August moves to New York City to finish her degree and falls in with a lovely cast of characters navigating love and work. On the way to her first day of classes, August has a coffee accident that leaves her appearance and her mood in shambles. However, a charmingly amazing girl on the subway with a retro tape player and a leather jacket offers her a scarf, and her day is completely changed. August starts taking the Q train on purpose, just to see Jane, her beautiful, charismatic stranger. Before long, August realizes that Jane's world is very different than her own. They might not have as much time as August would like. 

This book was steeped in the history of the fight for LGBTQ+ rights in America. It touches briefly on intersectional identities, violence against the LGBTQ+ community, and the AIDS crisis. I am not a member of the LGBTQ+ community, so I cannot speak to the quality of this representation, but I will say that the representation of activism and persistence in the context of the story felt genuine and real. I respect McQuiston for including this history in what is primarily a contemporary romance novel. 

This book is beautifully structured. It is on the longer side for a romance novel, but it doesn't drag on and it is genuinely kind to it's characters. They all grow and change throughout the story as individuals and as group. The ending is structured well. I cried for the last 10% of this book. I would just remind everyone going into this that this is a romance novel, so your HEA is inevitable. If this were shelved as literature rather than romance, I would have been extremely nervous!

Overall, well done, Casey McQuiston! Thank you for a wonderful experience. I look forward to you smashing my heart to pieces and putting it back together whenever your next book comes out.