Book Review: ‘The Pairing’ by Casey McQuiston (sexy queer summer romance)
‘Red, White and Royal Blue’ is one of my favourite books, and also now one of my favourites movies. I honestly can’t express how scared I was to watch the adaptation and the pure joy in finding out that it’s just as wonderful. I really enjoyed both ‘one Last Stop’ and ‘I Kissed Shara Wheeler’, but they never hit the heights of Alex and Henry’s story. ‘The Pairing’ did.
It hit every single note that I hoped it would.
This book feels like a return to a real love story woven up with conflict, lust, and the most delicious tension.
Theo and Kit have been childhood best friends, crushes, lovers and, after a brutal breakup four years ago, estranged exes.
It’s not until Theo and Kit are trapped on board a tour bus that they discover that they’ve each had the same idea: to take their dream European food and wine tour – alone. And now they’re stuck with each other for three weeks of the most romantic sights and sensuous flavours of France, Spain, and Italy. But it’ll be fine. They’re absolutely over each other.
So, when Theo suggests a friendly wager to see who can sleep with their hot Italian tour guide first, Kit is game. In fact, why stop there? Why not a full-on European hookup competition?
But sometimes a taste of everything only makes you crave what you can’t have.
Something that I look for in a novel is a vividness of setting, a strong sense of place; I like to be able to imagine that instead of laying in bed reading, I’m sweating under the Tuscan sun along with the characters. ‘The Pairing’ delivers that in spades.
We travel with Theo and Kit through France, Spain and Italy in the heat of August, trying local delicacies, drinking their fill of wine and getting swept up by the magic of summer in countries that were made for the season. As we jump from place to place, at the beginning of each chapter there is a local delicacy and the accompanying wine, which we then get to see the characters experience. The descriptions of the food and drink are so rich and sensual that they’re an experience all there own and it becomes an integral part of the setting, the characters and the atmosphere of this novel. I don’t even like wine and it got me googling wines for people who don’t like wine because I want to experience some of that joy and awe as Theo flaunts her sommelier skills while she drinks around Europe.
Theo and Kit are so well crafted that I wouldn’t be surprised to learn they’re real people. They’re flawed and have histories and traumas that shapes them, and it’s really cool to see their growth since they were together without even having a split timeline. But there is a split POV. There’s so much depth added in the mid-book POV switch from Theo to Kit.
The connection between them is electric and I couldn’t read fast enough. It’s a five star read for me and I’ll be recommending it endlessly.
Thank you to Macmillan and NetGalley for the review copy.
Written by Sophie
