What's to like: How we can never really know a person, unless we actually know a person and how everyone but the protagonists know that they are obsessed with each other.
When I first read this book (borrowed from a close friend’s friend), I had a deadline to finish it because the book's owner was leaving for the US to do her Master’s. I had a little less than 48 hours to finish this 364-page book, and it is a testament to how much I loved it that I was able to finish this one-night story overnight (maybe a testament to how I prioritize reading over my actual job, but that is a discussion for another day).
The book follows Rowan Luisa Roth, a high-school senior getting ready for the last day of school, hoping to be chosen as valedictorian over her rival, Neil P. McNair (or McNightmare, in her phone). Every part of her routine reminds her that this is the last time she’ll do all of this as a high-school student. But her day starts off with her bumping her car into her ex’s car — someone she didn’t break up with on nice terms — and spilling coffee on her outfit. She reaches school late, and Neil, being his annoying self, tries to get on her nerves, and they start their day like every other day — with jabs and taunts.
While trying to get their yearbooks signed and clearing out her locker with her friends Kirby and Mara (who are a couple), she finds a list she wrote at the beginning of high school: Rowan Roth’s Guide to High School Success. It has 10 things she hasn’t done at all, except for being close enough to complete one item — destroying Neil McNair and making him regret making fun of her choice of books and beating her in an essay-writing competition freshman year, sparking four years of endless competition that entertained most and irritated some in their school, teachers and students alike. They’ve been co-presidents of student council and neck-and-neck in GPA and contributions to school activities. But then Neil is announced valedictorian, and she realizes she didn’t do anything on her list.
But the last day isn’t done yet. The juniors set up a game called Howl for the seniors every year as a tradition, and this year is no different — the rules: complete a scavenger hunt by clicking photos and taking others out by removing the armband of the person whose name slip they have - ending in a cash prize of five thousand dollars.
Circumstances throw Rowan and Neil together as a team — knowledge that Kirby and Mara are away for most of the summer, leaving Rowan alone; no one knowing how much Rowan loves romance novels and wants to be a romance writer one day; and their fellow student Savannah being petty and jealous, trying to defeat them while displaying an anti-Semitic attitude toward Rowan. As they spend time together, we realize Neil doesn’t actually hate her and that they are remarkably similar. We get a peek into Neil’s family, his struggles, and his love of words and dream of becoming a lexicographer — rivaling his long-hidden feelings for Rowan, which he doesn't tell until later out of fear of rejection. Rowan slowly begins to regret the four-year competition between them, and the way the story ends is a perfect conclusion to this enemies-to-lovers trope.
One of my favorite things about this book is how passionate Rowan is about romance novels, which makes it very relatable to me personally. Rowan self-sabotaging while realizing how much she truly loves Neil, and Neil’s shyness when it comes to being vulnerable in front of Rowan — the one person he’s always been pitted against — is endearing to read. He is a really, really adorable, sensitive and gentle book boyfriend, and I love Rachel Lynn Solomon for making me so obsessed with a high-school romance. The insecurities we carry as teens and the nostalgia of leaving school and the town where you grew up for a future you’ve worked hard toward — with the support of friends, family and the Perfect High School Boyrfriend (or PHSB, as Rowan abbreviates it) — make this one of my coziest reads. I can’t wait to read Past Present Future, a sequel to Rowan and Neil’s love story, because we can’t get enough of them here!
Favorite line: “I’ve given this boy the messiest parts of me, and he’s done nothing but convince me he’ll be careful with them.”
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