Until a few years ago, mainstream publishers considered queer romance novels a niche business, a little slice of the market that served a particular population that would never going to deliver a blockbuster. Enter Casey McQuiston, who has published three queer romance novels, each of them a blockbuster. There are more than 3 million copies of McQuiston’s books in print across formats, and they are best sellers not only in the United States but in other countries too, like Brazil and Poland.
The first novel, “Red, White and Royal Blue,” which was about the son of the American president falling in love with the Prince of England, was made into a movie by Amazon MGM Studios, and McQuiston is working on a script for the sequel. “The Pairing,” McQuiston’s fourth book, will publish this month. “I feel a lot of gratitude for what I’ve been given,” said McQuiston, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, while sitting on their balcony in Queens, a view of Manhattan skyscrapers stretching out in the distance.
“And the way that I honor that is to not punk out.” “The Pairing” follows two exes, Theo and Kit, who wind up on the same food and drink tour of Europe, with stops in France, Italy and Spain. To display just how much they’ve moved on, the two exes, both of whom are bisexual, start a hookup competition, and have lots of sex with lots of different kinds of people while they work out their feelings for one another. One of the main characters is nonbinary, and McQuiston said they were very nervous about creating a they/them love interest.
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Casey Macquiston