Cannonball Read Bingo: Bodies
Author Casey McQuiston is back after the success of her hit “Red White and Royal Blue” with another LBGTQ romance. Like “Red, White, and Royal Blue,” this story has a fresh take on a meet-cute trope. August, new to New York, is on her way to her diner job when she meets the too-cool Jane on the subway; it’s crush at first sight. She is smitten with Jane’s leather jacket, her smirk, and her old school rocker. But for Jane that’s just the look of the time, because she’s actually displaced in time. What a twist! How did she get stuck? Can she go back, can she live in the present? All of that must be explored and August, fresh from spending her teen years helping her mother search for her missing uncle, is perfect for the case. And of course, she’s just unraveling a mystery, it’s not that she likes Jane! (She definitely likes Jane).
Where this book is very successful for me is in the portrayal of the friendships that August forms off the train with her roommates and her co-workers at the diner. McQuiston creates detailed characters that have their own joys and conflicts and August must decide if she will accept this new chosen family, or continue to keep everyone at an arm’s length.
Sidebar, major props to McQuiston for giving a moment to Louisiana brand Zapp’s chips. If you are unfamiliar, I will confirm that they are indeed bribe worthy, and as a fellow Louisianian I loved that little detail.
If I were to compare this book to her first novel, I would give the edge to RWARB because it had me in stitches with laughter and I was more pulled into the drama of the romance. One Stop requires a more generous suspension of disbelief for the woman-out-of-time elements, which I know can be a put-off for some readers, but if you give it a try, you’ll be charmed by this love story and all the supporting characters.
But let’s be real, at the end of the day, you should probably take my review with a few grains of Tony’s (Louisiana-style seasoned salt). As a cishet woman who is older than the main characters in either of these books (confession, “older than the main characters” is a very wordy way to say that I am on the cusp of “middle-aged” but good lord in heaven I cannot say that) I’m not the target demographic, so my opinion should matter little in the grand scheme. I’m pumped that authors and stories like this are becoming more mainstream and will keep championing them because they are important.