3.5-4

this really reminds me of "the sun is also a star"
i always believed that your partner in life should want to see you do better, & want to see you succeed & they would help you by pushing you to be better, so i loved that rowan & neil were always trying to push themselves to do better than the other even though they "hated" each other. i loved diving into their adventure, & seeing the process of them getting to know each other. i would have wanted a little more character development, but i do appreciate the emphasis of realization & how rowan became more aware of who she was as a person.

i loved how the protagonists were jewish. i loved how they spoke out about the issues they faced because it spreads awareness of religious discrimination/stereotypes. i loved how rowan stood up to savannah bell at the end when rowan reveals she heard savannah comment on her nose & her having money because she's jewish. that was a powerful moment & rowan had so much support it was great. i loved how rowan & neil talked about their personal experiences because it's an issue that holds no boundaries it's seen everywhere & for rachel solomon to incorporate this element to spread awareness is amazing. it's comforting when you meet someone you can relate to, someone who understands what you go through so i'm happy rowan & neil had each other.

i'm not going to lie some events were very predictable, it was really easy to infer some of the details which is a little disappointing, but not the end of the world.

i love how the setting was always changing, but never full of details, it mostly focused on rowan & neil's growing connection, but it was nice to see the element of a scavenger hunt as well.

but also the high school they went to was so much cooler than mine, i don't know any school that would have an event like howl with a $5,000 prize.

the ending is one of the major problems i had with this book. it was like they had sex & then the end. literally that was it. rowan had a lot of concerns at that moment too, but those concerns stopped abruptly with a "well we'll see what the future holds, we'll make it work" sort of monologue, but it really didn't make sense. they had sex an hour before she brought up these concerns & she's had these concerns frequently throughout the book so it really didn't make sense for her train of thought to change course so abruptly. it was a VERY unsatisfying ending, but a cute read nonetheless.

LOVED this book! Heartwarming, real, surprising amount of depth, beautifully flowing plot and genuine characters. Rowan and Neil are surprisingly layered and nuanced without being contrived.

This was the book that I needed to read to be reminded to 1, get out of my own way, 2 take risks, and 3 never stop having fun. Fantastic quarantine read for when you need to be reminded of what human connection looks like.

Today, Tonight, Tomorrow is contemporary and joyful and real. Commonly books featuring teenagers either put adults in high school bodies, or turn high school into something that is a farce. Solomon, thankfully, does neither, and I could not put this book down.

Today Tonight Tomorrow is a novel coming out later this year, I was fortunate enough to get an ARC from Simon & Schuster Canada. The story follows Rowan, a high school student on her last day of school. Rowan has spent the last 4 years going head to head with her rival Neil and today she finds out which of them had earned the coveted title of valedictorian. After classes are let out, the graduating class of 2020 plays HOWL a cross between Assassins and a Scavenger Hunt which takes place all over the city of Seattle. The unlikely duo of Rowan and Neil team up and in the process learn so much more about one another than Rowan starts to wonder if her feelings of hate have been misplaced these last four years...

As a lover of YA and Rom-Coms, and an ADORER of the hate to love trope, this was way up my alley. It was sweet, fun, and endearing look at life as high school is ending when one is looking out at the wide expanse of their future.

I absolutely adored this story! I find that making a connection with the characters was easy, and the relationships between them flowed well. It was a bit slow to get into, but I really enjoyed it once I did get into the book. I was invested in the story the whole time, and it brought me lots of joy. I highly recommend this! Especially during the COVID-19 quarantine, it is a refreshing spot of color in the blank canvas of my recent reads ;)

An ARC of this novel was sent to me by NetGalley for reviewing purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a quick and fun read- it was extremely quirky and I really liked the pacing of this book. The idea behind the book is nothing new, but the author did a great job adding something new to the concept.

This was a fun read. I enjoyed the two main characters and their battle to one up each other. It was pretty obvious that perhaps the battle was one sided and some of the miscommunication was obvious.

My biggest issue was formatting but I assume that will be fixed before the book is published. The text bubbles will probably be a fun addition

Today Tonight Tomorrow read like a like a love letter addressed to many simultaneous recipients: to Seattle (the city I grew up in and loved revisiting through this novel), to optimists, to high achievers, to the novelist herself, or perhaps to any writer of love stories who struggles to embrace the worth of the endeavor. Solomon wisely places her lovers in direct contact for almost the entire novel, allowing them plenty of time to bond and address their assumptions about each other. They're both deeply generous spirits, making them instantly likable, and yet they make mistakes and say the wrong things when they're nervous or angry, fleshing them out as real people. There's some wonderful humor sprinkled throughout and since most readers who pick this up will be lovers of love stories, they'll likely revel in the meta-themes about the genre. It's a book that opens its pages and invites the reader in with a warm heart and a gentle lesson about self-acceptance. I also appreciated the sex-positivity and the questioning of some traditional gender role tropes. It's a book that will make readers smile. In times like these, that seems like a pretty great thing.

(For Netgalley only: there were a lot of problems with the e-ARC download, forcing me to skip several pages when those with graphics--the bench, text bubbles, etc--stalled for up to a minute to appear or automatically skipped to the next page. I won't include this info in reviews on public sites, but it may affect reader response. If an e-ARC is available without graphics, others may reply more positively. It's frustrating to read a romance when you have skip things like the first kiss and you aren't quite sure if the couple had sex or not. And waiting for pages to download while the color wheel spins is distancing and affects engagement with the story.)

Such a fun, feel good story, the characters were electric and I love reading about a good scavenger hunt! This had all the right feels, though a couple times I wanted to shake Rowan, can't you see how Neil feels, but glad it played out the way it did to create such a wonderful story. I appreciate all the real talk about women's oppression and sex and Judaism, thought it was really well done to bring some big themes to light.

Review will be posted on Goodreads and my blog, Reading Recluses.
OKAY, before we start the actual review, can we just take a second to appreciate the premise. I am a sucker for a good enemies to lovers story. It’s one of the more unrealistic tropes I love as I could not imagine falling in love with any of my rivals but I really love it in books! Also there's #ownvoices Jewish representation!

The first chapter opens with the protagonist talking about how her first day in high school was going to be a day of lasts. Which was ridiculously relatable as my last day of high school was spent by me annoying my friends and going “This is the last grade 12 math class we’ll ever be in”, “This is the last high school water fountain we’ll ever drink in” and so on. I feel you Rowan.

Okay literally every page I read, I could think of something that I wanted to talk about in this review because it was that good. I really enjoyed Today Tonight Tomorrow. It’s on par with Fangirl and Simon Vs. The Homosapiens Agenda, but we will have to see how it holds up when I inevitably reread it.

The characters! I was quite fond of the characters. They were well rounded and had flaws but they were all still very likeable. Rowan and Neil are both ridiculous overachievers and natural rivals. Rowan going off about how romance books are just as good as pretentious classic books (looking at you, Moby Dick) was everything. Rowan was super relatable and such a good main character. Rowan’s best friends and their relationship was also super adorable. Everyone from Rowan’s parents to Neil’s little sister had a distinct personality which is really impressive to do in a YA romance book with many characters. Today Tonight Tomorrow was also very diverse and had lots of good representation!

The romance was everything. It was cute, well fleshed out, realistic and all around adorable. Even though the story takes place over the time frame of one day, it didn’t feel like instalove because their feelings gradually ramped up as they got to learn more about each other. The chemistry was great.
The actual plot with the scavenger hunt was really fun. It made for a good competitive setting for the romance to occur and also made me want to participate in a city wide scavenger hunt. It was a little predictable but I am not mad about it at all, because the book was good enough that it didn’t matter.

Final Thoughts:
Today Tonight Tomorrow was an adorable romance book with amazing characters. I can’t wait to see what other books Rachel Lynn Solomon has to offer. 5 stars.

Enemies to lovers is my favorite trope so when I heard about this book I knew that I had to read it and when I heard it was inspired by The Hating Game which is literally my favorite book of all time I decided I had to get my hands on this as soon as possible. All I have to say is that this book did not disappoint. The story centers around Rowan Roth who's been in a four-year-long competition with Neil McNair for the top of the class. Along the way, they’ve developed this seething hatred and intense animosity for one another and will disagree on just about anything. Days before they are set to graduate the two of them along with the rest of their graduating class participate in a Seattle wide game of Howl, basically a school-sanctioned Scavenger Hunt with a $5’000 dollar grand prize. (Why can’t my school have prizes like that?)

Rowan and Neil are terrific protagonists and a wonderful duo with fantastic chemistry. Every interaction they had with each other caused my mouth to erupt into the biggest smile. Rowan is a strong-willed firecracker who’s not afraid to speak her mind and stand up for what she believes in and her advocating for not only romance novels but feminine interests, in general, was incredibly endearing. We also have a shared disinterest in “classic” novels written by problematic old white men (Queen!). The way not only Rowan but Neil as well subverted expectations and typical romance tropes was great to see. Neil especially was not your typical male protagonist and was better for it. He was a 5 '5 freckled-faced dork who was full of sweetness and sensitivity and I know is high school me would have fallen hard for him.

The only critique I could give is the novel did get a little repetitive and maybe dragged just slightly. Even though Howl is the backdrop for the story it does feel like it disappears a little at times in favor of focusing on the romance and I would’ve loved it to be incorporated a little more. But even with that, the novel was incredibly engrossing the characters felt like people I genuinely got to know with unique voices and idiosyncrasies. I hope this novel finds the audience it deserves when it’s released later this year

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an ARC.

This piece of work had me putting my hands to my chest, screaming, rolling around and literally falling off my bed. Everything, every single part that constitutes this book was perfect.
The story is based on Rowan, a hard-working girl who deeply loves romance novels (same) and who is a writer. She has spent her entire high school years competing with Neil; a quirky, intelligent boy. We are able to witness how their relationship begins with banter and turns into something more, something even better.
The main thing that absolutely destroyed me was the way they learned about each other all over again; things they didn't know surfaced and as they did, feelings did too. Their chemistry was heartwarming; I was giddy, curious, furious; at how at first tried to diminish what they felt over fear and their shyness but sureness on how they treated one another; it was incredibly satisfying to read.
The ending; I was flabbergasted on the writing, the last chapters were filled with emotions that reigned and Rowan realizing her true love has always been in front of her; my heart was pumping out of my chest.
Please, please; the day this book hits the market, do yourself a favour and go read it. It has entered my favourites list and it's never leaving it for a reason.

Special thanks to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for letting me have access to this astonishing work