Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Pairing

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The Pairing by Casey McQuiston

9 reviews

hannahmichele5's review

adventurous funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

What a special experience to be able to read this on my way to Paris! This was truly the perfect book about 2 messy, slutty, hot, bisexuals who find their way back to one another 4 years after their sudden break-up on an epic 2 week European food and wine tour!

As expected, this book was phenomenal! It is just so slutty and so gay. I loved every second of it! I found myself relating so much to both Theo and Kit. They were both so special and unique in their own ways and I’d protect both of them with my life! 🫶 also, the only one bed tropes were tropin’ in this one!

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ambrosiablue's review

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adventurous lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Have you ever borrowed a book or read an ebook/audiobook that you immediately knew you had to own? So you can reread it whenever you want, loan it to a friend, write in the margins, or really, just to know something that beautiful is in your home in easy reach. This was that book for me. I read The Pairing as an advanced reader's copy, and preordered the hardcover before I even finished because I had to physically own a book this perfect.

Theo and Kit are two bisexual disasters on a romantic European food and wine tour-- only four years and a nasty breakup too late. Stuck together on what was once the vacation of their dreams, they try to keep it from dissolving into nightmare by having a "friendly-but-horny" competition to see who can seduce more locals. The book ends up being part romantic comedy, part traveloge, with so much loving detail painting each city, dish, and drink that you're completely transported. August 6th cannot come soon enough!

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nxclx's review

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read this book early in exchange for my honest review.

4/5 *s

Second chance romance, with steam up to your ears, and also, it makes you hungry.

Theo and Kit broke up four years ago on their way to a European food and wine tour, and have not spoken since. They cancelled their excursion and each got a voucher to go on the tour later. Well, now that voucher is about to expire, and Theo figures it’s better to use it than let that happen. Unfortunately Kit has the same idea, and now they’re both in Europe, on the same tour together, with no escape. What entails on this tour is indulgence to it’s highest level, with so much pining and amazing descriptions accompanying it.

Favorite Quotes

“I came to drink champagne and eat tortellini until I throw up.”

“Kiss me, haunt me, handle me recklessly.”

Review

Casey McQuiston is my favorite author, and they did not disappoint with this new novel. From the start of the novel, I got that signature writing style and humor that I’ve been missing in my life. I loved the plot lined and the way the story was structured, and to me it lent well to the over all narrative. I ordered this book on presale back in December and I’m glad I did. I’m already so excited to reread this with a glass of wine and some delicious baked breads, cheeses, jams, everything. The description of the food and the locations is amazing, though I have to admit I am not familiar with a lot of the food words/flavors/descriptions, so some of it went over my head, but what I got was sublime. The flirting, the banter, the connections, all fantastic. This is the second book I’ve read that is second chance romance, and I can’t believe I’ve been sleeping on it. The second half of the book is probably my favorite, and connected me to the story more than the first half.

(Spoliers below)

I love how Theo’s gender was handled, and how Kit responded to it both in day to day and when they were intimate. Their growth over the tour was believable and realistic, and I love how they overcame their issues and communicated.

My main complaint about this book (besides be being too ignorant about food and wine) is the miscommunication that led to the characters break up four years ago. Miscommunication is very hard to pull off right, thus a lot of people hating it, but if it’s done right it works well. In this book, it simply didn’t work for me. Thats what stopped it from being 5 stars, but other than that it’s an amazing read.

Content Warnings

Alcohol, Blood, Misgendering, Sexually explicit scenes

Annotation Guide

Green - Positive Notes

Red - Critiques

Yellow - General reactions/commentary

Blue - Gramatical/Plot related notes

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casey_sunshine's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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? Yes

5.0

This book killed me. It’s Casey McQuiston’s best, by far.

No shade to RWRB, but this book is on another planet.

Thanks, NetGalley and the author, for the ARC.

Content Warnings

hmatt's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

CMQ knocked it out of the park. Wow, I love this and am working on describing how much.

For the first third or so of the book, I was telling friends it's a fun romp of a Eurotrip. After that, it's not that it becomes any less of a romp, but things get deeper and we really get to know Kit and Theo (and their baggage). And I love Kit and Theo and their baggage and Fabrizio and the Callums, etc. etc. I feel very mushy and privileged about getting the opportunity to meet these characters ahead of publication - it feels like I've had a private moment to get to know them before the (warranted) buzz surrounding this novel picks up.

I would challenge anyone who says there's any other book quite like this out there. Somehow it rolls some pretty advanced gender and sexuality discourse into a wild ride of a rom-com, but also there's an element of self-discovery, and AND there's a lot of hot smut. Also, discussions of medieval architecture. Like, well done. Round of applause.

When I remember to document my favourite passages, I like to share some. So here are a few:

“I like reading E. M. Forster because it’s always gay, even though this one is about a man and a woman,” he says. “Do you know how sometimes when you read or watch or listen to something, there’s a . . . resonant homosexual flavor? Not even in anything the characters are explicitly doing or saying, but in the voice, or how the flowers are described or a character looks at a painting, or the way they see the world. Like when Legolas and Gimli walk into Minas Tirith and immediately start criticizing the landscaping."

For me, it’s more that I like different genders from within different parts of me. Like I turn to face the light from a different direction every time.

Theo is just—Theo is cool. I’m so proud to know them, to have the privilege of being important to a person like them. I want to be by their side forever. I want to build something with them. Something new, something we could only make now. I want to invent it with them and trust them with it.

I tell her everything that happened on the trip—even the horny parts, which are more interesting to her than the parts where I experience new heights of human emotion while staring at old churches.

Content Warnings

skudiklier's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I keep wanting to say this is my favorite of Casey McQuiston's books, but I know that it's been a couple years since I've read their other ones, and I'm biased by the fact that this is the one currently making me feel A Lot of Things. But that said!! This book was amazing. McQuiston has done it again.

There are so many things about this book that I loved. The friendship. The heartbreak. The different kinds of love and relationships and sex and closeness. The queerness of it all. The way it shifted perspectives at the best times. The way it handles Theo's gender. The way even when I thought I could see a problem coming, it always managed to surprise me instead.

This book made me feel so many things. It made me tell my partner that he's my best friend. It made me want to go back and reread McQuiston's other books. It made me want to taste everything and see everything and experience everything (and it made me very excited for my upcoming trip to Europe haha). I don't know how to compare this to their other books, since again, it's been a couple years since I read those. But The Pairing exceeded my expectations and I can't wait for my friends to read it so I can talk about it with them.

(My only complaint that isn't a standard romance "why didn't you talk to each other ugh" is so minor I hesitate to include it, but I will here just to get it off my chest, and so people who know me don't read this and think I loved this part of the book too: oh my god the rich white people vibes of this book. Any time all their bougie LA nepo baby shit came up I was struggling not to roll my eyes. In some ways the book addresses and makes up for this, but in some ways it doesn't. But. Again. I'm still giving the book five stars, so. Take all that as lightly as possible!!)

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the chance to read and review this ARC.

Content Warnings

angelanoelle's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective 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? Yes

5.0

casey mcquiston really put everything i’ve ever loved or wanted—LOTR references! devastating rilke quotes! a european food and wine tour with chaotic bisexual exes!—into a blender, added a bottle of champagne, and wrote THE book of the summer. beautiful, devastating, hilarious, un-put-downable; i loved it and i’ll be dreaming of kit and theo until i can get my hands on a physical copy in august.

*advance e-book copy provided by netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

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bdingz's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

The Pairing by Casey McQuiston is a delightful tour through Europe with Theo and Kit, two exes who never really got over one another. I am not a huge romance reader, but I am drawn to McQuiston’s work because of how they write bisexual characters with such care and attention. On that front, this novel certainly didn’t disappoint! Worth noting that it is more explicit than their previous romances, so be aware of that if that’s not something you’re into. Personally, I really enjoyed it.

Content Warnings

ninabubblygum's review

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adventurous emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

4 stars? I don't know. I'm not good at rating books 😭 I really liked it and it's well written, but I have mixed feelings (a lot of feelings in general). very beautifully written all around but I was skimming a lot of the highly descriptive paragraphs about food and art because I didn't understand most things and it's a lot to keep googling. and that's okay! it still does well to paint the scene and makes it very easy to picture yourself being there.
the miscommunication and self sabotage is sadly realistic but so frustrating to read because so much feels like it could have been different if they'd just communicated - but then if that were the case, the entire book would have gone differently, so i suppose some of it was necessary for things to happen the way they did. it all seems to get repetitive after a while as far as the plot and what's going on, but it's still enjoyable and i was fairly hooked. overall, it was a decent pace and a balance of art and feelings and cuteness and hotness and angst.

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