Overall ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ 3.88 Goodreads average, about 298,000 ratings
- ✓ Ten critic raves, two positives on Book Marks
- ✓ Third in 2021 Goodreads Choice Best Romance
- ✓ Length is the most repeated complaint
One Last Stop Review: Spice, Time-Slip Romance and Who It's For
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Verdict: A tender sapphic romance with the best found family in McQuiston's catalogue and a love interest readers adore, held back by a long, baggy first half and a time-slip plot that runs on convenience.
Best for: Readers who want queer joy, queer history and a crush that builds over months of subway rides, who like a big chatty ensemble, and who can forgive a premise that doesn't hold up to close inspection and a middle that could lose fifty pages.
Heat level: ★★★☆☆ (3/5, open door but limited: reviewers describe a long build to a small number of on-page scenes, the most talked about one on an empty train car; romance.io's band could not be confirmed)
Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.6/5, a 3.88 Goodreads average across about 298,000 ratings, with near-unanimous trade raves, pulled down because the recurring reader complaints, length, convenient plotting and a shaky New York, come from people who liked the book as well as those who didn't)
Tropes: Time-slip romance, Found family, Slow burn, Bisexual heroine, Butch love interest, Meet-cute on the subway, Stranded out of time, Queer history, Amateur investigation, Saving the local diner.
One Last Stop is Casey McQuiston's second adult novel and a standalone sapphic romantic comedy with a speculative twist, set in present-day Brooklyn and on the Q train, where August Landry, a 23-year-old transfer student who trusts nobody and believes in nothing she can't prove, keeps running into Jane Su, a leather-jacketed punk who is charming, impossible to forget and, as it turns out, stuck on that train since the 1970s.
The reader numbers are good but a clear step below the author's debut. Goodreads shows a 3.88 average from about 298,000 ratings and about 44,000 written reviews, against 4.04 from about 1.28 million ratings for Red, White & Royal Blue. St. Martin's Griffin published it on June 1, 2021, it finished third for Best Romance in the 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards, and Book Marks logs ten raves and two positive reviews from critics, with no mixed or negative ones. Readers are far cooler than critics, though. About 31 percent of Goodreads ratings sit at three stars or lower, and the gap between the critics' love and the readers' reservations is what to understand before you start.
What Is One Last Stop About?
This is a love story built on routine. August takes the same train every day, and Jane is on it every day, and the romance grows out of shared commutes, a mix tape of a crush and the slow realisation that Jane never gets off. Once the two of them understand that she can't leave the line and doesn't know how she got there, the book becomes a mystery as well as a romance, with August using the investigative habits her mother drilled into her to find out who Jane was.
The second half of the book is August's household. She moves into an apartment with three roommates and a drag queen across the hall, picks up shifts at a 24-hour pancake diner, and gets folded into a group that feeds her, teases her and helps with the case. Around both threads runs a lot of queer history, from 1970s activism in New York to New Orleans, and reviewers from The Lesbrary to BookPage single that out as a reason the book matters to them.
What Makes This Sapphic Time-Slip Romance Work
- Jane Su: Readers keep naming Jane as the draw, and Autostraddle's reviewer says the two leads fall for each other in a sweeping, all-consuming way.
- The found family: Kirkus says the scenes with August's chosen family crackle with warmth, and Goodreads reviewers call the roommates the most comforting part of the book.
- Queer history: BookPage starred it for its respect for queer history and community, and The Lesbrary praises its attention to Asian-American leaders in gay liberation.
- Representation without crisis: The Everygirl and several Goodreads reviewers praise a cast of trans, nonbinary, bi and lesbian characters who get to be happy rather than explain themselves.
- Critical consensus: Book Marks counts ten raves and two positives, Publishers Weekly calls it an absolute delight and Kirkus named it one of its best books of 2021.
Book Synopsis
August Landry arrives in New York with two suitcases, a transfer to Brooklyn College and a firm plan to need nobody. She grew up in New Orleans as the only helper of a mother who has spent decades hunting for a brother who vanished, and August learned to search records, read people and expect the worst. Magic, fate and love at first sight are not on her list of things she believes in.
The city doesn't cooperate. She ends up in a Flatbush apartment with a sculptor who builds things out of scrap, a trans psychic who runs readings from home and a tattoo artist who mostly speaks in shrugs, plus the drag queen next door. She gets a job at Pancake Billy's House of Pancakes, a beloved local diner with money trouble. And on her first bad morning on the Q train, a girl in a leather jacket gives her a scarf to clean up a spilled coffee and a smile that August can't shake.
The girl is Jane, and she is on the Q every time August is. She has a battered cassette player, no phone and a way of talking about the city that sounds decades out of date. The more August rides, the more the details stop adding up, until the impossible explanation is the only one left: Jane is from the 1970s, she has been stuck on the train for a very long time, and she has forgotten most of who she was. August, the girl who doesn't believe in anything, decides to get her answers, and to work out how anyone can fall for someone who exists only between stops.
Our Review
Jane is the reason the book works. McQuiston gives her a swagger that comes from a decade of being openly queer in a city that punished it, and August gets to discover that history one subway ride at a time. Goodreads reviewers describe a sexual tension that builds over hundreds of pages, and Autostraddle's reviewer says the two fall in love in the dramatic, all-at-once way only queer love stories manage. The restriction helps. Every date happens in a moving train car, so the romance runs on conversation, songs and small rituals.
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The second strength is the household. Kirkus, which was cool on the pacing, still says the found family scenes crackle with warmth and pop-culture jokes, and Goodreads reviewers single out the roommates as the part they'd move into if they could. It's also a book about queer people having a good time. The cast includes trans, nonbinary, bisexual and lesbian characters, and The Everygirl, the Berkeley Fiction Review and many Goodreads reviewers praise how little of their story is about suffering.
Where it struggles is length, and that's the complaint that comes up most often. Kirkus says the story drags on a bit too long, Goodreads reviewers describe 30 or more pages of filler in the first half followed by a rushed resolution, Audible listeners say the start takes a while, and a 6 out of 10 review at Bookhouse wanted significant editing. The second problem is convenience. The same Bookhouse reviewer found the roommates' perfectly timed skills too handy, the Berkeley Fiction Review calls the time-slip mechanics a bit too convenient, and critics on Book Marks ask how Jane spent so long on the Q without noticing. Then there are the New Yorkers. A widely liked Goodreads review from a Flatbush reader lists errors in subway geography and neighbourhood history, and Worlds Without End reports the same irritation.
A smaller group of Goodreads reviewers raises a harder point: August, who is white, spends the book rescuing Jane, an Asian-American woman whose circumstances leave her passive, and at least one reviewer flags a line suggesting people aren't prejudiced anymore. It isn't the loudest criticism, but it comes from more than one reader.
Reset one expectation before you start. The pastel cover and the rom-com label promise something brisk, and this is a long book with a mystery, a heist-style rescue plot and a great deal of hanging out. If you read for the plot, you'll feel the middle. If you read for the company, the hanging out is the point, and several readers say the found family is what they remember years later.
It's also not Red, White & Royal Blue with women. Readers who came straight from that book expecting the same pace and politics often rated this one lower, while a group of readers, including the Davis Vanguard's reviewer and several Audible listeners, call it the better book because it's warmer and stranger.
Our honest note: A lovely, lived-in queer romance with a love interest worth the trip and a found family worth moving in with, slowed by a first half that could have been cut and a premise that works better if you don't poke it. Read it if you want warmth and history more than speed; skip it if a fuzzy time-slip rule will nag at you for 400 pages.
| Element | In One Last Stop |
|---|---|
| Central relationship | August Landry, a bisexual 23-year-old transfer student from New Orleans, and Jane Su, a lesbian punk from the 1970s stranded on the Q train |
| Core tropes | Time-slip romance, found family, slow burn, meet-cute on the subway, amateur investigation, saving the local diner |
| Setting | Flatbush, Brooklyn, a 24-hour pancake diner and the Q train, with history from 1970s New York and New Orleans |
| Heat level | 3/5, open door but limited; a long build to a small number of on-page scenes |
| Series | Standalone; no connection to Red, White & Royal Blue |
| Content notes | Discussed queerphobia and a recounted hate crime (the UpStairs Lounge fire), racism and gentrification, anxiety, Hurricane Katrina, alcohol and recreational drug use, mentioned death of a grandparent, mentioned car accident, minor blood, sexual content |
How Spicy Is One Last Stop?
Moderate. The door is open, but not often. DIY MFA's guide to spicy romance says McQuiston isn't as explicit as many romance authors but the book is far from closed door, and singles out one scene on an empty train car as the one people talk about. The Everygirl calls the book mostly tame with a few more explicit moments, and Goodreads reviewers say the tension is built up for a long time before it pays off. We put it at 3: the scenes are on the page, but there are few of them, they come late, and they lean on feeling more than on anatomy.
Readers who loved the heat really loved it. Autostraddle calls McQuiston's intimate scenes scorching, and a widely liked 5-star Goodreads review calls the payoff satisfyingly erotic. On the other side, a few Goodreads reviewers found a couple's public affection on a crowded train uncomfortable to read about. If you want a spicy sapphic book, this one is warm rather than hot. If you avoid explicit scenes, there's enough on the page to notice.
Who Should Read This Book?
You'll likely love it if: you want a sapphic romance full of queer history, you'd happily read 100 pages of roommates eating pancakes at 3am, and the idea of falling for someone you can only see on your commute sounds romantic rather than sad.
You may want to skip it if: you need a time-travel plot with rules that hold, you know the Q line well enough to wince at the geography, or long books with a slow first half make you put them down.
In short: a warm, roomy queer romance that wins on Jane and the found family and loses points for its length and its loose logic.
What Readers Are Actually Saying (October 2026)
Five years on, One Last Stop is still mostly talked about as McQuiston's second book, the sapphic follow-up to the M/M hit that made their name. It arrived in June 2021 to the sort of critical reception most romances never get: Book Marks counts raves from NPR, BookPage, Booklist, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly, Kirkus put it on its best of 2021 list, Wikipedia records a place on Time's 100 must-read books of 2021, and the author's own site lists a 2022 RUSA romance award. Readers were cooler, and the 3.88 Goodreads average has held steady with about 298,000 ratings. We found no adaptation announced for this book; the author's site points instead to the 2023 film of Red, White & Royal Blue, and that film keeps sending new readers into the catalogue. We could not open Reddit threads, StoryGraph or romance.io for this review, so the reader discussion here comes from Goodreads, Audible, blogs and trade reviews.
Why readers love it: Readers love Jane first and the household a close second. The words that come up most in Goodreads and Audible reviews are comforting, warm and joyful, and they're usually aimed at the roommates and the diner rather than the plot. The queer history thread gets heavy praise, especially from queer readers who say the book showed them a past they hadn't been taught, and The Lesbrary calls out its attention to Asian-American activists. Natalie Naudus's audiobook narration also gets compliments from listeners for a quiet intensity that suits Jane.
What readers argue about and complain about: The complaint is length, from Kirkus down. Goodreads reviewers point to filler in the first half and a rushed finish, and the 6 out of 10 Bookhouse review asked for an edit. Next comes plausibility: the time-slip rules, a train full of commuters who never seem to notice, and roommates whose skills are always exactly what the plot needs. New Yorkers add a third complaint about subway and Flatbush details, led by a much-liked 2 to 3 star Goodreads review that lists them line by line. A smaller set of reviewers is uneasy with a white heroine rescuing an Asian-American love interest. Several readers also find the roommates more quirky than fleshed out. None of these is a deal breaker for the readers who rate it four or five stars, and that's the split: people who read for feeling forgive all of it, people who read for plot don't.
The standalone question worth asking first: This is a standalone with a complete ending and no cliffhanger. The more useful question is which McQuiston to read next. Red, White & Royal Blue, the debut, sits at 4.04 on Goodreads from about 1.28 million ratings and is still the reader favourite. I Kissed Shara Wheeler, a YA novel, has a 3.84 average from about 107,000 ratings, and The Pairing, an adult M/M second-chance romance, has a 3.66 average from about 50,000. If you liked this book's warmth and want McQuiston at their most crowd-pleasing, go back to the debut.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is One Last Stop spicy?
A little. It's open door, but reviewers describe only a few scenes after a long build, and The Everygirl calls it mostly tame. We score it 3 out of 5.
Is One Last Stop connected to Red, White & Royal Blue?
No. It's a standalone with a different cast and a different setting. You can read either one first.
Is One Last Stop a lesbian romance?
Yes, it's a sapphic romance. August is bisexual and Jane is a lesbian from the 1970s, and the supporting cast includes trans, nonbinary and gay characters.
Does One Last Stop have a happy ending?
Yes. The romance ends happily and the book has no cliffhanger, though a few critics feel the time-slip mystery leaves some threads loose.
How long is One Last Stop?
Long for a rom-com. Wikipedia lists 432 pages and Goodreads lists a 418-page paperback, and length is the most common reader complaint.
Is One Last Stop better than Red, White & Royal Blue?
Goodreads readers rate it lower, 3.88 against 4.04. Some reviewers prefer it for its warmth and ensemble; others miss the debut's pace.
If You Loved One Last Stop, Read These Next
For another sapphic romance with a messy heroine and a found family pulling her home, read Delilah Green Doesn't Care. For Ashley Herring Blake's warmer, funnier follow-up with a heroine who swears off dating, try Iris Kelly Doesn't Date. And if you want a sapphic romance that leans more on banter than on magic, go to Written in the Stars.
Browse more in LGBTQ+ romance, found family romance, slow burn romance and standalone romance.
The Bottom Line
One Last Stop tries to fit a romance, a mystery, a heist and a history lesson into one subway line, and most of it fits. What works: Jane, the found family and the book's love for queer history. What doesn't: a first half that could lose 50 pages, a time-slip rule that bends whenever the plot needs it and a version of New York that locals don't recognise. If you read romance for feeling and company, it's one of the warmest sapphic books of the decade. If you read for tight plotting, start with Red, White & Royal Blue instead.
The Eikna Overall Ranking
On the Eikna scale, One Last Stop ranks as a much-loved sapphic comfort read, strongest in its love interest and its found family, constrained by its length and loose speculative logic, and best approached as a slow, warm hangout rather than a fast rom-com.
The Evidence Scorecard
Eight dimensions, each scored out of 5 from the reader and critic evidence above. Overall is anchored on the reader ratings and adjusted for how much the recurring complaints cost the reading experience. Heat describes how explicit the book is; it is not a quality judgement. Every line marked ✓ is a checked finding, including the limits. How we assess books.
Romance ★★★★☆ 4/5
- ✓ Jane named as the draw across reviews
- ✓ Tension built over hundreds of pages
- ✓ Train car limits make every date count
- ✓ Rescue plot leaves Jane passive for some
Characters ★★★★☆ 3.9/5
- ✓ Found family praised by Kirkus and Goodreads
- ✓ Trans, nonbinary, bi and lesbian cast
- ✓ August's guarded skepticism gives her an arc
- ✓ Roommates called quirky but underdeveloped
Writing ★★★★☆ 3.7/5
- ✓ Publishers Weekly praises the humorous narration
- ✓ Pop-culture banter singled out by Kirkus
- ✓ BookPage starred review for heart and banter
- ✓ First half called padded with filler
Emotional impact ★★★★☆ 4/5
- ✓ Queer history moves readers to tears
- ✓ UpStairs Lounge fire recounted in chapter 11
- ✓ Audible listeners report crying and laughing
- ✓ Stakes softened by convenient plot turns
Heat level ★★★☆☆ 3/5
- ✓ Open door, per DIY MFA and Autostraddle
- ✓ One train car scene widely discussed
- ✓ The Everygirl calls it mostly tame
- ✓ Few scenes, focused on feeling over detail
Ending ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ Happy ending, no cliffhanger
- ✓ Standalone with a complete arc
- ✓ Romance arc closes fully on the page
- ✓ Resolution called rushed after a slow start
Re-read value ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ Found family is the comfort-read hook
- ✓ Audiobook narrated by Natalie Naudus
- ✓ Queer history rewards a second pass
- ✓ 432 pages is a big reread commitment
Sources We Checked
- Goodreads: One Last Stop (ratings, star distribution, edition details, community review themes)
- Goodreads: Casey McQuiston author page (ratings for their other books)
- Wikipedia: One Last Stop (publication details, honours, reception)
- Casey McQuiston: official site (awards, Red, White & Royal Blue film)
- Kirkus Reviews: One Last Stop
- Publishers Weekly: One Last Stop
- BookPage: One Last Stop starred review
- Book Marks: One Last Stop critic reviews
- Autostraddle: One Last Stop review
- The Everygirl: One Last Stop review
- The Lesbrary: Carolina reviews One Last Stop
- Berkeley Fiction Review: One Last Stop review
- DIY MFA: Spicy Romance, Fancy Boys and Ghost Girls
- Trigger Warning Database: One Last Stop
- Bookhouse: September 2021 reading round up
- Worlds Without End: One Last Stop reviews
- Davis Vanguard: One Last Stop student review
- WeekendNotes: One Last Stop book review
- Audible Brazil: One Last Stop audiobook (narrator, listener reviews)
Checked October 6, 2026. Ratings and counts change; the numbers above are as of that date.
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