I’ve given this boy the messiest parts of me, and he’s done nothing but convince me he’ll be careful with them.
― Rachel Lynn Solomon, Today Tonight Tomorrow
This immediately reminded me of the show Never Have I Ever and the story of the eventual-enemies-to-lovers romance between two overachievers locked in a perceived battle to the death. Rowan hates her nemesis, Neil McNair, “McNightmare.” He thwarts her at every turn. They fought endlessly at every opportunity through middle school and high school. At one point, they became co-class presidents because they could not back down. As a result, everyone (teachers, classmates, parents) have to deal with their relentless animosity.
Rowan and Neil are competing for valedictorian. For some reason, this is not announced until the last day of school. Rowan has a shitty day. There is a power outage at home, she has a small fender bender with her ex-boyfriend on the way to school, she spills coffee down the front of her dress, and learns at a school assembly that she is not the valedictorian.
For anyone who reads romance, it is pretty clear what is going on. While the author tells the story of Rowan and Neil in a novel way, Rowan was too blind for me to enjoy reading her self-pitying POV. Of course, she is a teenager and self-awareness is not her strength.
Rowan is heartbroken by losing to Neil, and expects him to gloat. For some bizarre reason, Neil is nice to her instead.
In their high school, the junior class arranges an elaborate scavenger hunt for the seniors on the last day of school. The first senior to complete the hunt gets a cash price of $2000.
Rowan and Neil decide that even though they hate one another, as the two (self-nominated) smartest people in the school, they have the best chance of winning if they team up. Putting aside their long-standing animosity is impossible, but hunting together forces them to learn more about one another versus basing their impressions solely on misguided assumptions.
This book bored me. My favorite parts were the references to landmarks and the culture of Seattle, where I used to live. This book is fine, but it is nothing I would recommend. Neil is interesting, Rowan is insufferable, and I do not intend to read any other Rowan & Neil books going forward.
