Book Review: Today Tonight Tomorrow

Title: Today Tonight Tomorrow
Author: Rachel Lynn Solomon
Date Published: July 28, 2020
Rating: 3.75/5 stars
Date read: November 14, 2020

Today Tonight Tomorrow is a young adult contemporary novel following high school senior Rowan Roth on her last day of senior year. As per her school’s tradition she and the rest of the senior class compete in a game that involves completing tasks and secretly killing-off (not literally) the other students. In an unexpected turn of events Rowan ends up teaming up with her academic rival, Neil McNair. But over the course of the day the two properly get to know one another, and Rowan begins to wonder if she’s had the wrong impression of Neil all along. 

I like enemies-to-lovers/hate-to-love romances more so in theory than in practice. While they provide the perfect opportunity for romantic tension and angst, majority of the time I find that one party acts too ruthlessly towards the other and I end up being put-off by the relationship as a whole. I think they become even more difficult to pull-off in contemporary settings, because I often do not feel that the situations properly garner the extent of dislike one person feels towards the other. Thankfully Today Tonight Tomorrowsets the two rivals up quite well, and in a way that is quite compelling. I liked that Rowan’s understanding of Neil’s character really only brushed the surface, and her over-achieving, and highly competitive personality made her competition with Neil understandable. That she also has respect for him was a big factor in what made me able to root for the two, and it’s pretty clear from the get-go that she has feelings she needs to realize for herself. 

As far as the story goes, I really liked the game aspect of it as it helped add fun drama to the story and was a unique way of forcing two characters to interact together. Both the game and the story ultimately played out the way I expected they would but this was a story more about the journey than the destination so I didn’t view this as a fault. I also felt the story was compelling enough that I always looked forward to picking the novel back up. In regards to setting, I’ve never been to Seattle so I can’t speak for the depiction, but I don’t think the writing was strong enough that I was able to picture the scenes as much as I would have liked. As for the writing of Today Tonight Tomorrow, while it wasn’t anything special, it was by no means bad; easy to digest, but not particularly memorable. 

Lastly, the characters. I think I didn’t like this novel nearly as much as other readers because I had trouble sympathizing with Rowan. Rowan is barely out of high school, and yet she harbours a lot of nostalgia towards her high school life. As someone who did not enjoy high school and who was eager to leave it, I really couldn’t relate. I also couldn’t connect with the fact that Rowan thought it necessary to hide her love of romance novels, but I suppose I’m lucky in this regard. I’m not really one who needs to connect to or relate with a protagonist to enjoy a novel, but it is something I desire a lot more when it comes to contemporaries, especially when it is the wants of the protagonist that are driving the story forward. I also had trouble connecting to Neil because he was too perfect. He was so understanding and kind, and faultless, it made his character seem unrealistic. That said I do think Rowan and Neil had great chemistry. As for non-romantic relationships, I also really liked the conflict that involved Rowan and her friends. Friendships are an important part of adolescence and I always appreciate novels that give focus to them. In this case we’re shown how friendships can be affected by romantic relationships, and I thought the situation was well handled. 

Overall I’d recommend Today Tonight Tomorrow to anyone looking for a light YA romance.

Have you read Today Tonight Tomorrow? If not, do you plan to? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Happy reading! 💗