Rating: 3.75 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel

August has just moved to New York City. At twenty-three, she has changed colleges again and thinks that NYC will be just like she is—tired and bracing for another day. She didn’t have the childhood she wanted with her mother always preoccupied with finding an answer to a family puzzle and August expects to be alone. Yet, August finds a home with a group of roommates that becomes her family and gets a job at the local diner that becomes a safe haven.

August has also met Jane, a girl August sees on the subway each day, and there is a startling connection and attraction between them. Except, August comes to realize that Jane is displaced in time. Jane grew up in the 1970s and remembers little about how she came to be on the train. But there she is and she can’t leave. August knows how to solve things and knows how to find things, it’s what she’s done her entire life. While August may want a future with Jane, she will first do everything she can to figure out who Jane is and where she needs to be. For the first time, August has something to believe in—she believes in love and she believes in Jane.

Casey McQuiston releases her second novel with One Last Stop. This book has a different feel from her previous work and focuses on August’s life. August is new to NY and, at first, she doesn’t think the people that she meets will become friends, much less her family, but that is what happens. The secondary cast here offers great support to August and are as important to her story as Jane is.

The plot of this story has to be taken with a credible amount of suspension of disbelief. It really didn’t give off magical vibes to me or specific paranormal vibes and Jane’s situation is one you have to be willing to go along with and maybe not fully understand it by the end.

The story has a depth to it as we understand where August came from and what she’s trying to distance herself from. Jane doesn’t remember much about her life at first, but August is the catalyst to everything that comes next for Jane. When August realizes that Jane can’t leave the train, her reaction seemed sort of subdued to be confronted with that situation and everyone else goes along with it as well. The book is current with August’s roommates, but it didn’t all hit the marks for me and the story gave me a vibe of moving where it thought it was supposed to go to fit in. I found myself waiting to be entertained more than I was. The side characters were interesting and sometimes I thought their stories were more interesting than August’s.

The book is long and while there was the mystery to find out Jane’s story, it wasn’t a book that I was racing through to finish. I knew at some point it would all come out, but I wasn’t as invested as I wanted to be to see the how and why of Jane’s story come together. And, due to the nature of Jane’s story, there were things left unexplained along with a few plot holes to deal with and I didn’t find the magic I was promised.

One Last Stop is certainly a different story to what’s currently out there and may be worth a look for some mystery, music, found family, and two girls stepping out of time.