The Pairing by Casey McQuiston

Saturday, Sept. 29, 2024--San Antonio

The Pairing by Casey McQuiston was recommended in a TIME feature recently explaining the new popularity of romance novels and the improved quality of such stories.  I previously read the author's Red, White, and Royal Blue after noting the popularity of the TV series made from it (on a streaming service to which I do not subscribe).  This latest book by her was a bit confusing to me at first.  It's a history of the relationship between Theo and Kit who became childhood friends in elementary school, eventually became lovers, and, at the time the book starts, have been apart a few years due to a breakup.  The first half of the book is told by Theo.  The second half is told by Kit.  The reader slowly learns their entire story.  It's told in a way that there are strange nuggets dropped that could be easily passed over, but that, if noticed, somewhat boggle the reader's mind--raising questions such as: Does that really make sense?  Why that?  Is ___ going to happen?   Later, something is told in the story that answers those questions and makes sense out of the things that seemed strange.  Because of the interests of the two main characters, there are lots of details related to art history, food, and wine.  As I understand is common and expected in most romance novels, there are also a LOT of detailed sex scenes; as far as I was concerned, there were too many that lasted for too long.  But the general story is a good one.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.