SignalHub-'The Pairing' review: Casey McQuiston paints a deliciously steamy European paradise

Is it possible to taste a book?SignalHub

That's what I asked myself repeatedly while drooling over the vivid food and wine imagery in “The Pairing,” the latest romance from “Red, White & Royal Blue” author Casey McQuiston out Aug. 6. (St. Martin’s Griffin, 407 pp., ★★★★ out of four)

“The Pairing” opens with a run-in of two exes at the first stop of a European tasting tour. Theo and Kit have gone from childhood best friends to crushes to lovers to strangers. When they were together, they saved up for the special trip. But after a relationship-ending fight on the plane, the pair are left with broken hearts, blocked numbers and a voucher expiring in 48 months. Now, four years later, they’ve fortuitously decided to cash in their trips at the exact same time.

They could ignore each other − enjoy the trip blissfully and unbothered. Or they could use this as an excuse to see who wins the breakup once and for all. And that’s exactly what the ever-competitive Theo does after learning of Kit’s new reputation as “sex god” of his pastry school. The challenge? This pair of exes will compete to see who can sleep with the most people on the three-week trip. 

“A little sex wager between friends” – what could go wrong? 

Check out: USA TODAY's weekly Best-selling Booklist

“The Pairing” is a rich, lush and indulgent bisexual love story. This enemies-to-lovers tale is “Call Me By Your Name” meets “No Strings Attached” in a queer, European free-for-all. Reading it is like going on vacation yourself – McQuiston invites you to sit back and bathe in it, to lap up all the art, food and culture alongside the characters.

There are a fair amount of well-loved rom-com tropes that risk overuse (Swimming? Too bad we both forgot our bathing suits!) but in this forced proximity novel, they feel more natural than tired.

McQuiston’s use of dual perspective is perhaps the book's greatest strength – just when you think you really know a character, you get to see them through new, distinct eyes. In the first half, we hear from Theo, a sommelier-in-training who is chronically hard on themself. The tone is youthful without being too contemporary, save the well-used term “nepo baby." In the second half, the narration flips to Kit, a Rilke-reading French American pastry chef who McQuiston describes as a “fairy prince.” 

McQuiston’s novels have never shied away from on-page sex, but “The Pairing” delights in it. This novel isn’t afraid to ask for – and take – what it wants. Food and sex are where McQuiston spends their most lavish words, intertwining them through the novel, sometimes literally (queue the “Call Me By Your Name” peach scene …).

But even the sex is about so much more than sex: “Sex is better when the person you’re with really understands you, and understands how to look at you,” Theo says during a poignant second-act scene. 

The hypersexual bi character is a prominent, and harmful, trope in modern media. Many bi characters exist only to threaten the protagonist’s journey or add an element of sexual deviance. But “The Pairing” lets bisexuals be promiscuous – in fact, it lets them be anything they want to be – without being reduced to a stereotype. Theo and Kit are complex and their fluidity informs their views on life, love, gender and sex. 

The bisexuality in "The Pairing" is unapologetic. It's joyful. What a delight it is to indulge in a gleefully easy, flirty summer fantasy where everyone is hot and queer and down for casual sex − an arena straight romances have gotten to play in for decades.

Just beware – “The Pairing” may have you looking up the cost of European food and wine tours. All I’m saying is, if we see a sudden spike in bookings for next summer, we’ll know who to thank.