September ’26 Book of the Month

Okay, this is the one to kick off Slagtember with. Theo and Kit were childhood best friends turned first loves turned absolutely catastrophic exes — until fate (and a wildly petty coincidence) puts them on the exact same European food and wine tour they were supposed to take together four years ago, back when everything fell apart mid-flight. Now they’re stuck on a bus together for three weeks through France, Spain, and Italy, both determined to prove they’re totally over it. How? By starting a hookup competition to see who can sleep with the most people on the tour first. It’s giving petty, it’s giving chaotic, it’s giving “we are definitely still in love and this is a terrible plan” — and honestly? Iconic behavior.

This book is a full sensory experience — the food, the wine, the sweaty Mediterranean nights, the tension you could cut with one of Kit’s pastry knives — and it never once apologizes for being horny, messy, and gloriously bi. McQuiston writes pleasure like it’s sacred, and there’s something so deeply Slagtember-coded about a story that treats sex not as shameful or secretive but as this joyful, healing, very queer act of reclaiming your own story. Underneath all the hookups and hot tour guides, it’s really about two people learning that vulnerability is scarier (and hotter) than any one-night stand. Pour yourself a big glass of wine, get comfortable, and let this one remind you that sex positivity and heartfelt romance were never mutually exclusive.

From the Publisher:

Theo and Kit have been a lot of things: childhood best friends, crushes, in love, and now estranged exes. After a brutal breakup on the transatlantic flight to their dream European food and wine tour, they exited each other’s lives once and for all.

Time apart has done them good. Theo has found confidence as a hustling bartender by night and aspiring sommelier by day, with a long roster of casual lovers. Kit, who never returned to America, graduated as the reigning sex god of his pastry school class and now bakes at one of the finest restaurants in Paris. Sure, nothing really compares to what they had, and life stretches out long and lonely ahead of them, but—yeah. It’s in the past.

All that remains is the unused voucher for the European tour that never happened, good for 48 months after its original date and about to expire. Four years later, it seems like a great idea to finally take the trip. Solo. Separately.

It’s not until they board the tour bus that they discover they’ve both accidentally had the exact same idea, and now they’re trapped with each other for three weeks of stunning views, luscious flavors, and the most romantic cities of France, Spain, and Italy. It’s fine. There’s nothing left between them. So much nothing that, when Theo suggests a friendly wager to see who can sleep with their hot Italian tour guide first, Kit is totally game. And why stop there? Why not a full-on European hookup competition?

But sometimes a taste of everything only makes you crave what you can’t have.