Today Tonight Tomorrow

Starred review from April 27, 2020
Every morning, Neil McNair awakens Rowan Roth with a text. A taunting text: they’re the two top students in the senior class, and sworn rivals. But on the last day of school, there are only two competitions left: who will make valedictorian, and who will win Howl, a citywide senior class event, “part Assassin, part scavenger hunt.” Rowan thinks about Neil so much that her friends believe her obsessed, a notion that Rowan finds ridiculous. Until, that is, the long night of Howl, when the two meet each other’s families, talk about the last four years, and even share a dance. In Rowan and Neil, Solomon (Our Year of Maybe) has created two complex, believable characters—word lover Neil has his future planned out, but his present is way more complicated than Rowan knows. She’s an aspiring writer, but she’s afraid to tell anyone—for one thing, her parents are children’s book authors; for another, she wants to write romance, a genre that she sees as feminist in its focus on female desire but that is frequently dismissed as “trash.” Enemies turned lovers is an old romance trope, but in Solomon’s deft hands, this funny, tender, and romantic book is fresh and wholly satisfying. Ages 12–up. Agent: Laura Bradford, Bradford Literary.

Narrator Rebekkah Ross skillfully maneuvers the breakneck pace of this YA novel. Today, high schoolers Rowan Roth and Neil McNair are rivals battling to better one another at every turn. Tonight, in the midst of their senior class game, Howl, which leads them all across Seattle, it is in their best interest to work together to win. But tomorrow, everything changes. As indicated by the title, the story moves swiftly over 24 hours, making its enemies-turned-lovers trope feel like a slow-burn romance. Ross's reedy yet smooth voice readily changes timbre as she portrays young and old, males and females. She gives remarkable emotional performances as both Rowan and Neil--who are competitive, complicated, and vulnerable. Listeners will cheer for this sweet and funny couple the whole way. E.P. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine