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A review by bee_thebibliophile
The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
slow-paced
3.5
The Pairing was definitely a mixed bag for me. I really liked some parts but also felt like some parts were too long or completely unnecessary.
Theo Flowerday and Kit Fairfield are exes who just so happen to rebook a canceled European food and wine tour at the same time before their vouchers expired from a doomed past trip. Theo is a budding sommelier in southern California with a custom cocktail side hustle and Kit is a Parisian pastry chef and definite romantic. They travel across Europe, eating, drinking, hooking up with other people (ugh - not my favorite) as part of a competition with each other and slowly getting to know each other as friends again. I liked the playful sides of each other that they brought out when they were together. It made me like each of their characters so much more because these two on their own were not my favorites.
The travel aspect of this book was really cool, but so much of the events in each location were the same. Also the food/wine pairings that were rambled off so often felt like a bit much - I understand the intention behind them, but as a non-foodie, it took me out of the story. I wanted the relationship conversations to happen earlier so that there was some time to enjoy the two of them being together after SO long apart (both in the book and after their break up).
I was really intrigued by some of the side characters but felt like we met so many of them but didn’t really get to know much about any of them, something that I missed from the story. The story is told from Theo’s POV (first half) and then Kit’s POV (last half), which was an interesting choice, but I found myself much more invested when it was Kit’s perspective - not sure if that was because his romantic notions appealed to me more than Theo’s uncertainty but the second half of the book flew by for me. Overall, I think the book felt too long. It has so many interesting parts, but the repetition during the trip and how long it took for them to have a real conversation started to bother me.
Thanks to NetGalley and SMP for an ARC copy of this book!
Theo Flowerday and Kit Fairfield are exes who just so happen to rebook a canceled European food and wine tour at the same time before their vouchers expired from a doomed past trip. Theo is a budding sommelier in southern California with a custom cocktail side hustle and Kit is a Parisian pastry chef and definite romantic. They travel across Europe, eating, drinking, hooking up with other people (ugh - not my favorite) as part of a competition with each other and slowly getting to know each other as friends again. I liked the playful sides of each other that they brought out when they were together. It made me like each of their characters so much more because these two on their own were not my favorites.
The travel aspect of this book was really cool, but so much of the events in each location were the same. Also the food/wine pairings that were rambled off so often felt like a bit much - I understand the intention behind them, but as a non-foodie, it took me out of the story. I wanted the relationship conversations to happen earlier so that there was some time to enjoy the two of them being together after SO long apart (both in the book and after their break up).
I was really intrigued by some of the side characters but felt like we met so many of them but didn’t really get to know much about any of them, something that I missed from the story. The story is told from Theo’s POV (first half) and then Kit’s POV (last half), which was an interesting choice, but I found myself much more invested when it was Kit’s perspective - not sure if that was because his romantic notions appealed to me more than Theo’s uncertainty but the second half of the book flew by for me. Overall, I think the book felt too long. It has so many interesting parts, but the repetition during the trip and how long it took for them to have a real conversation started to bother me.
Thanks to NetGalley and SMP for an ARC copy of this book!