Book Review: "One Last Stop" by Casey McQuiston

Casey McQuiston's upcoming novel, One Last Stop, proves that love can flourish in even the most mundane of places, like the Q train on the NYC subway.

For the longest time it was just August and her mother against the world. But helping her mother with her obsessive need to find her brother, who went missing in 1973, became too much to bear, so she left New Orleans to go to college.

She bounced from place to place, school to school, and finally lands in Brooklyn. She figures it’s a big enough place to be on your own and not connect with anyone. But she soon finds an apartment and a job, and becomes part of a circle of friends for the first time.

After a disastrous start to her morning on her first day of school, she sees her on the Q train. Jane is everything August is not—sexy, brash, outgoing, helpful, and utterly confident, the type of person who could start a dance party on a crowded subway train. August starts planning her morning commute in the hopes of seeing Jane—and she invariably always does.

But little by little, she realizes Jane isn’t your typical subway encounter. And it’s up to August, with a lot of help from her friends, to see if they can fix Jane’s “situation.” But what would that do to the potential of a relationship with August?

You can get more information if you read the plot synopsis, but I didn’t know anything about One Last Stop when I started it. It’s a very unique twist on a love story which will require suspension of your disbelief. (Or maybe this happens all the time on the subway, lol?)

I liked the chemistry between August and Jane, and I loved the diverse supporting characters. I just felt the whole concept of the story took so long to unfold and solve, and at times it dragged the pace of the story down for me a bit. But that’s not to say I didn’t get teary-eyed at times, because, well, I’m me.

McQuiston's first book, Red, White and Royal Blue was my favorite book of 2019, so certainly my expectations were high for this one. But I wasn't expecting her to write the same book, and that wasn't my challenge with this. I just felt that the whole wasn't as great as the sum of its parts.

NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin provided me with a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!!

One Last Stop publishes 6/1.