It’s Pride! Regrettably, I was unable to spend time with everyone at Tri-City Pride this year, but I am channeling my sadness into telling you about another great queer author. And it’s not even Alexis Hall again! Casey McQuiston is another big-hearted sweetheart, and here are some of her most popular titles to enjoy in the park with some lemonade and drag performers!
Is there anything like enemies-to-lovers? Like the fierce indelible tension rising between two rivals? That feeling like they’re the only other person in room and you can’t stand to look at them anymore than you can stand to look away? Shara Wheeler delivers all this and the phrase “maudlin Shakespeare gays” to boot. We see through eyes of headstrong and determined Chloe Green, who’s poured all her time and energy for years into graduating as valedictorian from her respected but… traditional Bible Belt school of Willowgrove Christian Academy. Only one thing stands in her way: the practically perfect, rosewater-skincare-using, almond-pink-tulle-wearing Shara Wheeler.
Except, Shara Wheeler isn’t there. Rather, she’s vanished almost without a trace in the middle of senior prom. All that remains are some cryptic messages, and for Chloe, the memory of their sudden kiss. Furious with her disappearance, and assuming that fury is from Shara bowing out of the valedictorian race and nothing whatsoever to do with the lingering impression of honey and mint chapstick, Chloe teams up with Smith (Shara’s irritatingly perfect jock boyfriend) and Rory (the even more annoying bad-boy-next-door) to unravel the prom night mystery and, eventually, her own feelings towards her rival.
August is a similarly lovely if stubborn heroine who takes center stage in One Last Stop, traveling to New York, not to find herself, but to prove that people who move to New York to find themselves are fools and we are all alone in this life. Fortunately, she is proven wrong! Everything from her coworkers at a 24-hour pancake diner to her obligatory cast of wacky NYC roommates conspire to make August part of the community. To top it all off, she meets the gorgeous, punk-rock Jane on her morning commute, who saves the day on multiple occasions and dresses in a snappy leather jacket like it’s still the 1970s.
Thing is, Jane is LITERALLY still in the 1970s. Like, trapped in a freak accident on the NYC subway for all time unless she can be freed by her new girlfriend still in the 1970s. Of course, August can’t do it alone. She must unite the roommates, save the diner, and confront her own troubled past. One Last Stop is a warm rom-com and a touching testament to community all in one. It’s a reminder to believe in love and magic, and that fact that none of us are ever truly alone.
If you know any Casey McQuiston books, you’ll know this one. We do love ourselves a convoluted reason for two characters to spend time together (fake dating, academic rivalries, time travel), and it does not get more convoluted than this. Alex Claremont-Diaz is essentially American royalty, being the son of the POTUS. This honorable title does not necessarily grant camaraderie with actual royals, namely his longtime enemy Prince Henry of Great Britain. Yes, you’ve read me right. They have to spend time together for the sake of international relations between global superpowers.
Of course, this fake staged friendship goes about as well as can be expected, given that it rapidly gives way to genuine feelings betwixt Alex and Henry. It’s a little more high stakes than the other two here, but sometimes a simple relationship can be examined in a way that asks some rather complex questions. How do we do the most good by the people we love? And how does that affect our legacies?
Casey McQuiston is well-established and award-winning in this genre for good reason, she’s a juggernaut of creativity and I can’t wait to read more of her. Happy Pride!
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