The Pairing

Prior to their newest release, I had read two of Casey McQuiston’s books and loved both. I was excited to read their third adult novel, The Pairing, out this week.

This one is a second chance romance between two childhood best friends, Kit and Theo, who had dated before a bad breakup four years ago. On the cusp of taking a European food tour, they went their separate ways and never spoke again. But they both had vouchers to take the tour within 48 months, and both happen to have booked it now at the same time. Kit and Theo will have to spend a few weeks together. Awkward due to their breakup… but maybe a chance to mend things and become friends again. Or a chance to have a sex competition, whatever! But is that all a distraction from the feelings they still have for each other?

Tropes & Narrative Devices:

• Second chance romance
• Childhood best friends to lovers to exes to lovers
• Forced proximity
• First-person POVs (both Theo and Kit)

What I Liked:

• Settings in England, France, Spain, and Italy. I love travel and any books set in other countries. (Especially Spain, since I lived there for a year!) I enjoyed following the main characters on a tour across these countries, seeing the sights, taking in the culture, and practicing the languages.
• Food! Did I mention that it was a food tour they’re on? There are plenty of descriptions of local cuisines, desserts, and drinks that will make your mouth water.
• Bisexual characters. Both Kit and Theo are bisexual, and they have insightful conversations about their sexualities. They also have a lot of fun with their sex competition, sometimes going after the same people.
• One of the characters is nonbinary. This is revealed later in the book, so sorry for the slight spoiler. Regardless, I don’t read nonbinary main characters often, and it’s nice to see the representation here, as well as the characters’ discussions about gender identity.

What Didn’t Work for Me:

• So much drinking. I don’t drink so I can’t relate.
• Kind of too much sex? I’m not a prude, and I like my spicy romances, but this book sometimes feels a bit too hyper-fixated on the characters’ horniness and constant need for sex. It could have used more breathing room from that to balance it out.
• Slightly juvenile? All of Casey McQuiston’s books have a certain youthfulness to them that makes them feel somewhat New Adult as opposed to just Adult. Not a problem at all, but not quite what I usually want from otherwise adult characters.

Audiobook

Emma Galvin and Max Meyers narrate as Theo and Kit, respectively. Theo is given an energetic, strong voice, while Kit has a softer and more whimsical tone; both match their characters perfectly. They don’t necessarily sound how I would have imagined in my own head (in terms of vocal inflection), but the voice actors do bring the characters to vivid life here.

Final Thoughts

The Pairing is a great book that will appeal to foodies and people who like wine, anyone who loves travel and likes books set in Europe, and fans of second chance romances. It has a youthful energy, and with the sex competition between Kit and Theo, it’s on the spicier end of spectrum. I liked the characters and overall enjoyed the whole story, even if some elements weren’t entirely to my taste (pun intended).

Special thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy The Pairing here – it’s available as a paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
Audiobook Narrator	Emma Galvin and Max Meyers
Audience	Adult
Genre	Contemporary Romance
Setting	France; Spain; Italy
Number of Pages	432
Format I Read	Audiobook & Ebook (NetGalley ARCs)
Original Publication Date	August 6, 2024
Publisher	St. Martin’s Griffin

Official Summary

LIMITED FIRST PRINT RUN–featuring sprayed edges with a stenciled script design. Only available for a limited time and while supplies last.

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Casey McQuiston’s latest romantic comedy, two bisexual exes accidentally book the same European food and wine tour and challenge each other to a hookup competition to prove they’re over each other—except they’re definitely not.

Theo and Kit have been a lot of things: childhood best friends, crushes, in love, and now estranged exes. After a brutal breakup on the transatlantic flight to their dream European food and wine tour, they exited each other’s lives once and for all.

Time apart has done them good. Theo has found confidence as a hustling bartender by night and aspiring sommelier by day, with a long roster of casual lovers. Kit, who never returned to America, graduated as the reigning sex god of his pastry school class and now bakes at one of the finest restaurants in Paris. Sure, nothing really compares to what they had, and life stretches out long and lonely ahead of them, but—yeah. It’s in the past.

All that remains is the unused voucher for the European tour that never happened, good for 48 months after its original date and about to expire. Four years later, it seems like a great idea to finally take the trip. Solo. Separately.

It’s not until they board the tour bus that they discover they’ve both accidentally had the exact same idea, and now they’re trapped with each other for three weeks of stunning views, luscious flavors, and the most romantic cities of France, Spain, and Italy. It’s fine. There’s nothing left between them. So much nothing that, when Theo suggests a friendly wager to see who can sleep with their hot Italian tour guide first, Kit is totally game. And 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.

“Move over ‘hot girl summer’ – ‘hot bisexual summer’ is ready for its moment and Casey McQuiston’s new novel The Pairing is here to usher it in.” – USA Today