Review: One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

BOOK STATS

Rating: ☆☆☆.5
Title: One Last Stop
Author: Casey McQuiston
Genre: Romance
Audience: Adult
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Natalie Naudus
Length: 12 hours
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin; Macmillan Audio
Release Date: May 31, 2021
Source: Libro.fm ALC

SYNOPSIS

For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures.

But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.

Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all.

Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop is a magical, sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time.

MY THOUGHTS

I enjoyed this, but it did not live up to my expectations. The story was unnecessarily long, and the pacing suffered.

There were a lot of good things in the story: I loved the plan to save the pancake house with a fundraiser drag show. The investigation into the mystery surrounding August’s uncle’s disappearance was intriguing, if a bit predictable. I love stories with a supernatural twist, and the ties to NYC 1970s history helped to ground the story. August’s roommates stole the show, and I need a spinoff about them. While I liked these elements individually, it was a lot going on and the pieces didn’t all quite come together for me.

I also was not invested in August and Jane or their romance. August was probably the least interesting character in the book, and she’s the main character! I also was not a fan of the way their romance developed with the strategy they used to help Jane recover her memories.

I still enjoyed Casey McQuiston’s writing, but I don’t think this story was nearly as good as Red, White, & Royal Blue.

Thank you to Libro.fm and the publisher for the ALC.