I loved Red, White and Royal Blue and was so excited for McQuiston’s next two novels. However, neither of them really struck me in the same way as their first one did. So I went into this book with some trepidation, especially after reading the summary. Luckily, for me, any fears I had about this book ended up being completely unfounded. I freaking loved it. The writing was so evocative, descriptive, beautiful, it reined me in right away. I couldn’t help but feel so much for both Theo and Kit, and so all the aspects of their relationship were felt so keenly. Each time McQuiston peeled back the layers of time to show how one slight miscommunication led to where they were, it felt like a punched of the gut. And speaking of, McQuiston’s use of a nonlinear timeline was incredibly well done. Everything was simply chef’s kiss.

Now, as for the things that just tickled me because of personal preferences, I was going to be a sucker for this book just for the premise of travel. As the characters go from places in France, Spain, and Italy, it brought back fond memories of my own experiences, traveling to these countries, as McQuiston captures these places in their writing so well. Additionally, the focus on food in each of these places was so delightful for someone like me who is such a foodie and who travels in large part for the chance to try new foods. Finally this book had quite a few tropes that I am a sucker for. We’ve got the characters going through all different types of relationships, from friends to lovers to enemies to friends and lovers again. We’ve got them navigating awkward experiences, such as the one bed trope. And as much as I do not like a miscommunication trope, I did find it endearingly maddening to watch as they both struggled with finding their way to each other because of their fear of their feelings not being matched. 

Also, this book dialed the spice way up and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

No spoilers, but the ending made me cry. Twice. It’s gonna take me awhile to get over this one.