REVIEW: Today, tonight, tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon
TITLE: Today, Tonight, Tomorrow
AUTHOR: Rachel Lynn Solomon
PAGES 373
PUBLISHER: Simone Pulse
TRAMA:
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.
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.
RECENSIONE
Today, Tonight, Tomorrow is a simple and quite predictable romance, but I have to say that I really enjoyed it. It had been a while since I had last read a good love story, so I was happy and satisfied when I finished Rachel Lynn Solomon’s novel.
The story focuses on Rowan’s and Neil’s last days of high school. Rowan Roth and Neil McNair have always been rivals since freshmen year, both of them have always tried to be the best and beat the other one in things like test scores and student council elections. They hate each other, they have no interests in common and they speak two different languages… or, at least, this is what they think. The reality is that they don’t actually know anything about each other, because they have never allowed themselves to see the other one as something different than an enemy. But everything changes when they are forced to work together in order to get a big amount of money by winning the Howl, a sort of treasure hunt that their school organizes every year for seniors. Of course, by the end of the game, their feelings about each other completely change and they end up together. What I’ve just told you is not a real spoiler, because it is pretty clear right from the beginning of the novel that they are meant to be a couple.
For sure, this book is full of clichés, however I didn’t despise them, because I believe that the right amount of clichés is needed when you are writing a teen romance. I really liked the journey the author created for Rowan and Neil, especially because by telling their story she decided to point out the importance of not taking those you meet at face value: you can’t stop at the first impression you get from other people, but it is important to always go beyond appearances and try to understand the person you have in front of you. You can’t judge someone if you don’t know what they are going through and the reasons they have to behave as they do. Rowan, who is the narrator of the book, has always labeled Neil as a spoilt, self-centred and arrogant person, without even trying to go a little bit more beyond that. Rowan starts with a pretty solid idea of Neil as a terrible guy, but then – page after page, adventure after adventure – she discovers a complete different person: Neil is not just “elegant suits and classic novels” as she has thought for the last four years of her life, but he’s much more than that: he’s funny, sensitive, sympathetic and sometimes even insecure.
Even if I enjoyed the book, there are a couple of things I would have done differently. The first one is the fact that we see the story only through Rowan’s eyes, instead I wish the author would have given us the chance of also knowing Neil’s perspective: I really like when I have both the male and female perspective. However, I appreciated Rowan as a narrator, I think she’s quite a charismatic character and it was easy for me to connect with her.
The second thing I didn’t like is that Rowan and Neil find out to have too many interests and passions in common: at the beginning Rowan belives that Neil hates love novels, but then she discovers he secretely likes them; Rowan’s parents are writers for children and Neil is revealed to be their greatest fan; Rowan also finds out that Neil is Jewish just like her…. I think this is quite irrealistic. Furthermore I don’t believe it is necessary for two people to have the exact same interests to be together. It’s okay that they find out more about each other and learn to get along, but in this way their connection is too forced.
Today, Tonight , Tomorrow isn’t a revolutionary book, but it is enjoyable and quite funny to read, so I recommend it to everyone who is a fan of love stories. Personally, I look forward to discover more books by Rachel Lynn Solomon… I’ve already written down a few titles on my list.
Have you already read a novel by this author? Would you like to read this one?
