This was exactly what I looking for in a young adult romance. As a high school teacher, I really loved the way that the author discusses the end of high school and the way that teenagers feel about the closing of a chapter in their lives. It did make me sad as it is about the Class of 2020 who are dealing with so many different experiences right now. This book was full of witty and swoony moments, as well as some really deep and heartfelt conversations about life, love, family, following your passion and the religion. I really appreciate the way that Rachel Lynn Solomon deals This story was just delightful, deep and emotional. It would definitely be for older high school students and I will highly recommend it because I couldn't put it down and it made me smile. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. This was a modern YA romance that deals two had been enemies turned lovers. The book does a great job of showcasing Seattle thought the game of Howl. I wish my school had done something like that and especially with a cash prize of $5000!!!!! The author included some pretty intense language at times and a sex scene that I could have done without and question why it needed to begin a YA novel. I worryingly the timing of this book with many seniors having missed the last month's of school due to covid-19. A great overall read!

I felt a little like this book was put together by the tourism board for Seattle, although I didn’t dislike learning about the town. I can see why my students might like this one, but, to me, it was predictable but also completely far fetched. I felt like it tried to do too much and represent all things, which just made it a little convoluted.

I loved this novel and finished it in one sitting. I was sucked into the story and loved the characters and their banter.

I loved all the Star Wars references and how this was basically a love letter to Seattle.

Rowan unapologetically loves romance novels and is constantly pointing out the good parts in them. I will say that as someone who loves romance novels already it was a bit preachy at times. But, readers do need to hear everything that Solomon includes; especially those who are dismissive of the genre.

I also thought that Rowan was a bit oblivious to the fact that she cared about Neil. I did not mind it, but I could see other readers having issues with it.

This was my first book by Solomon and I can't wait to read her backlist.

An adventuresome romance taking place on the emotional last day of high school as readers walk that thin line between love and hate with Rowan and her high school rival, Neil. In competition since freshman year, the pair find out which of them has earned valedictorian status on their final day of high school, right before the start of the last day activities, one of which is a scavenger hunt meets manhunt competition to win $5,000 dollars, perfect to put towards that college education that is looming on their horizon. As the day keeps putting Rowman and Neil together, crossing paths and joining forces, they realize they really don't know each other as well as they thought.

First, thanks to NetGalley for this e-ARC.

This book is so lovely and absolutely what I needed right now. I'm just going to do a list:

-A+ diversity in all the ways
-Sex-positive
-Romance novel positive!
-Literacy and education in general positive (which may sound dumb to point out, but I'm delighted by these nerds)
-Wacky adventures with stuff teenagers would actually do (sneaking crushes into your bedroom, pot cookies, irresponsible driving)
-Enemies to lovers, a much loved trope, done very well and swoonily

My only criticism is this...the book takes place on graduation day in June 2020. The minute I read "class of 2020!", I was immediately taken out of the story I'm a high school teacher and I teach all seniors and I'm watching them all be miserable and sad and heartbroken and I can't imagine a world wherein they can be wacky and silly and have an actual graduation day. It's just not going to happen. Even believing in an alternate reality of summer 2020 just isn't possible in the wake of the current global pandemic. So this has to take place in 2019. Even pushing it to 2021, there has to be a discussion of why this graduation is so special and needed. Long story short, I'm so curious as to how authors are going to change their stories around COVID-19 because pretending it doesn't exist seems contrary to everything YA stands for, which is facing things head on and being honest.

Back to the positives, I adored this book. It's cute and fun and I will certainly read the final copy.

After reading the summary, I was really excited to read this book! I mean, the whole scavenger hunt-assassin game sounded cool but also the fact that this takes place at the end of high school…I knew that I would like it and I was right. Today Tonight Tomorrow tells a story of realizations: rivals realizing that maybe they have more in common than they thought and Rowan realizing that maybe life after high school won’t be so bad after all.

The plot follows Rowan on the last day of high school; her school’s tradition on the last day includes a game of Howl, which a mash-up of a a scavenger hunt, where they have to run around Seattle to solve a list of clues, and assassin, where they have people they have to target and take out of the game. Rowan splits from her friends and ends up teaming up with her rival, Neil, whom she’s hated since freshman year. They’ve competed for the top spot for years, but some reason she can’t bare to see him out of the game yet. It was intense and fun to follow them as they avoid people with drastic measures and solve clues. They also get to know each other more over the course of the night.

The game and Rowan and Neil’s competitiveness definitely brought out my own competitiveness from high school. All that talk about grades made my “I need to get the highest grade” instinct peak. The reminiscing over high school also made me emotional even though I graduated a couple of years ago. It made me remember my own night of graduation where you feel like you’re on the cusp of a new chapter of your life. I liked that Rowan doesn’t want to let go just yet and wants to stay in high school for a little longer because it’s comfortable. You’ve spent four years in one place with the same people and now you’re all dispersing. It’s bittersweet, and this book really captures that.

Rowan also finds a list of things her fourteen-year-old self wanted her to accomplish, but over the course of the book with Neil’s help, she realizes that she’s changed and it doesn’t matter that she didn’t get to do those things because her priorities have changed. She’s not the same person she was four years ago; nobody is! This also shows the difference between the expectation of being a teenager and actually being a teenager, which I feel like few books capture well.

The only thing I didn’t understand is why a high school would announce their valedictorian on the very last day of school. Is this how all your high schools worked??? That is not how mine did and it does not make sense to me!!

Anyways I really liked how sex-positive this book was! Rowan loves romance novels and wants to write them. However, everyone in her life, her best friends, her ex-boyfriends, even her parents, make fun of them, so she reads them in secret and doesn’t let anyone know how much she enjoys them. Over the course of the book, though, she realizes that this isn’t something she has to hide, just because other people find it embarrassing.

Solomon also brings up the point that romance novels can be a means of escape for women because they provide a more equalized setting for women in a society that sexualizes them yet tells them that they shouldn’t want sex. It was a really great message, especially in a young adult novel, because teenage girls will get to read this and know that reading and liking romance novels isn’t a bad thing or just a guilty pleasure.

I also loved the romance; rivals to lovers is my jam, and I love how Rowan and Neil’s rivalry was really just a thinly veiled and obvious obsession with each other. Their relationship felt really natural as they get to know each other over the course of the book. Also, Neil isn’t super masculine and is really sweet and understanding!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and how it portrayed the bittersweet feeling of leaving high school. With laugh-out-loud dialogue, a thrilling plot, and great characters that feel like real people, you’ll want to be there with Rowan and Neil as they play a competitive game against the backdrop of Seattle. Pick this one up if you like Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and/or Morgan Matson!

I absolutely LOVED Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon and will probably be praising this books for the next year.

It's the last day of school, and the last day for Rowan to try to beat her nemesis, Neil, who has been getting on her nerves since freshman year. Both of them have been competing to be the best, and it's obvious that one of them will be valedictorian and the other will be salutitorian. After a short day of school, the entire senior class will have one last competition, called Howl, where they will run around the city finding clues and trying to eliminate their other classmates.

The two end up having to work together to try to win the competition, when Rowan discovers that a group of their classmates is teaming up together to eliminate them. This is NOT what Rowan had in mind for her last day of school. In fact, a lot of things aren't going right today. But it does lead to some pretty funny situations.

It just takes one look at the cover and logline to realize that the two will end up together. The way they end up together is wonderful though. The story is told from Rowan's point of view. As the day progresses, she learns more about Neil that she never knew from the classroom environment, and initially decides she doesn't hate those things... and later decides that the actually kinda likes... no... loves... those qualities.

In addition to their love story, the book touches on so many different topics that people, especially those graduating from high school or moving on to another stage of their life, have to deal with: have I made the most of the time I had? What will happen to my friendships? Have I given my friendships my all? What if I'm not as successful as I hoped? What happens next? It also deals lightly on the topic of racism, but not so much that it's preachy.

The setting is great. Obviously Ms. Solomon knows her way around Seattle, and reading the book is like taking a tour of the city. I lived in Washington state for 18 years and have been to some of the places mentioned in the book; it was kind of nice to virtually revisit these places.

Today Tonight Tomorrow is one of my favorite books from this year (so far) and I'm likely to reread it in the future. I highly recommend it.

This book was SO good. A YA contemporary with an enemies to lovers romance? Sign me up! I seriously fell so in love with this book. The writing is witty, the characters feel alive, and it brings a modern voice and feel to the YA genre. I will be recommending this book to everyone.

**Disclaimer: I was given a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.**

Title Today Tonight Tomorrow

Author Rachel Lynn Solomon

Description from Amazon

Today, she hates him.

It’s the last day of senior year. Rowan Roth and Neil McNair have been bitter rivals for all of high school, clashing on test scores, student council elections, and even gym class pull-up contests. While Rowan, who secretly wants to write romance novels, is anxious about the future, she’d love to beat her infuriating nemesis one last time.

Tonight, she puts up with him.

When Neil is named valedictorian, Rowan has only one chance at victory: Howl, a senior class game that takes them all over Seattle, a farewell tour of the city she loves. But after learning a group of seniors is out to get them, she and Neil reluctantly decide to team up until they’re the last players left—and then they’ll destroy each other.

As Rowan spends more time with Neil, she realizes he’s much more than the awkward linguistics nerd she’s sparred with for the past four years. And, perhaps, this boy she claims to despise might actually be the boy of her dreams.

Tomorrow…maybe she’s already fallen for him.

Release Date June 16, 2020

Initial Thoughts

I don’t normally read contemporary books set in high school. I’ll be completely honest, they make me feel super old. But, this one stuck out to me. It looked really good on NetGalley so I decided to give it a shot.

Some Things I Liked

Enemies to lovers. I just loved the way that Rowan thought of Neil as her enemy (for most of the story). Their banter was amazing and I loved their fierce competition.
References. So many pop culture references. I just couldn’t get enough of those. I think they are my favorite part of contemporary books – just feeling connected to other aspects of my life. Don’t get me wrong, I love fantasy, but I also love reading about a character who likes the same TV shows that I do.
Neil as the perfect nerdy book boyfriend. He wasn’t your typical dreamy love interest but I think that made him all the more interesting. He was always there for Rowan (whether she knew it or not), and I really loved the way that he came to realize his feelings for her.
One day storyline. This story was so well done for being such a short time frame. I felt like I was really able to get to know the characters despite the actual duration of the story.
Series Value

I would love to see a sequel to this book. However, the title tells me that this is a standalone. I’m ok with the open-ended nature of this book. I was left with a ton of hope and I really enjoyed that.

Final Thoughts

This book was so amazing. I really loved the story and I applaud the fact that the whole thing was set over the course of 24 hours. It was so well done and so much was packed into one day. Furthermore, it didn’t feel like a “high school” book, but rather, as a story of beginnings and endings.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recommendations for Further Reading

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord – if you liked the enemies to lovers vibes as well as the stress of senior year, give this rom-com by Emma Lord a try.
Lucky Caller by Emma Mills – if you liked the idea of a romantic interest (that our heroine never really noticed as one), try this standalone by Emma Mills.
You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle – if you’re looking for a more adult (but still relatively clean) version of enemies to lovers, try this April release by Sarah Hogle.

The enemies-to-lovers literary trope is one of my favorites, and this book is no exception! In "Today Tonight Tomorrow", sworn enemies Rowan and Neil have had a bitter battle of one-upmanship all through high school. But suddenly, they find themselves working together against common enemies in a fun high school competition. Their relationship quickly grows into friendship and even more. This book has adorable romance and sizzling chemistry. I highly recommend this book!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

The short duration of the book didn't work for me at all; I really struggled with how the relationship could transform so rapidly in 24 hours. YMMV; I just wish it was longer (this is the exact opposite of the premise so I'm not the best audience for the book).

I adored this book. Rachel Lynn Solomon has been one of my favorite YA writers for a while, and I love this departure into writing contemporary romance. The characters are smart, but still so young and fresh. The pace is amazing. I loved the conversations the teen characters had with each other and how honest and real they were about sex and family dynamics and mistakes and fears of the future. This is a new favorite book for me, and I’ll recommend it to all my teens.

On her last day of her last year of high school. Rowan Roth reflects back on what she thought high school would be and what it ended up being. The only thing that hasn't changed is her need to beat Neil McNair at anything and everything, including Valedictorian and the Howl senior game.

When she and Neil are forced to work together, she remembers every time he bested her in school from their first essay contest to their election to the Student Council.

But THIS... this she will win no matter what.

And then she will head off to college to learn how to be the best writer possible and fulfill her dreams of being a romance author and give power and advice to all those girls who were just like her in high school.

What she doesn't realize is that being exactly who she really is is tougher than she ever thought possible. And that maybe Neil isn't who she thought he was, either.

Final thoughts: Cotton candy fluff with a predictable ending, but still a nice little ride. There were some formatting issues with the Kindle ARC, but nothing that couldn't be adjusted to pretty easily. It was also a nice little tour of Seattle and the overall story and relationships throughout felt real.

Rating: 3/5

Thanks to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, and Simon Pulse for the ARC

Thank you netgalley for this ebook to review.

I tried really hard to read this book but unfortunately the formatting was such that it couldn't be read! I'm so bummed about it! I initially tried restarting my Kindle thinking the issue was on my end but it happened on multiple devices with this file. The graphics do not align with the text, starting even on the cover of the book- which was 4 pages in duration because the picture was broken up into various frames instead of one picture. The text between the two characters varied in tone- being extremely light and hard to read, and also did not appear within the texting bubble icon, so there were pages with just the texting bubble without and text within it.

The premise seems great! So I will try to get my hands on it once it is published.

TODAY TONIGHT TOMORROW was super sweet, uplifting, and all that I want in my YA contemporary books! With a lovely romance and spectacular relationship development, it really hit my heart and stayed there.

“We’ve compared test scores and GPAs and clashes on everything from school projects to gym-class pull-up contests. We can’t seem to stop trying to one-up each other... until now.
After graduation this weekend, I’ll never have to see him again. No more morning texts, no more sleepless nights.
I am almost free.”

The story begins at the last day of high school, which the author truly captured well. It’s a nostalgic feeling with both excitedness and fear for the future. Truly a beautiful feeling. Rowan and Neil have been enemies for all of high school, but when a team of haters tries to take them out for their senior class game, they agree to band together to win. While teaming up, they learn more about the other and recognize that if they haven’t spent that much time fighting, they could have been... friends? Or possible more?

While this book is from the POV of Rowan, I loved both her and Neil’s characterization. Rowan faces a lot of flack for wanting to be a romance novel writer, which is why she’s buried that part of herself from friends and family. Neil wants to be a lexicographer (how nerdy is that), but he has some deeper problems as well. Both of them are well-developed and sweet high school students, who are just trying to do the best they can. Their petty rivalry has always been to challenge the other, which is why it’s a really easy leap from hate to love in this book. There’s pent up feelings under both their exteriors that are finally released when they’re brought together.

Some other wonderful things to note: the way Rowan reconciles with her neglected best friends, her coming to terms with her passion for romance novels (not just a guilty pleasure!), Neil’s unwavering support for her, and the dialogue about being one of the few Jewish students at school, as well as the microaggressions that come about. I thought all of these elements were awesome additions to the story and made me love the characters even more.

Now, getting to the romance... I LOVED IT. It’s definitely hate-to-love but with grudging respect and admiration for the other person. I LOVE this trope so much. It’s like hidden feelings suddenly surfacing, and characters finally confront them. *kisses fingers* I also loved how Rowan and Neil learned more about the other through shared experiences, further heightening their admiration of the other. And it’s a very shy development, with the hesitancies and wariness of young love.

All in all, TODAY TONIGHT TOMORROW was a beautiful tribute to the fun of high school, and the fun waiting for teens behind that part of their lives. Truly, it reminded me of the good/bad times of my own high school experiences and high achieving friends, which brought back happy feelings and smiles. A must read for lovers of YA contemporary.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. "Today Tonight Tomorrow" will be released June 16th, 2020.

SUMMARY

Today, she hates him.

It’s the last day of senior year. Rowan Roth and Neil McNair have been bitter rivals for all of high school, clashing on test scores, student council elections, and even gym class pull-up contests. While Rowan, who secretly wants to write romance novels, is anxious about the future, she’d love to beat her infuriating nemesis one last time.

Tonight, she puts up with him.

When Neil is named valedictorian, Rowan has only one chance at victory: Howl, a senior class game that takes them all over Seattle, a farewell tour of the city she loves. But after learning a group of seniors is out to get them, she and Neil reluctantly decide to team up until they’re the last players left—and then they’ll destroy each other.

As Rowan spends more time with Neil, she realizes he’s much more than the awkward linguistics nerd she’s sparred with for the past four years. And, perhaps, this boy she claims to despise might actually be the boy of her dreams.

Tomorrow…maybe she’s already fallen for him.
REVIEW

There is something about high school overachiever books that I simply cannot resist. As one myself (oh, the bitter near-miss of graduating third in your class...*sad kazoo music*), I LOVE reading about the high school experiences of kids like me. And I also love enemies-to-lovers romance, and I also love anything set in the PNW, so how could I not love this? 

Well, I certainly enjoyed "Today Tonight Tomorrow," but it wasn't an instant favorite. Let's dissect why. 

Starting with the characters: pretty much no complaints here. There's not much depth to any of the supporting characters, but since Neil and Rowan were the entire point of the story, and were alone together for most of the book, it didn't really take much away from the story since they were very real and fleshed-out. Neil was absolutely adorable, Rowan was...well, she was fine, and both their overachieving nerdiness and enemies-to-lovers dynamic made me *squee.* (I'm not kidding about Neil, though. I want one.) Also worth noting is that both protagonists are Jewish, which is pretty rare in YA; although I'm not Jewish myself, I always appreciate when cultural/ethnic representation in books teaches me something about the experiences of group I'm not part of, and I definitely felt like I learned a lot about what it's like to be a Jewish teenager in modern-day America from Neil and Rowan's experiences.  Also figuring much into the story was Rowan's love of romance novels, about which my feelings were decidedly more mixed. Though I didn't agree with all of her views relating to the topic (she talked a LOT about how reading romance novels made her far more comfortable talking about sex, something I personally don't see as overwhelmingly positive since most teenagers I know already talk about sex a gratuitous amount in ways that majorly freak me out), it is always cool to see a protagonist who loves to read and write as much as I do. And even though I didn't agree with her on all counts, Rowan's musings on the romance genre gave me a lot of food for thought about the stigma associated with certain female-dominated forms of entertainment and how it affects the young women who love them. (I've definitely felt that, though not with romance novels.) I also loved Rowan's parents, though they got little screen time - they were adorable. So this gets an A for the rep and the portrayal of high school nerds, but I'm a little more on the fence about other aspects of Rowan's characterization.

The story itself was a great deal of fun across the board. I loved the idea of The Howl, which filled me with an INTENSE preemptive nostalgia for my high school days (I don't graduate until May, so...), and even though I'm not from Seattle, I recognized a lot of the landmarks the book mentioned from a vacation a few years back, so it was cool to be able to visualize the places they were visiting. Seeing Rowan and Neil slowly open up to each other throughout the night, going from enemies to reluctant allies to friends to maybe-something-more, was delicious - the tension was wonderfully built-up and, I felt, heaps more realistic than the majority of enemies-to-lovers stories. (The fact that they had so much history made their eventual confession a lot more believable than it might otherwise have been.) And I LOVE Solomon's writing style! Some of the turns of phrase in this had me cackling, and I found myself totally sucked in by the prose alone. This book is a great example of an author whose writing style melds perfectly with the story she's telling, and it shows. 

In the end, this was a ton of fun to read, but I still felt a little uneasy as I was working through it. I love the characters, tension, setting, and premise, but the amount of sex talk in this book - a lot of it not necessary to move the plot along - made me really antsy at times. As most of you who've read some of my previous reviews know, I personally prefer cleaner books, and although it was worth wading through pages of Rowan going off about why the well-known steaminess of most romance novels isn't actually bad to get the rest of the fun, compelling story, I was just...not comfortable with it. I wish some of it could've been toned down, but oh well...I guess this one wasn't *quite* for me. 

ENDNOTES

One-Sentence Summary: nerds who hate each other realize that they've got a lot more pent-up love than they perhaps realized. 

Favorite Scene: the bench almost-kiss, and the cinnamon roll scene. :) 

Something that Stood Out: the glorious nerdiness!, the adorable relationship development, the scavenger hunt-y vibe (I love those types of things!), the well-done Jewish rep, and everything about Neil. 

Something that Bugged Me: see last paragraph of review. 

Adult Content: lots of cursing, lots of sex talk. And I do mean LOTS. 

Rating: 4/5 Befuddled Emu

Rowan Roth’s high school experience has been defined by her rivalry with Neil McNair. They’ve spent four years jostling to be number one at their Seattle high school: competing in essay contests, running against each other for student council, trying to outdo each other at every turn. On the last day of their senior year, Rowan and Neil find themselves thrown together in very different circumstances and are forced to contend with whether they really are--as all their friends have been saying--obsessed with each other and whether that obsession is more than purely academic.

This rivals to (spoilers!) lovers story is a love letter to high school, to overachievers, to romance novels, and to Seattle, and I loved every word. Hilarious, heartfelt, and with a healthy depiction of teenage sexuality.

This book is a great book that takes place in the spans of about 24 hours. I really loved the chemistry between the two main leads as I am not usually a huge enemies to lovers fan (I am for certain circumstances, but I am usually more friends to lovers). I also really liked the exploration of judaism and unique spots in Seattle. If you're looking for a fast and cute read that will have you smiling & laughing out loud...then you'll wanna pick this book up.