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.

Amazon Link: One Last Stop

Author: Casey McQuiston

Genre: NA Lesbian Romance

Rating: 5/5 stars

I heard many great things about the story before I read this book (including from my daughter), and it still managed to blow my expectations away. This is such a heartfelt love story of two strong women who had to travel across time to find each other. And the group of friends who support them and become their queer family was also amazing and felt so real. Even though I don’t want to live in a big city like NYC I felt at home in their apartment building and among their community.

I could also see how the characters were like modern new adults who were still trying to find themselves and their place in the world. Coming of age doesn’t just happen in the teenage years and it was really relatable to the college/early twenties where the future is rushing up and you don’t know how to face it. But maybe you can just keep moving forward a little at a time instead of trying to plan out the whole rest of your life at once.

Also, I loved how Jane got to connect back to her Chinese-American roots and that helped her find her identity again. The smell and taste of food are powerful triggers for memory, and that plays a role in the story. The author did research into queer history in general, but took extra care to connect it to the specifics of Asian-American LGBTQIA+ people in the 1970s. It’s a great insight into how multiple identities can conflict within one person and a reminder that People of Color experience homophobia in a different way from gay white people.

LGBTQ representation: F/F romance, bisexual main character, lesbian love interest, secondary characters included trans, gay, non-binary/genderfluid, and drag queens. Pretty much all the characters (except when the MC talks to her mom) are queer. It’s unapologetically gay.

I highly recommend this book to fans of queer romance with a little spicy heat level. It’s like Annie on My Mind for millennials/Gen Z. This book can make you laugh, cry, race to the next page, and keeps you guessing til the end.

Here is the book in my reading journal: