★★★★☆ 3.9 / 5 (calculated from Amazon, Goodreads & romance.io reader ratings — 309,423 combined)
| Overall | 7.8 | Romance | 8.0 |
| Characters | 8.8 | Writing | 8.2 |
| Emotion | 8.2 | Heat | 6.0 |
| Ending | 8.0 | Re-read value | 7.5 |
A cynical twenty-three-year-old falls for the beautiful girl she keeps meeting on the Q train — then discovers Jane has been displaced in time, stuck on that subway line since the 1970s.
If you love found-family ensembles, a slow-burn sapphic romance, and a high-concept magical-realism twist wrapped in a big-hearted rom-com, One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston belongs on your list. From the author of Red, White & Royal Blue, it was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller and landed on best-of-2021 lists from NPR, TIME and Publishers Weekly.
Our take: a warm, queer, deeply re-readable romance whose scene-stealing chosen-family cast and inventive time-slip premise are its beating heart — held back only by a saggy middle and a runtime a lot of readers found too long for the story.
The Evidence Scorecard
Every score below is backed by what readers and reviewers actually reported across Amazon, Goodreads and romance.io — not vibes.
Writing & Voice ★★★★☆
Evidence
- ✓ The New York Times Book Review calls it a “gorgeous novel” that layers romance, loneliness and generational trauma.
- ✓ Readers praise “beautiful writing” and an easy, propulsive style that “made it go by fast.”
- ✓ Many feel McQuiston “grew a lot as an author” since Red, White & Royal Blue.
- ✓ A minority flag “a few weird style choices and a few cringe moments” that pull them out of it.
Dialogue & Banter ★★★★☆
Evidence
- ✓ The banter across the roommate/diner crew is a consistent highlight — quotable and genuinely funny.
- ✓ Jane’s cocky, swaggering voice plays well against August’s guarded cynicism.
- ✓ Tagged “funny” on romance.io; readers call it a real rom-com that lands its jokes.
- ✓ The humor occasionally tips modern/anachronistic for a character supposedly from the 1970s.
Chemistry & Romance ★★★★☆
Evidence
- ✓ A slow-burn subway crush that readers found genuinely swoony — one calls Jane “probably my favorite love interest in a book so far.”
- ✓ The early kiss is handled cleverly so it deepens rather than resolves the relationship.
- ✓ The stakes (“save the girl lost in time”) give the romance real urgency and heart.
- ✓ A vocal minority “couldn’t get invested” in the leads and found the central pairing flat.
Heat ★★★☆☆
Evidence
- ✓ Rated Steam 3/5 on romance.io — open-door, but not the book’s main focus.
- ✓ The intimacy is warm and character-driven rather than explicit throughout.
- ✓ One much-discussed subway scene is a standout for readers who want the spice.
- ✓ Best for readers who want emotion and slow-burn over wall-to-wall heat.
Emotion & Depth ★★★★☆
Evidence
- ✓ Readers report crying repeatedly — “I sobbed like 10 times over how perfect it was.”
- ✓ Content notes: queerphobia, past child neglect, death/grief — the book takes real emotional risks.
- ✓ Themes of loneliness, chosen family and being “unmoored from normal time” resonate deeply.
- ✓ A caution: readers with missing loved ones note the cold-case thread “can absolutely get to you.”
Pacing ★★★☆☆
Evidence
- ✓ The single most common criticism: it is “simply too long for what it is” and “starts to drag.”
- ✓ Several readers found it “a grind to push through to the finish.”
- ✓ The mystery and time-slip plotting keep the back half moving once it clicks.
- ✓ A recurring note that the side plots are “way more interesting than the main plot.”
Ending ★★★★☆
Evidence
- ✓ The “save Jane” climax pays off the premise and delivers a satisfying, earned HEA.
- ✓ Readers describe crying happy tears — “I cried a little at the end.”
- ✓ The clever resolution to Jane’s time-displacement is widely praised as inventive.
- ✓ A few wanted a tighter final stretch after the long build.
Re-read & Comfort Value ★★★★☆
Evidence
- ✓ A genuine comfort read — one reviewer “read this book three years ago, and I still think about it.”
- ✓ The found-family cast (Myla, Niko, Wes, Isaiah) is the reason readers return.
- ✓ Frequently named a go-to “happy sapphic romance” people struggle to find elsewhere.
- ✓ Some feel it “could grow into a five star upon reread” once the pacing is known.
Quick Facts
| Title | One Last Stop |
| Author | Casey McQuiston |
| Series | Standalone |
| Publisher | St. Martin’s Griffin — 1 June 2021 |
| Length | ~432 pages |
| Genre | Contemporary sapphic romance with magical realism / time travel |
| Tropes | Slow burn, found family, time travel, subway crush, save-the-love-interest, multicultural cast |
| Heat level | Open-door (3/5) |
| POV | Third person, close on August |
| Ending | HEA |
| Recognition | NYT & USA Today bestseller; NPR, TIME & PW best-of-2021 |
You’ll Love This If…
- ✓ You want a genuinely happy, big-hearted sapphic romance
- ✓ Found-family ensembles are your favorite thing in fiction
- ✓ A high-concept magical-realism / time-travel hook excites you
- ✓ You like a slow burn with real emotional stakes
- ✓ You loved Red, White & Royal Blue and want McQuiston’s queer warmth in a WLW story
Avoid If…
- You want a short, tightly-paced read (this one runs long and sags in the middle)
- Magical realism / time travel in your romance is a dealbreaker
- You need to click with the leads immediately (August is prickly early on)
- You want wall-to-wall explicit heat
- Cold-case / missing-persons content is too heavy for you right now
Book Synopsis
Cynical twenty-three-year-old August doesn’t believe in much — not psychics, not easy friendships, and definitely not movie-love. Newly arrived in New York with a ragtag band of roommates, a night shift at a 24-hour pancake diner, and a chaotic subway commute, she expects nothing to change. Then there’s Jane: all hard edges and a soft smile, the girl who saves August’s day and quickly becomes the face she looks forward to on the train.
But August’s subway crush is impossible in more ways than one — Jane is displaced in time, stuck on the Q line since the 1970s. With the help of her unforgettable found family, August sets out to do the impossible and free the girl lost in time, even if it might mean letting her go. It’s a warm, queer, magical-realist romance about home, loneliness, and believing in the impossible.
My Review
One Last Stop is the kind of romance that people press into your hands and swear will fix your week — and for the most part it earns that devotion. Casey McQuiston takes a deceptively simple meet-cute — a girl you keep seeing on the subway — and bends it into something stranger and more tender: Jane isn’t just elusive, she’s displaced in time, riding the Q line since the 1970s. It’s a premise that could collapse into gimmick, but McQuiston plays it for real emotional stakes about loneliness, memory and the fear of losing people.
The romance itself is a satisfying slow burn. August’s guarded cynicism thaws believably against Jane’s cocky, swaggering warmth, and readers consistently single Jane out as one of the great sapphic love interests — the sort you swoon over. The book is also smart about not letting a mid-story kiss defuse the tension; if anything, it raises the stakes. On romance.io it sits at an open-door 3/5, and the heat, when it arrives, is character-driven rather than the point.
But the real magic is the found family. Myla, Niko, Wes and Isaiah — the roommates and the Billy’s Diner crew — are so vivid that a chorus of readers admit the side characters and their arcs are more compelling than the central plot. That’s a double-edged compliment: it speaks to how alive this world is, but also to a structural softness. The love story sometimes gets crowded out by everything happening around it.
The honest knock, and it’s near-universal, is length. This is a long book that “starts to drag,” and more than a few readers found the middle a grind before the mystery pulls everything taut again. If you can settle into its unhurried rhythm, the payoff — a genuinely happy, tear-jerking, chosen-family HEA — is worth the ride. As a warm, re-readable, unabashedly queer comfort romance, it’s close to essential; just don’t come to it expecting something lean.
Romance Profile
| Pairing | F/F — cynical newcomer (August) & time-displaced charmer (Jane) |
| Dynamic | Slow-burn subway crush; opposites who thaw each other |
| Central trope | Time-slip love interest + save-the-girl-lost-in-time |
| Conflict | Jane’s displacement in time, August’s fear of believing in anything |
| Heat | Open-door (3/5) |
| Build | Slow burn over a New York summer and many subway rides |
Emotional Profile
- ✓ Funny and warm, with a genuinely joyful found-family core
- ✓ A real ache around loneliness, grief and generational trauma
- ✓ Swoony slow-burn longing that pays off
- ✓ A tear-jerking, hopeful HEA readers cried over
Content Warnings
- Queerphobia
- Past child neglect
- Death / grief
- Cold-case / missing-persons subplot
- Homelessness and financial precarity
Book DNA
| Vibe | Warm, queer, magical-realist New York rom-com |
| Setting | Brooklyn / New York City subway (present day & 1970s) |
| Pace | Slow burn; long, with a saggy middle |
| Comps | Red, White & Royal Blue, The Time Traveler’s Wife, Kiss Her Once for Me |
| Best for | Readers who want happy sapphic romance + found family + a magical hook |
Similar Books You Might Enjoy
- Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur — a witty, big-hearted contemporary sapphic rom-com with the same warmth
- Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun — cozy, emotional queer romance with a strong found-family feel
- Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake — funny, steamy sapphic contemporary with a scene-stealing friend group
- She Gets the Girl by Lippincott & Derrick — sweet, low-heat sapphic romance if you want the warmth without the length
For more like this, visit our contemporary sapphic romance reading list. And Sapphic slow burn lesbian romance.
About the Author
Casey McQuiston is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of queer romance, best known for the breakout debut Red, White & Royal Blue, followed by One Last Stop, the YA novel I Kissed Shara Wheeler, and The Pairing. Their work is celebrated for combining sharp humor, richly diverse casts and unabashedly hopeful queer love stories. One Last Stop was a bestseller and a fixture on best-of-2021 lists.
Read more Casey McQuiston reviews →
Frequently Asked Questions
Is One Last Stop a standalone?
Yes. It is a complete standalone romance with its own HEA — no series reading required.
How steamy is One Last Stop?
Moderately — rated 3/5 on romance.io, open-door but not the book’s main focus. The intimacy is warm and character-driven rather than explicit throughout.
Is One Last Stop a sapphic romance?
Yes. It centers a F/F romance between August and Jane, with a broader cast of queer characters, and is one of the most-loved “happy sapphic romance” contemporaries.
Does it have a happy ending?
Yes, a satisfying, tear-jerking HEA. The clever resolution to Jane’s time-displacement is one of the most praised parts of the book.
What is the time-travel element?
Jane is displaced in time — stuck riding the subway since the 1970s. It’s magical realism rather than hard sci-fi, and it drives both the mystery and the romance.
Why do some readers rate it lower?
The most common criticism is length and pacing — the book runs long and sags in the middle. Some also find August prickly and hard to warm to early on.
Do I need to read Red, White & Royal Blue first?
No. They are unrelated standalones. Fans of that book’s queer warmth will likely enjoy this, though the tone here is more magical and bittersweet.
Who wrote One Last Stop?
Casey McQuiston, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Red, White & Royal Blue. One Last Stop was their second novel.
Final Verdict
One Last Stop is a warm, inventive, unabashedly queer romance whose found-family cast and time-slip premise make it a genuine comfort read — the kind people re-read and still think about years later. Its length and saggy middle keep it from perfection, and August takes a while to win you over, but the emotional payoff and that joyful chosen-family heart make it easy to recommend to anyone craving happy sapphic romance with a magical twist. 3.9 / 5.
Where to Buy
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