Author Casey McQuiston's bisexual rom-com under fire for sending out sex toys to reviewers

Red, White & Royal Blue author Casey McQuiston's new adult romance novel is causing quite a stir after book influencers say they received sex toys in the mail to publicize the book.

McQuiston's new spicy adult novel, The Paring, was released last week, and while readers have been chomping at the bit to get their hands on it, some influencers dedicated to reviewing books were upset that they were sent a vibrator and lube in a PR package accompanying the book.

According to influencers on Threads and unboxing videos on TikTok, people were sent PR packages that included a copy of the book, a small jar of honey, perfume, as well as a Drop egg-shaped personal massager, and lube from a company called maude.

It was the vibrator and lube that had some influencers up in arms, saying that sending these items out without consent or warning violates a boundary — or is just plain embarrassing if you accidentally open the box in front of the wrong person.

"just opened a PR package for a book that had a v!brator and lub3 in it IN FRONT OF MY MOTHER," Miraculousreads wrote on Threads.

The Pairing is a romantic comedy about two bisexual exes who accidentally book the same European tour and then challenge each other to a hookup competition to see who can sleep with the most people during their vacay. While the YA novel I Kissed Shara Wheeler, was written for younger readers, the rest of McQuiston's books, including Red, White & Royal Blue and The Pairing, are meant for an adult audience.

Romance.io — a romance novel-centric community for book lovers that compiles reviews and trigger warnings and rates each book on a spiciness scale — gave The Pairing (which McQuiston nicknamed Sluts in Europe) four out of five flames, meaning that there are "at least two intimate scenes, explicit language whit a variety of sexual acts." This is likely why the public relations team for the publisher included an adult sex toy in the package.

But for influencers who were already boycotting McQuiston's publisher, St Martin's Press, because of concerns over alleged systemic racism within the company, sending an adult sex toy in a PR package is a step too far.

The influencer collective Readers for Accountability released a statement expressing concerns that sending out sex toys not only crossed boundaries but could have put "influencers in unsafe situations," listing receiving the sex toy if you had a previous sexual assault or are currently in a domestic violence situation as being potentially harmful, as well as the embarrassment of unknowingly opening it in front of family members and the potential of for underage influencers to receive them.

"Alarmingly, it appears that the publisher failed to not only inform influencers that they would be receiving the box at all, but also failed to acquire consent to send these influencers sex toys. This contributes to our concerns that St. Martin's Press is continuously displaying a lack of regard for their influencer's safety and wellbeing," the statement reads, though it never mentions McQuiston or The Pairing by name.

But BookTok influencers like @nikkihrose were excited to get the package and open it on camera, showing her followers that the vibrator comes in a fairly discreet package. “I genuinely want to know what marketing manager managed to get this approved because I think they deserve a raise,” Nikki said in her video.

Or Toobusyreading on Threads, who jokingly wrote, “For anyone upset that they received an “unsolicited” sex toy in the PR box for Casey McQuiston’s new book… I’ll happily take it off your hands.”