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.

It's impossible to put into words how much I love this book. I wish it had existed when I was a teenager because it's so sex positive, funny, romantic, and smart. It's basically everything I want from a YA romcom and I'm not sure anything new will ever top it. 
 
Rachel Lynn Solomon's Rowan and Neil feel like totally real people that I could meet on the street, or in school, or at work. By the end of the book, they feel like my greatest friends, like I've known them my whole life, like they're part of me. 
 
As for the setting, Solomon once again utilizes her hometown of Seattle, but in the best way this time. It's no longer an artistic backdrop, but an active player in the story. When people say "setting as a character," this is what they mean. 
 
Lastly, Today Tonight Tomorrow is definitely a step in a new direction for Solomon. Whereas she may be known thus far as a writer of serious works of YA focusing on emotional depths, this new venture takes that assumption and runs with it. The romance in this book skyrockets off the charts, the banter is laugh-out-loud worthy, and the emotional depth hits a new low...if you know what I mean. 
 
Fans of Solomon's previous work should put this book on their TBR and preorder it immediately. It's everything you loved about her first two books stuffed into an action-packed, hysterical, and romantic adventure. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.