I loved Red White, & Royal Blue so much, so when one of my local indie bookstores said they had signed copies of Casey McQuiston’s new book available, I said, “Happy birthday to me!” and ordered myself a copy. Then I proceeded to spend a few hours on my birthday reading it, which was a great way to spend a birthday, by the way.
This one is set in New York City in 2020 sans pandemic, and rather than an M/M romance, it’s an F/F romance. The story is told in third-person limited POV from the perspective of August Landry who has just moved to NYC. She’s originally from New Orleans, but she’s spent some time traveling from school to school and changing majors before finally ending up in NYC.
August meets Jane Su on the Q line of the New York subway system and is instantly attracted to her. The two start flirting almost immediately, but when August asks Jane out a couple times, Jane turns her down and August is so crushed she avoids the Q line for a week or so, having realized she always saw Jane on her way to and from school, so they must have the same commute.
I knew literally nothing about this book going in, so I had not realized there was a paranormal aspect to it. When we first meet Jane, she appears to be your typical retro punk rocker, except she’s not retro. She’s a punk rocker from 1977 who somehow got stuck on the Q train in 2020, but she has no idea what year it is, what year she was born, or even what her name is. She only knows that “Jane Su” is written on the inside of her jacket, so when she introduces herself to August, that’s the name she gives.
August’s Uncle Augie disappeared before August was born and her mom has been on a mission to find him ever since and she has felt no compunction about roping her daughter in to help from the time August was very young. Although August had sworn off that life when she moved to New York, she can’t deny that she has a very special set of skills, and in this case, that set of skills could help Jane figure out who she is, where she came from, and how she came to be stuck on a train 43 years after her time.
Despite her life-long habits of keeping people at a distance, August’s new roommates, Niko, Myla, and Wes, quickly absorb her into their friend group. Niko is a legit psychic and part-time bartender. Myla is a sculptor who also works in an antique shop, and Wes is a tattoo artist who also happens to be hopelessly in love with the drag queen who lives across the hall, but is too emotionally damaged to admit it.
When August realizes Jane was 24 years old in the 1970s, but still looks like she’s in her 20s, she recruits her roommate psychic (even though she doesn’t believe in psychics) to help her figure out what Jane is. By this time, August has realized that it doesn’t matter which car of which Q train she gets on, because every time she gets on the Q train, Jane is on whichever car August happens to board. At one point, August even gets off the Q train, runs to the other side of the tracks and hops on the Q train going the other direction two minutes later and Jane is on that train, too, even though it would have been physically impossible for anyone else to accomplish that.
At the same time, it’s soon revealed that Jane cannot leave the Q train, which is why she couldn’t take August up on either of her offers for a date. Every time she tries to jump off, she vanishes and reappears back on the train. So, August has to bring Niko to the Q train to introduce him to Jane, but they don’t have to worry about which Q train they catch, because whichever one they get on will have Jane. It only works for August though, because when someone else who has already met Jane later tries to find her on the Q train without August, they can’t find her.
So August introduces Jane and Niko, who hit it off (Jane appears to get along with pretty much everyone who’s not a bigot and/or a bully), and in the course of the conversation, Niko, manages to touch Jane’s hand because he can get a better “read” on her that way. Once they leave the train, Niko tells August Jane is not dead, so she’s not a ghost, but although she’s corporeal, she’s not exactly here, either. She’s kind of between worlds.
As it turns out, it’s more like between times. So August puts her skills to work trying to figure out who Jane is and how she got into this predicament. Despite that weird plot and a few other plot lines, this book still manages to follow the typical romance formula of Couple Meets, Couple Breaks Up, Couple Gets Back Together, Couple Lives Happily Ever After. Jane and August are not engaged when the book ends, but it seems pretty clear that they mean to stay together for life.
I loved August. I loved Jane. I loved all of the side characters. I loved this book so much!