Book Description 

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?

My Review 

This book has such a great premise: childhood friends to lovers to enemies to second chance romance– what’s not to like? 

Theo and Kit haven’t spoken since breaking up and neither of them expected to run into each other on their three week long European food tour. But since they’re stuck together, they might as well make the most of it. 

Theo and Kit spend a great deal of the book hooking up with other people while they sort out their feelings. They both need to acknowledge that they aren’t the same people they were several years ago and they need to come to terms with the new version of themselves and how they’ve changed. Theo was sometimes difficult to empathize with. It’s admirable that Theo wants to forge a path without the backing of a famous family, but struggling for the sake of struggling when assistance is available is exhausting. Just take the help, babe. There’s no shame in it. 

Pretty much, this book consists of three things: food, sex, and Big Feelings. Frankly, that was enough for me. I had such a good time with this book. I’m a bit of a picky eater, but this book had me thinking thoughts like, “Damn, that grilled octopus sure sounds good!” 

I would absolutely recommend The Pairing. At its core, this is a redemption story and I loved the overall message that the two protagonists were so enmeshed in each other’s lives that they had to separate in order to find themselves. They were so accustomed to functioning as a single unit rather than two individuals. Rediscovering each other after several years was a beautiful process to experience. McQuiston is one of my favorite authors and I am always here for one of their books. 

I received a digital ARC of this book from St. Martin’s/NetGalley.