sarah's Reviews > One Last Stop

"The first time August met Jane, she fell in love with her for a few minutes, and then stepped off the train."

After reading and loving Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, I was beyond excited to pick up One Last Stop, their sophomore novel. And while it was a similarly well-written, romantic and original story- it was missing that spark for me.

"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."

One Last Stop is a sapphic time-loop romance with elements of found family, humour and lots of love. I had such high expectations because of RW&RB, but unfortunately they worked against me when it came to this book. Because while I can acknowledge that this was undoubtably a good book- I was still left feeling disappointed.

I can't help but think that if this book was narrated by anyone except August, I would have liked it more. She is surrounded by a cast of such colourful and diverse characters that she just paled in comparison.

I also felt like my enjoyment ebbed and flowed throughout the story, so potentially some pacing issues. It felt like the concept of the story took too long to come to fruition. It felt like I knew what was going to happen for so long before it actually happened, that I was just waiting for the story to start.

I don't want to compare this to RW&RB, because they are obviously different stories and deserve to stand on their own. However, I can't help but think of how the humour just hit in that book, whereas here the jokes didn't quite land for me. Same goes with the chemistry.

If you loved this book- I am so happy for you. Trust me, no one is more disappointed than I am that I didn't love it. But there is always next time! Hopefully McQuiston's next novel will work better for me!

Overall, this is a pretty unpopular opinion. So if you are even the slightest bit interested in the plot, I would still recommend picking it up. And even though pride month is over, it doesn't mean that we should stop reading LGBT+ books!