WHAT IT’S ABOUT:

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.

MY THOUGHTS (spoiler-free):

After falling in love with Red White and Royal Blue (one of my all-time favorite reads), I’ve been anticipating One Last stop from the first moment I heard about it. I mean, an f/f romance by Casey McQuiston featuring a girl lost in time? Yes, please! And I’m happy to say it definitely lived up to all my expectations. Here’s everything I loved about it:

August, our cynical heroine.
August is very distant at first, not really used to making friends but actually pretty lonely. She’s also a reluctant detective, which makes for a very interesting backstory. I liked her as a protagonist and seeing her development throughout the story.

Uh hi, girl lost in time trope!
August meets our heroine Jane on the subway. She always meets her on the subway, in fact. Turns out, Jane is stuck on the subway since the seventies. So naturally, this provides a mystery August just has to solve. Also, Jane is just so cool and kind and awesome and really made me want to buy myself a leather jacket too.

The romance that’s equal parts sweet and steamy.
I loved the romance between August and Jane. There was definitely attraction at first sight, but I love how it developed from the initial attraction to yearning to love. The chemistry between the two was undeniable and I loved all their scenes together. Also, this was so sex-positive and I’m here for that!

The found family and merry band of queer roommates.
As much as I loved August and Jane, I have to say that August’s new flatmates frequently stole the show. There’s Myla, the queer Black artist/electrical engineer and her boyfriend Niko, the trans Latino psychic. There’s Wes, the queer Jewish tattoo artist and Isaiah, the accountant/drag queen across the hall. And the friendship and found family aspect between all of them was AMAZING.

All the queer history.
With Jane being a Chinese-American lesbian who lived in the seventies, there’s a lot of queer history to unpack. I actually learned about the 1973 UpStairs Lounge fire through this book, which was just horrible. The book really payed homage to the LGBTQIA+ activists of the time, the challenges they faced, but also how they paved the way in a lot of ways.

Feel-goodness.
Just like with her previous novel, One Last Stop is just one of those feel-good books. Reading this book just makes you feel good, hopeful and a bit more ready to take on the world. Like no matter what, there are people out there who understand you, support you and are cheering for you. It’s just one of those stories that leave you with a warm, fluffy feeling.

Overall, I highly recommend this story if you like the girl-lost-in-time trope, found families, mysteries to solve, and sexy sapphic romances!

Favorite Quotes:

“But, you know, that feeling? When you wake up in the morning and you have somebody to think about? Somewhere for hope to go? It’s good. Even when it’s bad, it’s good.”

“Nobody tells you how those nights that stand out in your memory—levee sunset nights, hurricane nights, first kiss nights, homesick sleepover nights, nights when you stood at your bedroom window and looked at the lilies one porch over and thought they would stand out, singular and crystallized, in your memory forever—they aren’t really anything. They’re everything, and they’re nothing. They make you who you are, and they happen at the same time a twenty-three-year-old a million miles away is warming up some leftovers, turning in early, switching off the lamp. They’re so easy to lose.”

“You have fallen into the homoerotic queer girl friendship. It’s all cute at first, and then you catch feelings, and it’s impossible to tell if the joke flirting is actual flirting and if the platonic cuddling is romantic cuddling, and next thing you know, three years have gone by, and you’re obsessed with her, and you haven’t done anything about it because you’re too terrified to fuck up the friendship by guessing it wrong, so instead you send each other horny plausible deniability love letters until you’re both dead.”

“I fell in love with you the day that 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 hero, Jane. I don’t care if you think you’re not one. You are.”

Tell Me:
Have you read One Last Stop? What did you think about it?

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