Book Smart Kate

Book: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

by Casey McQuiston (August 6, 2024) – Many thanks to @Netgalley @stmartinspress and @casey.mcquiston for the opportunity to review this lush, stunning, deeply romantic, and quirky second-chance love story. McQuiston’s Red, White and Royal Blue is the book that revived my love of reading, so this was a special one to have the opportunity to read in advance. Here is my honest review…

Four years ago, Theo and Kit broke up on a transatlantic flight to London, where they were supposed to start a dream European vacation. They’ve pieced their lives back together on separate continents, not having seen each other since that fateful flight. They each have non-refundable tickets with the tour company that must be used within 48 months. When Theo shows up only to find Kit has booked the same tour, they must face heartbreak and regret. But as their guide and quirky fellow travelers traverse Europe, exploring art, architecture, food, and wine, Kit and Theo find themselves slipping into familiar patterns that only come from a lifetime of love and friendship. As the ice thaws and they talk about what broke them up, they begin to discover the people they’ve become in their time apart and wonder if there are some people that you will always love.

I felt this book in my chest – full of beauty and excess. Kit and Theo both work in the restaurant world, and their passion for food and drink is evident on every page – wine pairings, pasta, bread, pastries, sandwiches, cheese, olives, grapes – this book is a tribute to the romance of a great meal. As they travel city to city, you witness Kit and Theo evolve, and Casey has one of the most effective uses of dual POV I’ve ever encountered. Their love story is unique, and the story makes you feel these people who grew up together, helped each other through dark times, and (despite years apart) still know each other better than they know themselves.