🚇 HIV/AIDs activists
💜 Beyond that, there's a beautiful sapphic ship, quirky cast of queer side characters, and sense of found family that's beyond heart-warming. I'm completely onboard for whatever Casey McQuiston has planned next.

💜 Literary Awards:
🚇 ALA Alex Award Nominee (2022)
🚇 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Romance (2021)
🚇 RUSA CODES Reading List for Romance (2022)
🚇She Reads Best of Award Nominee for Romance (2021)

🦇 Recommended for all readers; namely fans of Delilah Green Doesn't Care, She Gets the Girl, and Imogen, Obviously. This book is absolute magic. I read this in February but I can already say it's one of my top reads for the year. Yes, I'm still tearing up. What is wrong with me?

✨ The Vibes ✨
🩷 Queer Found Family
🚇 Bisexual FMC
🩷 Diverse Cast
🏙️ Coming-of-Age
🩷 Sapphic Ship
🚝 Smut
🩷 Sci-Fi Twist

💬 Quotes 
❝ Truth is, when you spend your whole life alone, it’s incredibly appealing to move somewhere big enough to get lost in, where being alone looks like a choice. ❞
❝ August looks at her as the train reverses past Gravesend rooftops, this girl out of time, the same face and body and hair and smile that took August’s life by the shoulders in January and shook. And she can’t believe Jane had the nerve, the audacity, to become the one thing August can’t resist: a mystery. ❞
❝ "Your friendly smile of acceptance—from the safe position of heterosexuality,’” Jane reads aloud, “‘isn’t enough. As long as you cherish that secret belief that you are a little bit better because you sleep with the opposite sex, you are still asleep in your cradle … and we will be the nightmare that awakens you.’” ❞
❝ August laughs and wants so badly to know what it feels like to show off the person who’s yours from across the crowd...Maybe what she really wants is to be the person across the crowd who belongs to someone. ❞
❝ “The attraction between you two is literally a spark, and it’s the same spark that’s bringing her back into reality." ❞
❝ “I fell in love with you the day I met you, and then I fell in love with the person you remembered you are. I got to fall in love with you twice. That’s—that’s magic. You’re the first thing I’ve believed in since—since I don’t even remember, okay, you’re—you’re movies and destiny and every stupid, impossible thing, and it’s not because of the fucking train, it’s because of you. It’s because you fight and you care and you’re always kind but never easy, and you won’t let anything take that away from you. You’re my fucking hero, Jane. I don’t care if you think you’re not one. You are.” ❞

I loved all the characters and the writing :) I'm not sure what else to write, and I might add to this later 😊

Kendall McClain

Read this a while ago and forgot to log it. Did not enjoy it, had to force myself to finish it which for sapphic romances is unheard of! Just boring and the paranormal aspects felt very strange and out of place. Liked the characters though

Sheryl

⭐ 2.5/5
i thought the romance was cute but my biggest issue was the writing tbh. it wasn't my cup of tea...

Tatiana

One Last Stop: 5/5

Thank you, St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley, for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review


  "That's the way it happens on the subway-you lock eyes with someone, you imagine a life from one stop to the next, and you go back to your day as if the person you loved in between doesn't exist anywhere but on that train. As if they never could be anywhere else."

This is the kind of book that makes you re-evaluate the meaning of five stars. This is the kind of book that every book must now live up to. It was complete and utter perfection.

Premise:
One Last Stop follows a girl named August. Age: 23, sexuality: Bi. She has repeatedly moved universities and states, careful never to have too many belongings, as she searches for a place in the world that feels like home. This is largely due to her mother, who is has been obsessed with solving a missing person case from the 70s and expects August to follow suit, but all August wants is to find her own path.

The book opens with August moving to New York City and starting, yet again, at a new university. She gets thrown into a questionable apartment thanks to a well-placed roommate advertisement and finally starts to think, maybe this is where she belongs. On her first day of class, August decides to take the Q train, where a girl with short dark hair, ripped jeans, and a leather jacket catches her eye, after promptly giving August her red scarf after August spills coffee on herself. This is a missed connection until August sees the girl, Jane, day after day, on the same Q train, in the same train car.

Little do we know, Jane is displaced from the 70s due to a magical time slip and lost her memory. August takes it upon her sleuthing self to solve the case of Jane and return her home. Unless feelings get in the way...


  "It’s probably going to break my heart, and it’s still worth it."

Writing & Plot
Wow. I was a huge fan of Red White and Royal Blue and really enjoyed McQuiston's writing style. This was no exception. McQuiston knocked it out of the park with this one. The plot, banter, characters were executed flawlessly. This book is by no means sad, but I cried throughout the last 70% of it because it was so emotional.

One Last Stop can't even compare to Red White and Royal Blue because it is so different, and I really appreciated that. McQuiston is probably now one of my top five favorite authors ever. 

Not only does One Last Stop touch on important and topical, current issues, but it pays homage to the people who have fought so bravely in our past to have a better future. She beautifully paints the picture of BIPOC LGBTQIAP+ people and their immense sacrifice and contributions to the inclusivity we see today. I don't think this book could have come at a more impervious time. 


  "The assurance that the other person is right there in your orbit, always waiting to be tugged back in."

Characters:
Flawless, truly. The roommates are all so special to me, and I think I'm in love with them all. The diversity in this book is such a breath of fresh air. We are met with an extremely diverse cast of characters, and it made the book all the more engaging. 

If you want a found family trope, here it is: 
Niko: Transgender Latino psychic and bartender
Myla: Queer Black artist with a background in electrical engineering. (Also Niko's soulmate)
Wes: Queer tattoo artist who needs to learn to love himself

Genuinely I fell in love with each of these characters with all my heart and soul. Don't even get me started on Jane. She is probably one of my favorite characters of all time.

Jane: Chinese Lesbian from the 70s, repeatedly described as "God."

Jane is one of the most dynamic characters I have ever encountered in a book. She is funny, complex, romantic, everything you could ever want. As Jane's story unfolds, so does your heart. Be warned. 

The romance between Jane and August is godly. Not only is it swoon-worthy, but the buildup and slow-burn actually made me cry. It is so emotional and heartfelt; this is romance at its peak. The sex scenes were so tasteful, and their range kept it interesting and engaging. It wasn't just there for smut, but it was there because the romance needed it. It was sexy, realistic, romantic, and everything you could want in a sapphic romance. This is perfection, and I don't say that lightly.


  "I fell in love with you the day I met you, and then I fell in love with the person you remembered you are. I got to fall in love with you twice. That's - that's magic."

Conclusion:
This is exquisite. Superb. I don't know how else to describe it, except that this book feels like home. I think everyone can benefit from reading it, and if you haven't pre-ordered it already, what are you doing. 

This is my top read of 2021 thus far.

rita

3.5/5 very.. fanfictiony? the ending was disappointing and felt dragged out but eas still so unsatisfying (tbh with the plot it was pretty predictable.. literally no other feasible ending(s)). also someone said everything came together Too Nicely for all the characters and i honestly agree.. nico being a psychic and myla’s mom being chinese… at least make them struggle at stuff outside of the main plot. like perhaps her seeking some specific niche person to find out if jane is dead could lead august to realizing what she wants as a job towards the end? OR some sort of conflict with the school because.l, what was that. the bits about racism was so weird but certain parts of jane being chinese made me so so <333333! that was probably my fav part of this book


hated august’s personality and her mom felt very..  1 dimensional. (I KEEP ON EDITING THIS FUCKDID) the relationships and people was a bit hard to keep track of ( i rly liked the plot and speed read sm of it) but that’s mostly on me LOL. HOWEVER jane su pls be real and be my gf! wes and isaiah ily! niko and myla my favs ever ever the descs of their closeness was so <333! the first 3/4 of the book i found really sweet and cute though! a few parts were ? and would’ve been excusable if it was a ff but it Wasn’t. and made me lose ? interest ? idk in the book. also heard someone say the prose in this book is so so and ! some parts definitely were but some bits were so so pretty. the letter wasn’t as impactful as it could’ve been

anyway i dont know this is one of those books that feels somewhat built on stereotypes and would be amazing as a fanfic but is eh as a published book. most thoughts ive ever had on a book even though its one of the least impactful (left me w the least to think ab outside of my sexuality (and how much i love jane!!) books ive read this year. fun, light read! i need to read more wlw books because. they Just get me why have i been putting it off oh my godddd anywayayayayyaya brain dump over! started it on my way to school ( fitting) and finished it in an afternoon, however the ending was eh. made me happy to be queer! a great book to start off pride month tbh. definitely going to reread with more critical thinking and without skimming bits bc i was rushing to get to the end. so excited to  eat a cinnamon bun for breakfast tomorrow!

Hershelle Villanueva

this really got me bawling my eyes out especially during the last 30% of the book and tbh i don't know what else to say all of the characters were very endearing and i just love them so much this will definitely be one of my all time fave reads <3

THIS ONE HAS AN ACTUAL GOOD STORY AND SHIT AND I LIKE ALL THE CHARAS ITS INSANE I WAS FROTHING AT THE MOUTH AUGHHHHHH SLOW START IMO BUT ITS SO GOOD

tamago

katie

Hannah

This book was really weird for a second and I definitely had some what is even going on here moments but I’m a sucker for queer books and happy endings so still 4 stars

kyra

** spoiler alert **
           This book is good romance. The flirting, the pining, the minor angst. Found families. The queer voices. This book is comforting.

(Although, how the protagonist halo shines bright on August! She just happens to know the right people, have right things passed on to her and things simply fall into place without hiccups, but an excellent read nevertheless.)

fiona

** spoiler alert **
           okay, here we go.

what i liked about this book:
- interesting mixture of genres
- sapphic yay

what i disliked (a lot):
-dialogue was cringe and did not fit the ages of the characters plus just gave me second-hand embarrassment
- i was bored out of my mind for a lot of the book
- the characters were so similar even though they were so different - they all had one defining THING / TRAIT and nothing else to them, but it seemed like the author was trying to make every single one of them "quirky" or "weird" and it sort of ruined them
- the romance didn't have chemistry 
- the subway sex grossed me out
- everything and every character seemed to revolve around August for some reason, and to be honest, she wasn't a great mc. everything she did felt awkward and self-pitying and stereotypical
- the plot was very predictable
- the whole sci-fi and time-travel thing made no sense
- weird pacing

just my opinion, but I personally did not enjoy this book. kudos to you if you did.

LOOOVED this book!! This author is so fantastic, always hits the spot. I absolutely adore the way McQuiston rights queer lit, and this book is no exception. If I could recommend a book to absolutely everyone on earth, this is it. READ THIS BOOK!!!

Alyssa deRaad

Petition for Casey to make a book about Myla and Niko instead.

(I loved the vibes but I just didn't click with the main characters and got into the WORST reading slump, sadly because I love cute romace, the found family trope and Nyc. And the whole train thing was idk?

Nina May

Petition for Casey to make a book about Myla and Niko instead.

(I loved the vibes but I just didn't click with the main characters and got into the WORST reading slump, sadly because I love cute romace, the found family trope and Nyc. And the whole train thing was idk?

Lamia Hajani

Time travel is a really interesting premise that has been a little bit overdone in books. One Last Stop, however, has a fresh and unique twist on it, and that makes this book worth a read alone.

The queer romance aspect of it is adorable and sweet, and the layers of mystery are super interesting. I really enjoyed reading McQuiston's latest novel. The supporting characters are lovable and kind, and there's even a psychic. The main characters are less lovable for me, which is why I have to call it a 4 out of 5 stars. Worth a read.

Thank you Casey McQuiston, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

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